What can I say, this house loves Greek food. Every year we hit the Greek food festival devouring some of our favorite foods, spanakopita, tiropita, and baklava. I bought some phyllo dough the other day and was itching to use it and there could be no better way than some of our favorites. So I went to foodgawker as usual and found this recipe at closetcooking.com which sounded perfect. As I was reading the recipe I saw Kevin also had a recipe for baklava so I was like what the hell. Reading the two recipes I found that the baklava would need to sit for a few hours after it was made so I made it first and moved on to the spinach pie. WOW! This pie was amazing! I didn’t think it would come out this good but it did. Kid tested and mother approved. You can’t beat that.
This recipe is fast and simple, although I had no brush for brushing the oil on each layer of the phyllo so I ended up using a towel. It was a pain and took a lot more time than a brush would have (it’s been added to my long list of things to buy for the kitchen). I also only had half the spinach so I just used what I had and added a bit more feta. J doesn’t like her spanakopita to spinach-y anyway so I knew it would work out perfectly. I contemplated using half the eggs but I ended up going with all three. Next time I would go with just two eggs as it did seem a little egg-y and still keep the spinach at 1 lb. instead of the original 2 lb.. My recipe is revised below but the link above will give you the original recipe if you want it with more spinach sailor. I personally like it the way I made it. A thinner pie (which is more like we get at the Greek festival) with more feta any phyllo (which is the best part anyway). I also switched up to a 8×13 baking dish in place of the 8×8 which made for the thinner pie as well. This is one of my favorite recipes I’ve made so far in this cooking journey. Don’t forget the recipe for tzatziki sauce also posted below.
Spanakopita
Makes 6 servings, 4 if your hungry.
- Ingredients
- 1 lb. spinach, steamed, squeezed, drained and chopped
- 1-1/2 c. feta, crumbled
- 1/4 c. dill, chopped
- 1/4 c. parsley, chopped
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 c. olive oil
- phyllo dough
- Preparation
Preheat oven to 350F. Mix the spinach, feta, dill, parsley, eggs, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Brush the bottom of an 9×13 inch baking pan with olive oil. Brush the top of a sheet of phyllo dough with olive oil and place it in the pan. (You may have to cut the phyllo dough to fit the pan.) Repeat until you have 6 layers. Place the spinach mixture on top of the phyllo dough. Brush the top of a sheet of phyllo dough with olive oil and place it on the spinach. Repeat until you have 6 layers. Bake until golden brown on top, about 30-50 minutes.
Tzatziki Sauce
Makes enough.
Recipe found at allrecipes.com
- Ingredients
- 2 (8 ounce) containers plain yogurt
- 2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
- 2 T. olive oil
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 T. chopped fresh dill
- 2 or 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- Preparation
In a food processor or blender, cucumber, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, dill and garlic. Process until well-combined. Transfer to a separate dish, fold into yogurt, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour for best flavor.