hot silverbeet cheesecake

This is one of the most delicious recipes ever. I’m not exaggerating.

The concept is a bit strange, but if you consider it’s almost like a quiche it suddenly doesn’t seem that weird at all.

The recipe follows the basic sweet cheesecake idea, but uses fetta cheese and silverbeet to flavour it rather than fruit or chocolate. It’s also served hot rather than cold.

Usually I cook the cheesecake in a springform cake tin, but last time I baked the mixture in muffin trays to create individual serves. This was perfect for the occasion: a brunch buffet where we also served
khabeesa (Omani semolina porridge),
breakfast crumbles and
asparagus & gruyere tart

For this cheesecake recipe, I choose to use silverbeet (Swiss chard) since it’s quite strong in flavour and can compete with the cream cheese and feta, although spinach would be an obvious substitute.

As I said the outcome is similar to a quiche, but so much better because it takes on a rich, sour creaminess from the cream cheese.

After making this I have been inspired to try other variations and am coming up with a recipe for a hot dessert cheesecake too.


Silverbeet Cheesecake
Anna’s adaptation of a recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly ‘Great Vegetarian Food’. Makes about 16 small cakes or a large cake to feed 6 as a main.
Ingredients:
Base
1 cup (100g) finely crushed cheese biscuit crumbs
60g butter
Filling
600g silverbeet (Swiss chard)
1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, crushed
250g cream cheese
250g sour cream
250g feta
4 eggs
¼ cup grated parmigiano or pecorino cheese
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160’C.
2. To make base, melt butter and mix well with biscuit crumbs. Press mixture firmly into a 20cm springform cake tin and refrigerate 30 minutes.
3. Steam silverbeet until limp. Squeeze out excess water. Chop coarsely.
4. Sauté onion and garlic in a frying pan until soft, being careful not to brown.
5. In a food processor, blend silverbeet, onion, garlic and feta until smooth. Add cream cheese and blend until smooth. Repeat with sour cream and then eggs.
6. Place cake tin on oven tray (it may leak a little during cooking) and pour filling over biscuit base. Bake for 1 hour or until set and top has browned.
7. Remove from oven and sprinkle parmigiano over the top.
8. Sit cake 10 minutes before serving still warm.
Note: Can be made the day ahead and stored, covered, in fridge. Reheat, covered with foil, for approx. 20-30 minutes.

Since I have already covered the nutritional properties of silverbeet when I posted my silverbeet and feta pie recipe, I won't wax lyrical again.

What I will say again is that I love baby spinach in salads, but I prefer silverbeet in cooked form. I feel like I can actually taste the mineral richness and all those vitamins doing me good.

If you do decide to give this cheesecake a try, let me know how you like the flavour!

Weekend Herb Blogging is being hosted by Kalyn herself so visit the Kitchen for the round-up.

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes weekend herb blogging whb main course cheesecake silverbeet buffet recipes cheesecake recipes quiche recipes cake recipes