Cheese & Potato Pie

 

This dish I am showing you today is a fabulous vegetarian main dish, filled with lovely flavours and textures, always assuming that  you still eat eggs and cheese. 

If not, well, then I can't help you!  It makes good use of leftover cooked potato, or you can cook potatoes fresh to use in it.

 

I confess, I have also used tinned new potatoes, drained well and sliced into rounds.  They worked quite well.  I usually have a few tins of new potatos in the cupboard.  

Did you know that new potatoes are fairly low GI?  It's true and when you combine the with a fat (cheese) and a protein (egg) you lower the GI even more.

 

When combined with a slice of whole wheat bread and some salad, that makes this quite a diabetic-friendly meal. 

 

I add cooked green beans to add a small portion of your five a day, and to add some colour. We quite like them.

 

My friend Jacquie used to make a potato pie that was absolutely gorgeous. It had plenty of green beans in it.  I lost the recipe after I moved over  here and the last time I e-mailed her, my e-mail bounced back. 

I will have to contact her daughter on Instagram to see if there is a new e-mail address I can contact her with.  I really hate losing touch with good friends.

 

I always called Jacquie my White Angel because she had beautiful white hair, just like a shining gossamer halo.  She was so good to me when my last marriage broke up and I was on my own. She was a wonderful friend, along with her husband Tom. I could not have asked for two more loving and supportive friends. 

They are just two very special people. Tom was a vegetarian and Jacquie practiced the art of food combining. She was an iridologist, reflexologist, and herbologist and was very good at all three.  I think that she is the one and only friend I have ever allowed to have access to my feet. 

 

If you have never been to a reflexologist, you really need to treat yourself sometime!  You will feel like a million bucks afterwards, truly! Jacquie always told me that all disease starts in the bowel. She could look at your eyes and see what was wrong with your organs, etc.  

She was a really special gal and very good at what she did.  Her home always smelled wonderful, like herbs and garlic.  I loved it, and I loved her Tofu Burgers.  Also very tasty.

 

But back to this delicious casserole. You could serve it as a side if you wanted to and it would serve more people, but as a main, it serves 4 to 6 depending on appetites.  

It really has fabulous flavours . . . and yet it is so simple.

 

Cheese, onions, potatoes, and green beans are layered up in a dish and then a seasoned milk and egg mixture is poured over top.

 

You bake it, covered, for about 20 minutes or so, uncover it and give it a stir and then bake it for another 20 or 25 minutes, until all of the flavours have melded and the custard has set properly. It is almost like a baked potato and cheese omelet, and very, very good.

 

*Cheese & Potato Pie*

Serves 4 - 6 

Printable Recipe 

Simple and delicious. Serve warm with fresh bread, sliced tomatoes and a salad.  

 

700g waxy new potatoes, peeled and sliced (2 pounds)

2 large free range eggs

275ml whole milk (9 1/2 fluid ounces)

125g grated cheese (generous cup, I use Parmesan and Cheddar)

salt and black pepper

1 small onion, chopped

a handful of sliced green beans 

 

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Parboil the potatoes for about 5 minutes in lightly salted boiling water. Drain well, and cool slightly. (Alternatively use leftover cooked new potatoes, peeled and sliced.) 

Butter an oven-proof dish. Layer in the potato, grated cheese, onion and greenbeans alternately, ending with a layer of cheese. 

Beat together the eggs and milk, seasoning lightly with salt and black pepper. Pour this mixture over the potatoes and cheese in the dish. Cover tightly with a buttered sheet of foil. 

Cook in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Uncover and stir the potatoes from the outside to the centre.  Cook, uncovered for a further 20 to 25 minutes.  Serve warm.

 

This really makes for a lovely light supper.  We have it with buttered whole wheat bread and a mixed salad on the side. I love the supersalad salad greens which have baby kale, rocket, spinach and baby chard in them, along with shredded beetroot.  

They are fabulous.  I hope you will give this a go!  Bon appetit!