Yayyyy. It's meatless Monday

Meatless Monday or Tofu Tuesday?

Disclaimer - I eat nothing with legs. Haven’t done for seven hundred years (yes, I am that old).  Years ago, I thought it would be nice to have a family dinner together where we all sat down to the same meal. I asked both Clueless Wonders, and the Fake Gordon Ramsay as they sucked marrow out of a chop bone, if they’d like Meatless Monday or Tofu Tuesday. The collective went silent and I heard a whispered, “we just want cows.” “Well, tofu up boys,” I cried, because I want a meal that we can all sit down, at the table, where Clueless One and Two pretend they were beamed down from another planet and are here patiently waiting extraction, because they can’t possibly be related to myself or the Fake Gordon Ramsay. 

So on honor of Meatless Monday or Tofu Tuesday, I bring you my Meatless Monday. Gordon is traipsing through the snow in Chicago and complaining). Sorry, good people of Chicago, Gordon does not transition from 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 to my Celsius friends) here in Southern California where this cannot be called winter, to 27F and -3C respectively. To be fair you would hear me complaining all the way to Fiji. 

So today I bring you our favorite Meatless Monday recipe – Green Pie. It’s easy and forgiving and if I can make it anyone can.

Thaw out half a box of filo pastry

Squish all the water out of one box of spinach and throw into a food processor (spinach not box)

To the food processor add:

A tub of cottage cheese

A block of crumbled feta

Two dripping tablespoons of pesto (more or less according to taste) – the Fake Gordon Ramsay makes a pesto that would ward off vampires.

Crack in three eggs

Throw in a teaspoon of mustard

Salt and pepper

Whizz until smooth.

Spray a cake, pie or lasagna dish with olive oil spray and line the dish with filo, spray then another sheet of pastry until done. Spoon in filling and bake at 180 C or 350 F until it doesn’t wobble in the middle (wish I could say that) - about 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size of the dish. I serve with baked sweet potato or (kumara) where I’m from and a large dollop of sour cream.

This is a forgiving dish. I once forgot the feta and it worked. You can double the spinach and adjust the pesto or add another egg if you like it firmer.