We are in the midst of quite the arctic blast today, so we wanted to post a Swiss inspired meal for the occasion! The idea for this meal came from my wife’s and my winter Swiss vacation, specifically our brief stop at Château de Chillon, a medieval castle on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva. We were on our way to the mountains to snowshoe and ski, but when we saw this building standing majestically on the shoreline, we had to visit. While there, we toured, saw reenactors, got treated to a hurdy gurdy concert, and had a piece of savory pie in the great hall.
Once we got to the mountains, we recreated that savory pie (Swiss Mushroom and Cauliflower Pie), and it was awesome. Now that we have our 4″ springform pans, we decided to go back to the cauliflower pie concept but with a little twist! For starters, we riced our cauliflower instead of leaving it in florets. Then, we included apple instead of mushroom. And lastly, we took our suggestion to try raclette!
In the end, these personal sized pies were really tasty! We wound up serving it as a side dish along with Pork Schnitzel, but it would also be great as an entree with some Roasted Asparagus, Sauteed Zucchini, or other steamed veggies!
**If you don’t have small springform pans, you can always just make this in a regular pie pan.
Time: 2 Hours (or 60 minutes if you make your dough ahead of time)
Ingredients:
- Short Crust Pastry Dough (this recipe will make 3 or 4 pies)
- Red Onion
- Apple
- 1/2 of a large Cauliflower
- Raclette (we used a smoked raclette)
- Paprika
- Black pepper
- Ground Nutmeg
- Salt
Method:
- Prep your short crust pastry dough ahead of time (an hour or so before you plan to use it).
- Dice your onion and apple. Melt a little butter in a pan, and begin to caramelize your onion and apple.
- Cut your cauliflower into florets, and use the shredding plate of your food processor or a box grater to rice your cauliflower. Then, add your cauliflower to the pan.
- Sprinkle in your paprika, black pepper, nutmeg, and salt, and allow to cook until your cauliflower softens a lot.
- As your veggies cook, slice your raclette.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Roll your short crust pastry to fit your pie pan(s) (8″ rounds if using 4″ springform pans). Then, arrange them in your pan(s).
- Add a little raclette to the bottom of your pie dough.
- When your cauliflower/onion/apple mixture is ready (and becomes somewhat of a paste), scoop it evenly into your pie dough(s).
- Add a slice of raclette atop, and add more seasonings over your raclette.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes until your dough turns golden brown.
- Plate, devour, and enjoy!
