Root vegetable pie with parsley cream

One really large homegrown beetroot (thanks, mom!) was staring at me from the other side of the room. I knew I had to cook something different with it. Since I had just bought a root celery and some potatoes, a colorful Fall pie was born. After some brainwork, I settled with a good old yeast dough enriched with whole wheat flour. To make the pie more juicy, I added some parsley cream made with the almighty sunflower seeds. Serve this pie with a bowl of hot soup and you will have a great meal. If you love spicy food, sprinkle some hot tomato sauce on the pie before baking.

PS! To make it easier, you can boil the veggies the night before.

one large pie, about 25 little pie squares

Yeast dough:

• 2 Tbsp / 12 g active dry yeast
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• 1 ¼ cups / 200 g all-purpose flour
• 1 cup / 120 g whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup + 1 Tbsp / 250 ml handwarm water
• 2 Tbsp oil

Mix the dry ingredients (yeast, salt, thyme and flours). Add water. Mix with your hands a little bit and then add the oil. Mix again and knead hard on a floured surface until the dough is elastic. Put the dough ball into a bowl and cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Leave it in a warm place to rise for about one hour. In the meantime you can prepare the topping:

Pie topping:

• 14 oz / 400 g potatoes
• 10 ½ oz / 300 g beetroot
• 7 oz / 200 g root celery
• little bit of oil and salt to taste

Boil the potatoes (leave the peel on) until soft. Drain. Boil the beetroot and celery (leave the peel on) until soft. Drain. You can also boil the veggies the night before.

Sunflower seed cream:

• 1 cups / 150 g peeled sunflower seeds (soak for a couple of hours or boil for 15-20 minutes)
• ½ cup / 150 ml water
• a big bunch of fresh parsley
• ½ tsp salt

Drain the soaked or boiled sunflower seeds. Blend with water, parsley and salt until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 400 F / 200 C. Take the risen dough and knead it for a minute. Put the dough ball on a greased baking tray and roll it wider. Lenghten the dough edges so the dough is covering the whole baking tray. Spread the parsley cream evenly onto the pie. Add thinly sliced boiled veggies. Sprinkle some salt and oil all over the pie. Let the prepared pie rise for another 10-15 minutes until the oven is ready. Bake the pie at 400 F / 200 C for 20 minutes until the pie edges are golden brown. Serve with chopped parsley and with a bowl of warming soup.