Broccoli forest pie
and an Chinese-ish caesar-ish salad
Welcome to To Vegetables, With Love, a celebration of a vegetable life, less ordinary. ‘ Find archived recipes on my recipe index.
My book Tenderheart is available from Books are Magic, Kitchen, Arts and Letters, Book Larder, Bold Fork Books and also here or here.
This week’s recipe is for free for all.
A few weeks ago, as the unfathomable fires raged in Los Angeles, my friend Stacey Mei Yan Fong, who writes
and whom I wrote about a little while ago, text me and said she was thinking about all the lost trees in LA. Like everything else about the catastrophe, utterly devastating. She asked if I’d be okay with her turning my broccoli forest loaf in Tenderheart into a pie. I loved the idea.This week, Stacey baked her broccoli forest pie, wrapped it up, and hopped on the subway for the short journey to my house, so we could eat her lush creation together. The pie was everything I wished it would be - cheesy, custardy and packed with broccoli trees. An absolute delight. Here’s a snippet of pie adventure:
I am salad to Stacey’s pie, so I decided that would be my contribution to lunch. It was the day before Lunar New Year and it felt right to make a salad out of the ingredients I had out on my counter. I made a caesar-style dressing using fermented tofu. I sliced the Chinese fried crullers (known as yau ja gwai* in Cantonese) and toasted them up to use as croutons. I added crunchy lettuce and some tender leaves too. The resulting Chinese-ish, Caesar-ish salad is perhaps vaguely reminiscent of the Asian Caesar at the chain P.F Chang’s. We eat here when we are traveling and in desperate need of Asian flavours (do you know the feeling??).
An interesting anecdote, yau ja gwai (sometimes called youtiao) translates to “oil fried devil/ghost” in Cantonese.
Thank you to everyone who shared their Lunar New Year and Chile crisp stories last week. So many wonderful ideas and stories. Congrats to readers Lindsey and Ally who each won a gift pack from our friends at Fly By Jing.
Did you tune into NYT Cooking’s inaugural DUMPLING WEEK last week? It was so awesome to see our tasty morsels represented in a whole week of celebrations. I shared my mum’s crystal skin Gok Jai dumplings and, wow, it was so nice to hear from others who also grew up eating this dumpling. The reason why it was so special is because this type of savoury Gok Jai are very regional and specific to my parents native Zhongshan. I don’t often meet people from Zhongshan (especially in America where many of the Cantonese immigrants are from Toisan), so this felt really special. Plus I unexpectedly debuted the fresh tattoo of my mother’s hands making Gok Jai dumplings (by my favourite tattoo artist
) on the video!🐍
Here are some weeknight winners for this week:
Monday: Coming in strong with this Broccoli-Quinoa Soup With Turmeric and Ginger
Tuesday: Crunchy Brussels sprouts and apple slaw. It’s no cook, and nice on it’s own, or with a side of pan-fried dumplings.
Wednesday: This pickled celery and brown rice salad has been super popular. Great way to use up pantry ingredients and excellent for batch cooking too because it keeps for several days.
Thursday: Do you have leftover roasted vegetables? Make this vegetarian muffuletta - my recipe has roasted pumpkin/squash, eggplant and peppers but you could use any roasted veg (or use store-bought roasted veg!!!). But the key to this sandwich is the olive salad!! It’s standout and will make any veg shine.
Friday: Friday night in with dumpling noodle soup? My idea of bliss.
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
Broccoli Forest Pie
© By Stacey Mei Yan Fong, shared with permission by Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love.
Stacey’s words: The way Hetty was inspired by Rose Carrarini’s broccoli cake from her book Breakfast, Lunch, Tea. I was inspired by her broccoli forest loaf from her book Tenderheart. I have deep love of savory pies and this little broccoli forest loaf needed to become one! The perfect way to describe the pie is charming. Each slice is like a little forest diorama, little broccoli trees suspended in a savory egg custard with bright briny pops of olives and savory scallions. The perfect lunch to each el freso or el desko.
Hetty’s notes: For Stacey’s All butter crust, refer to my recent post for the curried vegetable pie (linked). Note, the recipe there is for a double crust, so halve it for this recipe. I love Stacey’s tip of using store bought pie crust too!
Active time: 1 hour
Bake time: 35-45 minutes
Start to finish: 1 hour 45 minutes
Makes one 10-inch pie, serves 6-8
Crust
All butter crust (single), rolled out, crimped and frozen. Fully blind baked. Homemade or store-bought pie crust is fine.
