Asparagus and Cheese Slice (aka Space Pie)

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Becoming a parent turns most of us from rational, honest people into lying, cajoling and bribing individuals with a host of associated questionable behaviours. We lie to children about all manner of things, including the fat red man, the chocolate delivering member of the Leporidae family, and that dog that went to “stay on a farm”. Food in particular seems to bring out some of the worst examples, probably because children can be such picky eaters, which fuels our irrational fear they will starve to death or become an axe murderer or have some other grisly fate befall them. The story of space pie is one such example.

When our eldest son was young he (like most children) was reticent about eating vegetables or anything “strange” and he would certainly not eat asparagus and cheese slice. One night when he asked what was for dinner I told him it was space pie – a recipe that had been specially made for astronauts to eat in space. Time tends to cloud our memories about matters, so I would love to say that from that date forward it become something he ate with relish, but that is no doubt stretching it somewhat. Lying to children about food is a constant arms race where you are required to come up with something better all the time. I can say with certainty, however, that at least on that occasion he gobbled it up, and so the “space pie” name stuck. Our son didn’t like corn either, but he would eat peas, so on at least one occasion he was fooled into eating yellow peas.

spacepie2 Combine all ingredients except the asparagus in a bowl and season to taste.

Do try and make space pie when asparagus is in season, which is through spring and sometimes into early summer. Where I shop, where they try to source everything locally from South Australia and which has a great selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, the preferred source for asparagus when it is out of season seems to be Peru. While I have nothing against Peruvians it strikes me as a very poor environmental outcome to eat their asparagus, associated as it is with lots of air miles. All is not lost however, because I have found this recipe to work perfectly well (if not quite as good as using fresh) by using tinned asparagus. I know this because we lived for many years in a remote mining town, where fresh asparagus was not available ever. If you are using tinned asparagus it is of course not necessary to cook it prior to putting it in the slice.

spacepie3 Arrange the asparagus in a dish and pour over the egg mixture.

spacepie4 Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until cooked and golden.

Like most of these sort of slices this is a really easy recipe, great for mid-week cooking, that requires few ingredients and is ready in no time. We often have it just on its own or serve with a simple salad. It’s also completely vegetarian.

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