Spanakopita

~ Tandy

Blog-checking lines: The February Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Audax of Audax Artifex. The challenge brought us to Greece with a delicious, flaky spanakopita – a spinach pie in a phyllo pastry shell. I made spanakopita.

Today’s inspirational recipe from Lavender and Lime ♥ Spanakopita ♥ #LavenderAndLime Share on X

I don’t cook a lot of Greek food and I don’t have any recipe books that are dedicated to Greek food, but even so, I was quite excited to see something new for this months’ Daring Cooks challenge. I have only ever eaten spanakopita cooked in triangle shaped phyllo pastry parcels and I was looking forward to creating my own spinach filled parcels. However, I was a bit put off by the mandatory Items: Prepare spanakopita in the traditional method that is use uncooked chopped spinach, chopped fresh onions (at least two types), fresh herbs, a small amount of feta cheese with breadcrumbs (or similar) to keep the phyllo pastry shell dry during baking. Dave and I do not eat raw onions and usually before I use onions in any recipe, I sauté them off until nice and soft. I was really worried that the onions would not cook. There were some variations allowed: Any traditional recipe can be used so long as the filling is not cooked before baking the spanakopita and an ingredient (breadcrumbs or similar) is used to absorb the excess moisture given out by the filling during baking. I did not know where to start looking for a traditional recipe and I did not want to go out and buy a recipe book just for this one dish. Thankfully I paged through my copy of The World Encyclopaedia of Cheese that my friend Cindy gave to me and found a recipe for spanakopita in it. I was quite impressed with the fact that it was a one dish meal and I adapted it to suit the mandatory items list. The onions cooked off perfectly and the taste was amazing. Dave and I ate the entire spinach pie over two meals and even reheating it resulted in a great dish. I would serve this spanakopita as a side dish with some fish, or as a meat free meal any day of the week.

Spanakopita | Spinach Pie
Spanakopita | Spinach Pie
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Spanakopita | Spinach Pie

Recipe Category: Vegetarian
Makes enough for: 1 pie
All Rights Reserved: Adapted from The World Encyclopaedia Of Cheese page 230

Ingredients

  • 400 g baby spinach, roughly chopped
  • 2 spring onions, sliced
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 150 g feta, crumbled
  • 35 g micro leaf herbs
  • 45 mls bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
  • 50 g butter, melted
  • 8 sheets phyllo pastry

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 190° Celsius
  • Place the spinach, spring onions, shallots, feta, herbs and bread crumbs into a bowl and mix
  • Add the eggs and mix in
  • Season to taste
  • Lightly brush an oven proof pie dish with some of the melted butter
  • Layer on a sheet of phyllo pastry and lightly brush with some of the melted butter
  • Repeat until you have used 4 sheets - offset each one so that the edges are at an angle to one another
  • Place the spinach mix into the pie dish and flatten
  • Top with a sheet of phyllo pastry and lightly brush it with some of the melted butter
  • Repeat until you have used three sheets
  • Turn in the edges of the phyllo pastry and lightly brush with some of the melted butter
  • Lightly brush the last phyllo sheet with butter and scrunch up and place it on top
  • Spray lightly with water and bake at the bottom half of the oven for 25 minutes
  • Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving

Notes

Place a damp cloth over the phyllo pastry sheets you are not using to keep them supple

Click on the links for conversions and notes.

What I blogged:

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Published by Tandy

I am passionate about using regional, seasonable and sustainable produce when I cook. I live in Gordons Bay with my husband and dogs. We visit new places locally and overseas as often as we can to experience the food of the area. Follow along on our adventures!

38 thoughts on “Spanakopita”

  6. this is a favourite of mine, and I find it’s a recipe that can take variations – like cooking the spinach and making sure all the water is out of it before building the layers. Yours looks a treat

    Reply

  8. I was also worried about not cooking the onions first. Luckily my husband and I both like raw onions and we loved the end flavour. I found there was still a touch of rawness to the ones in my spanakopita but maybe I didn’t massage them enough or maybe because it was a deeper pie. I’m glad you liked it in the end.

    Reply

  17. I worked at a Greek restaurant, where I often found myself eating way too many of these smothered in tzatziki. I just couldn’t stop myself 🙂 I am glad you posted this because I would have never thought to make them at home. Guess I have to now 🙂

    Reply
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