Swiss chard & gruyère cheese pie

Swiss chard & gruyère cheese pie

Serves 6-8:

• 1 kg of Swiss chard leaves or spinach
• 250 g of grated gruyère or comté cheese, coarsely grated
• 200 ml of double cream
• 4 eggs
• salt
• black pepper
• a few pinches of nutmeg
• 2 round sheets of already bought puff pastry, preferably of the round shape

To prepare the chard:

Wash the leaves carefully and cut off any hard stems.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add some salt and after that the chard or spinach leaves. 

Boil them for a few minutes until they start turning soft. For the spinach about 2 minutes should be enough, for the chard leaves wait a couple of minutes longer.

Once the leaves have turned soft, drain them in a colander and run cold water over them. Toss the cooked leaves and check if they are cold.

Wait a few minutes allowing them to drain from the water. Now squeeze out very well the remaining liquid with your hands. You can now cut the boiled chard leaves if you wish to do so. Spinach leaves are fairly small anyway and they may not need that.

To prepare the pastry:

Roll out one puff pastry on a floured surface and cut a circle large enough to to fit a 24-26 cm spring form cake tin with a little of the pastry overflowing the edge.

Line the baking tin with a sheet of baking paper. Next line the pastry inside the tin pressing gently to all the edges. Prick the pastry with a fork and leave in a fridge to cool for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime preheat the oven to 180 C.

Line the pastry case with baking parchment and fill it with baking beans (or just use dry beans instead). Bake blind for around 15 minutes.

Remove the beans with the baking parchment and leave aside to cool.

To prepare the filling:

In a large bowl whisk the eggs (leave some of the whisked eggs on the side, enough to brush the top of the pie for the baking).

Whisk in the cream, add a few pinches of nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Stir in the chard leaves and after that the grated cheese. Mix well and adjust the seasoning.

To assemble the pie:

Roll out the remaining pastry on the floured surface, cut a ring large enough so it is sufficient enough to cover the tin but not bigger than that.

Fill the already cooled pastry case with the cheese filling, even out the surface and cover with the prepared pastry. You can either try to fit the pastry circle inside the pastry case edges and gently fold the edges on top, or to seal the edges (of the fresh pastry sheet and the pastry case) together by pressing them together with your fingers.

Once that is done, brush the top of the pie with the reserved whisked eggs.

With a sharp knife slash 4 slits at the centre of the pie, if that doesn’t come to easily, with the top of the knife dot a shape of a cross to allow the steam to escape.

Bake in the preheated oven at 180 C for about 35-40 minutes until the top is golden brown and the filling is baked through.

Take the pan from the oven and leave to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.