Spanakopita is a delicious savoury Greek pie made of perfectly crispy layers of phyllo (fee’- low) dough and a soft filling of spinach and feta cheese. Spanaki = spinach, pita = pie, so quite literally it means “spinach pie”. I’ve learned that there are as many different recipes as there are Greek grammas. Kind of like cabbage rolls, and just like the BEST cabbage rolls are the ones your gramma used to make, so it is with spanakopita (spana-KO-pita). I’m sharing with you the way I was taught by a family friend Erie Kourounotis – with a few modifications I’ve made over the years. Yes, it takes a little time to assemble, but it is much easier to make than you might expect. *tip: I find that its better if it sits at least half an hour from the oven before served. That helps the filling to set, and makes the crust easier to cut.
Most of the time in my house Spanakopita is the main dish, with perhaps a Greek salad on the side, and probably some tzatziki or hummus to serve with it, but it also makes a great side dish for a big family dinner, or to bring with you as a potluck dish.
Spanakopita can be made in a large 9×15 baking dish (usually cut into 15 pieces) or individually in the form of rolls or triangular hand pies. I like them in the individual hand pies, but I’ve never made them like that. However you prefer them, that are always a soft delicious spinach-cheese filling wrapped with golden, crispy phyllo pastry.
Crust
Phyllo dough is layered sheets of tissue-thin pastry. You buy it in the freezer section of the grocery store, near other frozen pie crusts. It comes tightly folded in a long thin box, many extremely thin layers of crispy pastry. Keep frozen until you use it, but thaw it out several hours in advance.
Filling
The key ingredients in a classic spanakopita recipe are spinach (or other leafy greens) and feta cheese. Erie taught me to use fresh greens, but I discovered that I can fit a lot more greens in if I lightly steam them first, then roughly chop. You can also use frozen spinach – thawed first and completely strained. Squeeze ALL liquid out or you will have a soggy spanakopita (bleh). I generally prefer to use greens I’ve freshly picked from the garden, and lots of them. Swiss Chard, Amaranth, assorted other garden greens like tatsoi or bok choi – or whatever you have on hand.
To add flavour: dill, onions and garlic. I use a LOT of dill – at least a full cup, depending on how big the batch is. I also use garlic and onion. I know some people use parsley, I don’t. No particular reason except that Erie – didn’t.
To bind all ingredients together: eggs.
I never use salt because the feta cheese is quite salty already, but I do like pepper.
OLIVE OIL. Because you must. Spanakopita cannot be spanakopita without olive oil.
* I have seen people put olive oil in the filling – I don’t do that. I use it all on the pastry.
In the picture in back: eggs. Left to right: olive oil, at least 1 cup, crumbled feta, freeze dried chopped onions* and minced garlic, loose Italian parsley (I don’t generally add parsley but I picked it for another dish and I had some left over so I added it), chopped fresh dill.
SPANAKOPITA
– Enough for a 9×15 glass baking dish
Ingredients:
– package of phyllo pastry, thawed at least 6 hours. I usually take it out of the freezer the night before and thaw in the fridge. Set it on the counter while you assemble your filling, BUT DON’T TAKE OUT OF ITS WRAPPING, otherwise it will dry out.
– green leafy vegetables: spinach, Swiss Chard, spinach, Asian greens of all sorts, lambs quarters, amaranth (pig weed), orach, . . . . usually I use an assortment of whatever I can find ready in my garden. You can even add a little bit of kale. The more you use, the thicker your pie will be with beautiful, wholesome GREENS! I shoot for at least 10 cups of finished steamed greens.
– 3 or 4 eggs (depending on how much green you’re using)
– 2 or 3 cups feta cheese, crumbled (depending on how much green you’re using)
– LOTS of fresh dill weed (1-2 cups finely chopped)
– 2 to 4 cloves garlic minced
– 1 large onion chopped (in this picture I used freeze dried onions because I didn’t have any fresh garden onions on hand)
– 1 Tablespoon pepper (you can use less if you’re not a huge pepper fan). NO salt.
– olive oil, probably about a cup(ish).
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wash greens and set aside to steam or blanch. Fill clean sink with COLD water to plunge your steam greens in to stop the cooking process. Use ice if desired.
