A colorful vegetable terrine attracts attention on any occasion and is also a healthy dish. We show you how to prepare the classic of French vegetarian cuisine.
The French word “terrine” comes from the eighteenth century. The literal translation into Spanish would be “olla de barro grande”. In traditional French cuisine, a terrine is a hearty dish that usually consists of one or several types of meat or fish and seafood with a strong flavor. However, you can also prepare this classic in vegetarian version. Vegetable terrines are available in many designs and with a wide variety of vegetables. We explain how to prepare a vegetable terrine with spinach and pine nuts.
SPINACH TERRINE RECIPE
Ingredients (for 4 people):
- 1 kg spinach
- 60 g creamy vegetable cheese
- 30 g vegetable parmesan (at the end of this article you will find a recipe)
- 30 g pine nuts
- 1 egg
- 2 red peppers
- 1 onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 250 ml vegetable broth
- 60 g stale bread
Elaboration:
- Take a handful of the spinach, wash them and whiten them in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Then, rinse the leaves under cold running water and dry them with kitchen paper.
- Put the remaining spinach in a saucepan and simmer for about three minutes. Drain the water well, cut them into large pieces and set them aside in a bowl.
- In another bowl, mix the creamy cheese with the Parmesan. Brown the pine nuts in an oil-free skillet and add them to the mixture as well. Separate the egg and mix the yolk with the cheeses and pine nuts. Season everything with salt and pepper.
- Beat the egg whites to the point of snow and carefully add them to the cooled spinach. Season everything with salt and pepper.
- Top a small baking pan or cake pan with the blanched spinach. Then add about a third of the spinach mixture, then half of the cheese mixture and repeat the steps. Smooth the layers with a knife or spoon before adding the next layer. The last one should be that of the spinach mixture.
- Place the mold in a larger dish and fill it with hot water until the terrine mold has about two-thirds in the water. Bake everything at 200 ºC for 45 minutes with the hot air function.
- While the terrine is cooking you can prepare the sauce. To do this, cut the peppers and onion into small pieces. Crush the garlic and put everything in a saucepan with the vegetable broth. Bring the sauce to a boil. Add the old bread, lower the temperature and let the sauce simmer for 20 minutes. Grind everything with a hand mixer and season with salt and pepper.
- The terrine will be ready when it no longer yields to light pressure. Once done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for about 20 minutes. After that time, turn the mold over, remove the terrine and cut it into slices. Serve everything with the pre-heated pepper sauce.
BUYING TIPS FOR MAKING VEGETABLE TERRINE
Leafy vegetables are in season almost all year round. Especially in autumn and spring, it can be assumed that spinach comes mainly from local cultivation. In the remaining months, spinach is usually imported.
You can also plant spinach yourself. So, you can cook them freshly harvested. You should also pay attention to ecological quality when buying, because conventional spinach is often contaminated with synthetic pesticide residues.
It is worth taking a look at the origin of pine nuts, as they do not always come from the Mediterranean region and sometimes grains are imported from Asia, which implies too many CO2 emissions in transport. To keep your ecological footprint low, it is better to buy only national or at least European pine nuts.
VEGAN PARMESAN QUICK RECIPE
Ingredients (for 100g):
- 85 g cashews
- 15 g unbittered cherry yeast (about 2 heaped tablespoons)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/6 teaspoon garlic powder
Elaboration:
- Put all the ingredients in your processor. If you don’t have one handy, you can also grind the vegan Parmesan with a chopper or, if necessary, in the mortar.
- Grind all ingredients into thin pieces. Do not mix too long, otherwise the oil can come out of the cashews and form a lumpy mass.
If you don’t want to use vegan Parmesan right away, store it tightly closed in a screw jar in a dark, cool place. You can keep it like this for about two or three weeks without any problem.
