STT 26: Spinach, Wild Garlic & Cheese Pie; Wild Garlic & Cheese Scones with Dijon

Wild garlic season is back baby. Don the wellies and lets do this

The trees are leafing out, the light’s shifted, and the cherry blossoms have started to fall like confetti on the pavements. There are daffodils and magnolias and teenagers smoking again on park benches. I’m still reasonably mobile (although penguin in gait), so I kicked off the long weekend with a slow Lime bike ride over Hammersmith Bridge. I grabbed a cinnamon bun in Barnes (my pregnancy hyperfixation), and walked the Thames path along the river. The sun was out, the air was clean, and somewhere between the mud and the breeze I caught it: that first sharp scent of wild garlic.

You’ll often smell it before you see it. The leaves are long and green and floppy, with a soft garlicky-oniony smell that somehow manages to be both subtle and completely unmistakable once you know it. They like dappled light and damp ground—shaded wooded areas, riverbanks, sloped paths. I found a few clusters pushing up along the water between Barnes and Chiswick, just off the Thames Path.

You don’t need much. A small handful perfumes everything. Just snip the leaves (don’t pull up the roots), give them a good wash when you get home, and avoid picking from next to the path where dogs are likely to have been. Look out for the white starburst flowers too—those little globe-shaped clusters are a dead giveaway that you’ve found the right thing.

If you’re reading this outside of London (or, frankly, later in the year), don’t worry. This week’s recipes are both built to handle substitutions. Spring onions, chives, ramps if you’re in the US—they all work. We’re leaning into soft green flavour here, not exact science.

This week I’m giving you two recipes that showcase tender alliums/ wild garlic beautifully: a layered spinach and cheese filo pie, and some cheesy, flaky, sour cream and wild garlic scones. Both are easy, and satisfying in very different ways. The pie is hearty but still light enough to eat warm or cold. It’s versatile, a great sunday lunch with a peppery salad, perfect picnic food, or a work-lunch treat the next day. The scones are flaky and buttery, with mustard stirred into the sour cream for that little something. They freeze well, and are great warm with more soft butter or cold next to a fried egg.

The pie, in particular, was inspired by something I ate recently at Oma, a Greek-ish restaurant above Borough Market. I’d read about it in Grace Dent’s review and ended up sending it to my sister while she was in hospital, mostly for their spanakopita gratin. It’s this totally over-the-top deconstructed spinach and cheese dip, served bubbling in a dish with hot flaky malawach for scooping. I thought it was very her kind of food

(images here from their Instgram)

I’d messaged her something like, “So your vibe….we’re going here when you visit.”. I’ve been thinking about her a lot in the run up to Easter. The first holiday we are not sharing back and forth menu plans There’s something about cooking food she would’ve loved that makes her feel close.

So….how to go about securing a table when you can’t be bothered to book weeks in advance (London can be annoying like this)? I’m not a queue person, especially these days, and we were lucky to grab a counter seat as they opened. That’s my tip, by the way: date nights/girls nights are made to be spontaneous, skip the booking stress and just show up at pensioner dinner hour. Worst case, you don’t snag a table and end up queuing at Agora downstairs with a drink in hand and some hot crisps to tide you over.

The rest of the meal was excellent. Tahini with hot honey and crispy chickpeas. Baba ganoush with Jerusalem artichoke chips. Radicchio with orange and graviera. Oxtail giouvetsi with bone marrow and pangrattato. Big flavours, smartly done. Note to self- recreate the Tahini and chickpeas.

Enjoy the recipes. Go outside if you can. And if you spot some wild garlic, you know what to do.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate, and happy cooking x

Wild Garlic & Cheese Scones

Sharp, flaky, and full of spring greens. These buttery scones get an extra layer of flavour from Dijon mustard stirred into the sour cream.

Makes 9 scones • Time: 20 mins prep, 20–25 mins baking