I’m currently melting into my bed while writing this blog post. Even though the window is open and my tiny electric fan is blowing right towards me at full speed, I’m still melting. Yes, the summer is in Helsinki! And if you’re going to eat a pie right now, it should be crispy and delicious, not heavy.

So yes, I love using phyllo for any pie base because it’s crispy and light. The regular pie base, generally a mixture of butter and flour, is too heavy for me – both for savoury and sweet pies.

A cheesy asparagus pie is not a brand new idea; there are many versions of it if you google. A few of them even use phyllo. However, mostly those pies are rectangular, so I decided to make a round pie in this recipe.

If you are a regular follower of my blog and recipes, you are no stranger to this kind of phyllo base – I used it already in many different recipes. And if you made a couple of them yourself at home, then this should be very easy for you too. In any case, even if you are new to phyllo pie base, you’ll find this recipe not too complicated.

You can have this pie for lunch or dinner with a very light salad. If you are a person that likes eating savoury for breakfast, you can also have the leftovers for breakfast! Enjoy!
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Ingredients:

Difficulty: Easy
(makes 1 pie in 24cm pie dish)

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

75 gr butter
8 phyllo sheets (I buy mine from ethnic markets in Itäkeskus in Helsinki)
250 gr grated cheese (I used gouda)
2 large eggs
1 tsp red pepper flakes (use more if you like it spicy)
200 gr asparagus, trimmed*
pinch of salt**
drizzle of olive oil

soft butter to grease the pie dish

*I used really thin asparagus. If you can only find thicker ones, I recommend you buy half amount required by this recipe and cut them in two.
**My cheese was salty enough, so I didn’t add any salt to the cheese. This pinch of salt is only for spreading on top. If your cheese is not very salty, you might consider adding a little salt to the cheese.

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 24cm pie dish and put it aside.

2. Melt the butter.

3. Follow the instructions from 3 to 6 in my pumpkin pie with a phyllo crust recipe to make the pie crust. But remember, in that recipe, I used 6 phyllo sheets, whereas, in this one, I used 8. You should have a little bit of melted butter left to use in step 8 below.

4. Add eggs to grated cheese and mix well.

5. Add red pepper flakes and mix well. If you are using salt, add it at this stage as well.

6. Transfer the cheese filling into the pie crust. Spread it evenly using a spatula (or just the back of a spoon).

7. Put the asparagus on the cheese filling, as seen in the photo. I had to cut the asparagus a bit further than needed to fit in the dish in this shape. Push the asparagus pieces a bit into the cheese filling so that they are well-placed.

8. Brush the edges of phyllo crust with remaining melted butter. Sprinkle a pinch of salt on the filling and drizzle a little olive oil. Put in the middle of the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the asparagus is roasted enough. Let the pie cool in the dish for about half an hour, and then you can cut and serve. Enjoy!