Filling
2-3 small heads of broccoli, cut into large florets with flat bottoms
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup heavy cream
½ cups whole milk
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup grated sharp cheddar
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup Castelvetrano olives, pitted and roughly chopped
Egg Wash
1 egg
pinch of salt
splash of water
Finishing & Topping
sesame seeds
olive oil
flaky Sea Salt, black pepper
Pro Tip
Make the custard the day before. Hold on folding in the cheese, scallions and olives. I’ve noticed that the custard sets up so much smoother when its given time to settle in the fridge. Just give it a good whisk when ready to make the pie.
Preheat oven to 375˚F / 190˚C.
Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the broccoli and blanch for 2 minutes. Drain immediately and run under cold water until completely cool to stop cooking further.
In a large mixing bowl whisk together eggs, salt, heavy cream, milk and spices. Once combined, fold in 3/4 cup of cheddar, scallions and olives.
Take sheet pan lined with parchment and place your blind baked pie crust on the sheet.
Sprinkle the remaining cheddar on the bottom of the pie crust. Fill 3⁄4 of the way with filling, push broccoli heads in so they are standing like little trees, let them lean on each other to stand up. Fill any remaining space in the pie with filling.
Brush the crimps with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds (optional).
Bake for 45-55 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean. You’ll know its ready when the center jiggles slightly like a soft thigh, but the outer ring is set! It will continue to set as it cools.
Let cool for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving. Top with olive oil, flaky salt and pepper to taste.
Stacey’s Notes: You might have a little broccoli left for snacking and depending on the depth of your pie pan little custard batter too. I made myself a little broccoli custard scramble to snack on while the pie baked!
Hetty’s Chinese-ish Caesar-ish Salad
© By Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love.
I created this salad as the idea accompaniment to Stacey’s broccoli forest pie. This salad is inspired by the Asian caesar salad at American chain PF Chang’s. My version steps it up many notches with a crave-worthy fermented tofu dressing. Known as fu ru or fu yu in Cantonese, fermented tofu is a umami bomb, both funky, salty and tangy. I will eat it straight off the spoon (but I understand if you don’t share my enthusiasm ;)) If you can’t find fermented tofu, substitute with miso paste, or even gochujang for a spicy version.
Chinese fried crueller’s can be found fresh or in the fridge section of Chinese grocery stores. If you don’t have them, simply substitute with bread. Alternatively, use leftover wonton wrappers, brush them in oil and bake until crispy.
Serves 4
1 Chinese fried crueller (about 75g), separated and thinly sliced (or substitute with chunks of stale bread, see headnotes)
150g (5 ounces) crunchy lettuce such as romaine (cos) or butterhead
150g (5 ounces) soft leaves such as baby spinach, arugula (rocket), watercress, mixed salad
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds (white or black)
1 to 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast or grated parmesan
Sea salt and pepper (preferably white)
Fu ru (Fermented tofu) dressing
2 blocks (about 1 tablespoon) fu ru (fermented tofu)\
1 tablespoon chinese sesame paste or tahini
1 small garlic clove, grated
1 tablespoon rice or apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon roasted sesame oil
Preheat oven to 180˚C / 350˚F.
Place the fried crueller (or bread) onto a baking sheet and arrange in a single layer (if you’re using bread, remember to drizzle with olive oil and toss). Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until golden.
Meanwhile, place the fermented tofu, sesame paste or tahini, garlic, vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add about 1 tablespoon of water and whisk again. The consistency should be thick but pourable.
Place the lettuce and leaves in a large bowl, along with the scallions, nutritional yeast and sesame seeds. Pour the dressing over and toss the leaves well until well coated. Taste and season with a season with a little sea salt, if needed, and lots of pepper, and then add the fried crullers and give it a final toss. Serve immediately.
Io Vegetables, With Love is dedicated to vegetables and it is a joy to bring you a new recipe every week. Thank you to everyone who subscribes, especially to paid subscribers who make this work possible.
Exactly the recipe I needed to use up the left over broccoli stalks I cooked the other night, thank you for all the sharing
I was just looking for a snack for my current long hours at work. Couldn't remember the broccoli forest loaf and went back to Tenderheart after reading your post. And there it was! I just had the first slice: heavenly, quite surprising the taste and so beautiful and funny. I will make the pie as well at another time;-) Thank you so much for your incredible creations