day 20: spanakopita ... mmm

After a very long weekend of classes, I woke up today feeling energized and ready to cook some mmm, mmm good food! I was craving something warm and savory to balance the dank and foggy weather outside. And while I wanted to fill up on greens, but not in the form of a green smoothie, there needed to be a different avenue for the multiple bags of spinach in my fridge.

Enter: spanakoptia, otherwise referred to as spinach pie. Opa!

My relationship with Greek food began in high school and I was fortunate enough to eat lots and lots of home-cooked Greek meals. And when I met spanakoptia, it was love at first bite. The Greeks hit the jackpot with this popular dish. It wouldn't surprise me if Play-Doh layered between phyllo dough and lots butter (Earth Balance) would be delicious. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration but you get my point.

Spanakoptia is a really simple dish as long as you can muster up some patience. Layering and buttering the phyllo dough takes some time. I was lucky enough to have ME's help tonight and even then it took us 20 minutes just to assemble the pie.

With that disclaimer out of the way, spanakoptia is a delicious way to eat your greens, especially in the winter when your body is craving warmth. Tonight was the first time I had spinach pie without the feta and you know what -- I didn't really miss it.

Here's a good tip: score the tops before you bake it otherwise you're going to have a really hard time cutting once it's out of the oven.

Can you see all of layers? Layers = yum!

Peace and love -- for spinach pie ;) --
~Jo

Spanakoptia


Makes about 15 squares

4 cups spinach, washed and drained (or 32 ounces frozen spinach, thawed)
1 yellow onion, diced
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 medium leek, chopped
25 phyllo pastry sheets, thawed
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Earth Balance, melted
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make sure the spinach is thoroughly washed and dried. If using frozen spinach, after it's thawed, squeeze out the excess water.

In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat and saute onion and leek for about 5 minutes. Add the parsley and cook for another minute or two. Add the spinach, salt and pepper and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.

Melt the Earth Balance and oil a 9 x 13 baking dish. If you'd prefer not to use Earth Balance, you can use olive oil instead for the next following steps. Divide the phyllo sheets in half. You'll use one half for the bottom and one half for the top, brushing butter (or oil) in between each sheet. Once half of the sheets are in the baking dish, add the spinach mixture. Then continue to layer with the last half of phyllo sheets, buttering each layer.

Once the pie is assembled, sprinkle water on the top layer and score it into whatever size pieces you'd like. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.