Whole Foods Rip-Off Dinner

Whole Foods sells all sorts of lovely expensive salads and pies in their prepared foods section. So sometimes I go and write down the ingredients and make them myself! That's what happened with these two items. I winged it on the recipes, so who knows if these tasted anything like the ones I was trying to recreate. All I know is that they tasted good! And a nice departure from what I usually think of as dinner fare.

Greens and Ricotta Pie:

For the crust:

(Cooks Illustrated says to use Vodka in place of half the water in your recipe for a flakier crust)
1 1/4cups all purpose flour
1/2 t. salt
1 T. sugar
6 T. cold unsalted butter, cut into slices
1/4 c. chilled solid vegetable shortening , cut into 2 pieces
2 tablespoons vodka , cold
2 tablespoons cold water

For the Filling:

All the greens in your fridge chopped (I had about a half bunch each of kale and collards, and half a bag of baby spinach.

1 large onion chopped

5 cloves garlic chopped

1 1/2 c. ricotta

nutmeg, salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Crust recipe should yield 2 large crusts, one for the top and one for the bottom. I made four small crusts so I could make individual sized pies. Roll them out on wax paper and refrigerate immediately. Saute the greens, onion and garlic until greens are compacted substantially and most of the moisture has evaporated. Transfer them to blender and add ricotta and spices to taste. Process until greens are well chopped and ricotta is fully incorporated. Press one crust into pie plate, making sure to leave 1/2 inch of overhang beyond lip of pie plate. Fill crust tightly with greens mixture and top with second crust, pressing the edges of the two crusts together to form a seal. Bake until crust is golden brown.

Quinoa Lentil Rutabega Salad:

1 medium rutabega cubed and steamed until tender

1 cup (raw) green lentils cooked until tender

1 cup (raw) quinoa cooked

1 shallot very thinly sliced

1 red or yellow bell pepper thinly julienned

vinagrette - olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper

Arugula (optional)