Red Beet and Parsnip Veggie Pie

Before our trip to Switzerland in December 2019, we had never thought of the idea of a vegetable pie. Then, at Château de Chillon, we had an incredible mushroom pie in the great hall. We enjoyed it so much that we recreated it from our Air BnB in Zermatt. Now that we’re back home, we wanted to try making another pie based on the general concept, but with very different ingredients and flavours!

In this case, we opted to blend the concepts of our attempt at the Swiss Mushroom and Cauliflower Pie with our Root Vegetable Cholera while also making some ingredient tweaks (read: ADDED BEETS!). What we ended up with was an “open faced” pie like our Mushroom Pie that had the hearty feeling of our Cholera. Just like in Switzerland, we let the veggies and the cheese and the milk/cream do the flavouring, and we didn’t use a single spice to develop the depth of flavour! Enjoy!

Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 Pie Crust (we used frozen for ease on this one). Puff pastry would also be excellent.
• 4 Medium Red Beets
• 3 Parsnips
• 1 Onion
• 2 Tablespoons of Cream or Half and Half
• 8 Ounces of Cheese
  • 4 Ounces of any two of the following will work well. We used the first two on the list:
    • Gruyere
    • Kaltbach
    • Raclette
    • Emmentaler
    • Appenzeler
    • Chevre
• Optional: Whole Grain Dijon Mustard

Method:

• Set your pie crust out to thaw.
• Peel your beets (wear vinyl kitchen safe gloves for this, or you will have red hands for days) and parsnips. Shred with the small shredding plate of your food processor (or use a box grater, but that will take longer and be much more muscle fatigue inducing), and dice your onion.
• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
• Heat some butter in a pan, and then add your onion. Sautee until the onion become opaque.
• Add your shredded beets and parsnips to the onion pan, and let everything cook down a bit and soften (stirring occasionally).
• After the veggies start to soften, stir in your cream or half and half, and continue to cook so that can absorb into your beets and parsnips.
• Shred or cut your cheese into thin slices.
• When the liquid in the bottom of your veggie pan is absorbed, stir in most of your cheese to allow it to melt. Keep some aside to top the pie later.
• Optional: While the cheese melts, spread some whole grain dijon mustard on the bottom of your pie crust. Since my wife didn’t want her beets “sullied,” I only spread on half of the bottom…and then made little slits in the top of the pie crust so I could see where the mustard was when it came time to cut later.
• Scoop and spread your beet and parsnip mixture into your pie crust, and pack it down with a spatula.
• Top everything with cheese in whatever pattern/design you like, and put the pie crust in the oven for about 30-35 minutes. Tip to make pie extrication easier later: put the pie crust/tin on a hard baking sheet before putting into the oven.
• When the crust is nice and flaky, you’re done!
• Plate, devour, and enjoy!