Spinach and Broccoli Cheese Pie – Starbucks Hong Kong copycat

Olivia and I love the Starbucks spinach and broccoli cheese pie, which for some reason, has disappeared from the local Hong Kong outlets over the last few weeks.  This savory, bright and comforting treat became our go to item at the Hong Kong airport, or around town when we wanted something other than starch for a snack.  We kept saying that we should try and replicate it at home, and since the disappearance of this pie, it seemed like the time had come to experiment.

Based on the item description, we knew the two main vegetables.  Also, I detected a hint of oregano which reminded me of spanakopita and thus it seemed that a bit of creamy feta and ricotta would do the trick.  Well – big surprise, our local Hong Kong grocery store did not have ricotta cheese that week, so cottage cheese to the rescue!  Sometimes ricotta can be grainy so I actually vote for creamy cottage cheese, even if it is less sophisticated.

We don’t like pre-made pie crusts, so I made  the Cream Cheese Pie Crust from the Kitchn.  Unfortunately I lack a food processor, so I made the crust old school style with a pastry cutter.  Due to the high humidity here, I only used 1/2 the amount of water.  This recipe makes enough for 2 full 9″ pie crusts.  Please note, crust dough needs to rest in the refrigerator 45-60 minutes.  Clearly, you could make this in a traditional sized pie crust, but then they wouldn’t be nearly as cute – or portable in school lunches!