2. Heat a large skillet over high flame, to steam your greens in. Add one cup water and bring it to a boil.
3. Coarsely chop washed greens and add large handfuls to the HOT water in skillet. Cover with lid to steam, and cook JUST TILL vegetables become a brilliant bright green. Don’t over cook, you’re just looking for it to be slightly wilted. Remove from heat and plunge into cold water to cool quickly.
4. Repeat till all the greens are steamed and cooled. Strain well, and roughly chop again. Be sure to squeeze all remaining water out of them.
5. Add strained greens to a large bowl for mixing, and set aside.
6. In the same skillet, wipe out the water and heat a 1/3 cup olive oil. Saute chopped onion and minced garlic till soft and translucent. Add to bowl of cooled, strained greens.
7. In a small bowl beat the eggs and add to greens and toss to thoroughly combine by hand.
8. Crumble feta cheese, and add to bowl of greens, add chopped dill and black pepper. Toss by hand to thoroughly combine.
9. Pour about a cup of olive oil in a shallow bowl that you can dip your hand into. Unroll your
Assembling your masterpiece:
10. Lightly brush oil over the inside of baking dish. Place two to three sheets of phyllo dough in the pan folded over in half to fit; use a pastry brush or your hand in oil to lightly brush the oil onto pastry. Repeat this step with 5 or more phyllo sheets (use at least 6 layers, I usually use half the package of phyllo). Plan to wipe oil over top every 2nd or 3rd layer of single ply door.
11. Spread the mixture of greens evenly over the phyllo sheets, gently patting down. I usually end up with about 2 inches deep of greens. The more the better, they’ll still cook down a bit.
12. Cover the vegetable-cheese layer with remaining phyllo sheets, brushing each one with olive oil. Tuck the excess phyllo dough into the edges. Make sure the top is brushed completely with oil.
13. * optional: you can use a knife to score the top of the phyllo (don’t cut all the way through, just through the top phyllo sheets) to create about 12 – 15 pieces.
14. Bake in preheated 350F oven for 45-60 minutes or until the phyllo turns golden brown. If its browning too quickly, cover loosely with tin foil for the last 15 or so minutes. Remove from oven and allow it to set 15-30 minutes to set up. Then, finish cutting into pieces.
15. You can enjoy this dish warm, or as leftovers at room temperature or even cold.
If you didn’t use all the pastry, wrap any remaining phyllo layers back up and put into original package to refrigerate.
They don’t last very long in the fridge. I usually simply divide the package in half for top and bottom, and use the whole package in one large recipe. Or if you have enough, make a smaller dish in addition to the large one.
I’ve been making this dish since about 1990, and at the beginning Dan wasn’t a big fan. That suited me just find; he’d have a piece at supper and that was that. I wrapped the remaining pieces individually in plastic to take for lunch the rest of the week. When Mom moved in, we did pretty much the same thing, with slightly less leftover.
I recommend serving it NOT hot so the filling sticks together better.
One day at dinner, Dan had a second piece – he claimed he was “starting to really like it“. But I had a system, and in my system there was no room for Dan to start “really liking it“. I told him so, but we had turned a corner – never to turn the clock back. Dan is usually a little more reluctant to try new foods than I am. Nevertheless, he had turned that corner and I needed to adjust to having less leftovers. I always tell people that “Dan is allergic to anything ‘green’. He thinks if green food touches his fork he’ll die.” This is only half joking. When I met him the only thing green he’d eat was iceberg lettuce (hardly green), and fresh peas (if he himself stood in his grampa’s pea patch). He’s come a lonnnnnng way baby!
I make spanakopita as often as I can in the summer time, using whatever green leafy vegetables are ready in my garden. But I specifically grow swiss chard for that reason. I think of Erie K. every time I do, and I am grateful to her for teaching me how to make it. It truly has become a household favourite. I started making it because I loved it, and one by one over the years, each individual in our family went from thinking it was okay to acquiring a serious taste for spanakopita. Even Dan!
I hope you’ll give this dish a try, Please let me know how it works out.
Enjoy!
Cindy Suelzle
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