Spinach and rice pie--Dinner Spinner iphone app

[Lellyj]

This recipe made a huge pie!  It was very substantial and filling too. It was yummy hot, but I think I like it even better cold, and my son took a slab of it to work today for lunch, so I agree with Tenina's comment that it would make great picnic food. I quite often make spanakopita (greek spinach and cheese pie) but this is more filling and I really liked the addition of lemon and brown rice. 

I cooked the rice way longer than the 8 minutes stipulated in the recipe (maybe 20 minutes) and it was still quite chewy in the finished pie (I liked it that way, though). I googled to see if anyone esle had reviewed this recipe anywhere and didn't find anything yet, so after the 8 minutes when the rice looked pretty much uncooked, I cooked it that bit longer.  I will be interested to hear others comments on this.

The pie is quite rich tasting with 300g of cheese all up, and I was thinking I might one day try replacing the mozarella with maybe some cottage cheese or ricotta, but that might make the mixture too wet.

Anyway, other than the rice cooking issue, this is great, filling vegetarian recipe which I will certainly be making again, thanks Tenina.

[fundj&e]

Lelly i dont have the book ,i am assuming that the pie is baked,do you think the rice would have cooked more while baking?

 

[Frozzie]

Might dépend on thé Brown Rice used as there are alot more parcooked rices available including Brown That Take Max 10 mins to cook..

[Lellyj]

Frozzie I was wondering if I should have used a quick cooking brown rice, but the recipe didn't state this.  Uni, the rice did not seem to cook much more in the oven.  When I make this recipe again, with ordinary brown rice, I will continue to cook the rice longer, as I just can't see how it would work otherwise!  will be interesting to hear what others find.

[Tenina]

The rice is supposed to be par cooked, as opposed to fully cooked. It does help to soak up the excess egg mixture, etc, so you have a solid slice of pie. It is the thickening agent for the filling.

[Lellyj]

Thanks Tenina, I will give it a go then, I thought that the rice seemed still raw, rather than parcooked so I got scared!

[Tasty]

I made this tonight and actually really liked the outcome - yum! I just didn't realise when I set out how long it would take - about 2 hours all up I think it was!

Here are some things you might find useful if you try this:

You only really need one puff pastry sheet really, the other one is just for the other two edges of the tray it doesn't cover. However, I loved the crispiness of the puff pastry and am wondering if you can use it on top instead of the filo.

For the rice, I was also unsure about the rice as it didn't seem cooked enough with 8 minutes so I did it for another 8 mins and left it at that. (I had already read lelly's review by then too).  I didn't rinse the rice or anything either.

The measurement for the onion in grams is equivalent to one large onion.

I had never used frozen spinach before and didn't realise that you had to thaw it out first so make sure you do this at the start of the recipe (I did it in microwave as read a little ahead so it didn't affect me too much).

This is a recipe I would make again when I have the time.

Here is a photo:

[Tenina]

I made this tonight and actually really liked the outcome - yum! I just didn't realise when I set out how long it would take - about 2 hours all up I think it was!

Here are some things you might find useful if you try this:

You only really need one puff pastry sheet really, the other one is just for the other two edges of the tray it doesn't cover. However, I loved the crispiness of the puff pastry and am wondering if you can use it on top instead of the filo.

For the rice, I was also unsure about the rice as it didn't seem cooked enough with 8 minutes so I did it for another 8 mins and left it at that. (I had already read lelly's review by then too).  I didn't rinse the rice or anything either.

The measurement for the onion in grams is equivalent to one large onion.

I had never used frozen spinach before and didn't realise that you had to thaw it out first so make sure you do this at the start of the recipe (I did it in microwave as read a little ahead so it didn't affect me too much).

This is a recipe I would make again when I have the time.

Here is a photo:

Pic looks perfect…good job!

[himeliann]

Tested yesterday and it was very good.
Same comment on the rice I cooked it for 16min adding enough water to cover it but it was still al dente !
I really like the app, only negative point is It would be nice to know how long it will take to make the recipes.

[Wonder]

Is the Dinner Spinner app different to the book? The book got pushed to the back of my cupboard never to be used because I really disliked the format and found it extremely frustrating each time I used it but this pie looks lovely.

[faffa_70]

Wonder all the recipes from the book are on the app plus a few extra that have been added with updates

[Deniser]

Totally forgot I have that App on my phone.  That photo looks delicious will put it on my list (long list) of recipes to try soon.

[Jamberie]

Totally forgot I have that App on my phone.  That photo looks delicious will put it on my list (long list) of recipes to try soon.

I forgot I had it too.... Might go and have another look!

[cookie1]

I was looking through here deciding on what to put in this week's menu. I think I will give this a go. Will report back.



I'm making this for tonight's dinner. There may be a couple of Cookie1 tweaks.

[cookie1]

This was really delicious. As there are only 3 of us I made half the recipe. I also decided not to put pastry on the top, only the bottom. Then I found I had run out of brown rice so used basmati. I served it with vegetables. I'll definitely be making this again.
5/5.