Sweet Potato-Chickpea, Spinach and Cranberry Pie

Sometimes, like everyone, I need to peruse a cookbook or magazine to find ideas.  Often, what it does is jolt me into a direction and then I begin to freewheel from there, adding my own touch and flourishes to the dish.  I've learned that my food imagination is similar to painting and sometimes I can approach cooking like a blank canvas and other days I need to sketch something out first.  Another person's recipe, to me, is a sketch.  This sketch came from a great book I have from Chef Ana Sortun and is based on the principles of an Armenian or Turkish chickpea and potato terrine called topik.  My version, took that idea and turned it into "Sweet Potato-Chickpea Pie with Spinach, Cranberries and Apricots".  Here's a look at a slice of the "pie".

Now, some food is pretty and some food isn't necessarily so.  Let me urge you to give this dish a chance despite it's somewhat plain looks.  Its flavor and texture profile is fantastic.  Vegetarians who like interesting and bold flavors will celebrate over this one.  Meat eaters who like experimenting beyond singular starches or vegetables will be wowed.  This dish is terrific, despite looking quite uninspiring.  You can add pinches of the spices, recommended amounts, or handfuls... just depends on your palate.  Keep in mind that if you increase the quantity of spices, you must also increase the quantity of juices -- both ginger and tangelo.  The fresh cranberries are really part of what makes this so wonderful, it gives a lovely and delightful tangy pop.  Pomegranate seeds would also be a great choice for the same reason.  But, with the seedy pinenuts, I didn't want a second seed texture.

The dish is traditionally a terrine or jelly-roll, but in the spirit of rustic winter food, I made it into more of a cottage pie by using mashed potato and layering into a pie dish. Bear in mind, of course, this is neither cottage or shepherd's pie since there's no meat at all.  It's the method that's somewhat similar.  First spread out a layer of the sweet potato-chickpea purée (or mash), then the spicy vegetables and fruit and then another layer of the sweet potato-chickpea mash. Topik usually includes tahini, but I omitted it since I didn't want the dish to resemble hummus.  I love hummus, but wanted this to be my own experiment.  Also, I know many people substitute yams for sweet potatoes in dishes.  I would recommend that you DON'T do it in this dish.  The flavors and textures are distinct and sweet potatoes, not yams, are a key part of this dish's success.  Give it a try, and serve it with a nice spicy-sweet piece of pork, braised beef ribs or better yet, a lovely rack of lamb.

Here's my variation on Chef Sortun's dish.

Ingredients

Serves 6-8 as a side or first course

1 cup chickpeas, rinsed and drained if canned or soaked and boiled to tenderness of dried

1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks

2 T. butter

Kosher salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

1 large onion, peeled and finely diced

4 T. extra virgin olive oil

8 oz. stemmed and washed fresh spinach, roughly chopped

2 large cloves fresh garlic, minced

1 c. fresh cranberries, washed and cut in halves

1 fresh large tangelo or tangerine, squeezed for juice

1/2 tsp. fresh ginger

4-6 whole dried apricots, finely chopped

3 T. lightly toasted pine nuts
1 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cinammon

1/2 tsp. ground pepper

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Method:

1. In a small saucepan, bring the sweet potato and water to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently until the sweet potato is soft, about 15 minutes.

2. Drain the chickpeas well, whether canned or you've just soaked and boiled them according to dry package directions.  Pour the chickpeas into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade.  Remove the sweet potato from its water, when soft and drain, reserving a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid.  Place the sweet potato back into the dry saucepan and mash gently with a fork, adding the butter.  Season with a pinch of kosher salt and black pepper, to taste.  Scrape the mashed sweet potato into the bowl of the food processor with the chickpeas.  Process the sweet potatoes and chickpeas until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Add 1-2 T. of the sweet potato cooking liquid and process another minute, until very smooth.  Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.  Scrape out the mixture and spread on a dish or platter to completely cool.

3. In a large saute pan add the olive oil and bring to medium high heat.  Saute the onion until it's soft and translucent, about 6-8 minutes.  Stir in the spinach and cook for about 5 minutes, until tender.  Stir in the garlic and cranberries and cook until they begin to soften.  Squeeze in the tangelo or tangerine juice and stir thoroughly.  Immediately add the apricots and ginger, then stir again.  Add the spices, in sequence, stirring and shaking the pan to evenly distribute the spices.  Taste and add any additional salt or pepper that's needed and adjust spices according to preference.  Remove from the heat and let cool completely.

4. Preheat and oven to 350˚F.  Spray a pie pan (preferable use a ceramic one or something that can go from oven directly to table) with non-stick cooking spray and spread in a layer half of the sweet potato-chickpea mash.  Use the back of a spoon or spatula to even out the first layer.  Spoon in the spinach and cranberry mixture, spreading evenly with a spoon.  Flatten and press firmly down on the pie.  Spoon on the second half of the chickpea mixture and spread evenly as the top layer or "crust" of the pie.  Cover with aluminum foil and place in the warm oven.

5. Bake the pie for 20 minutes covered, then remove the foil and bake another 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.  Cut with a knife into traditional pie-shaped and spoon onto plates.  Serve immediately and enjoy with a nice, fruity and bold red wine.