Spanakopita Traditional Recipe. This traditional Greek spinach pie is a tasty vegetarian dish that can be enjoyed as a hot or cold main meal. Spinach is also a wonder-vegetable packed full of vitamins and dietary fibre.
Serves 4
360g baby spinach (or silverbeet)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 green onions, thinly sliced
¼ cup dill sprigs, finely chopped
¼ cup mint leaves, finely chopped
1 large lemon, finely grated rind
220g fetta, crumbled
200g low-fat ricotta (or cottage cheese)
¼ cup parmesan, finely grated
4 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper, to season
12 sheets filo pastry
80g butter, melted
1 Preheat oven to 200C. Put spinach in a large bowl. Cover with boiling water and stand for 1 minute or until wilted. Drain and rinse under cold water. Using your hands, squeeze as much liquid as possible from spinach. Transfer to a large bowl.
2 Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes or until soft. Add garlic and green onion and cook for 1 minute. Cool. Add onion mixture to spinach with dill, mint, lemon rind, fetta, ricotta, parmesan and eggs. Stir until well combined. Season with salt and pepper.
3 Put 1 sheet of pastry on a flat surface. Brush with some butter and top with another sheet of pastry. Repeat 4 times. Line a 26cm x 16cm x 3cm-deep lamington pan with pastry sheets, allowing excess pastry to hang over edge. Spoon spinach mixture into pastry. Layer remaining sheets of pastry on a flat surface, brushing each layer with butter. Put over filling.
4 Trim pastry with kitchen scissors. Roll top and base layers of pastry together and tuck inside edge of pan.
5 Bake for 35–40 minutes or until crisp and golden. Stand for 5 minutes before cutting into portions. Serve.
Note: if using silverbeet as an alternative to spinach, remove stalk and discard. Shred silverbeet leaves and blanch in boiling water until just wilted. Drain and squeeze excess water from silverbeet.
