“Easy as Pie” Spanakopita

  

As many of you know, I had to take a two-week break from any kind of cooking while my family relocated to a new kitchen- I mean house.  When we FINALLY unpacked the new kitchen, we had gained a collective 20 lbs from 2 weeks of restaurant eating, and we were in desperate need of something easy and nutrient dense.  So wah-la!  This tasty pie is packed with TWO POUNDS of spinach (that makes up for 14 days without any greens, right?), three eggs for protein, nutritional yeast for some veggie B-vitamins, and is made with spray oil- making it easy AND lower in fat than your traditional pastry. 

 

Afraid of Filo?  I was too, until I worked with it using Pam instead of the basting brush and oil method.  Try it once and you will no longer be intimidated!

 

To make this dairy-free, substitute crumbled tofu for the feta and add salt or Tamari as needed for flavor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“EASY AS PIE” SPANAKOPITA – serves 6

 

Make Ahead and Make it Easy

This dish can be made ahead in two ways.  You can make the whole thing, bake it for 30 minutes and freeze.  When it’s dinner time take it out of the freezer and bake it again for about 45-60 minutes.

 

Or, you can make the filling a few days ahead and when you are ready to finish the dish just throw the filling in the dish with the filo and bake.

 

Ingredients

• 8 sheets filo pastry, defrosted 2 hours at room temp or 8 hours in the fridge (do not open the package, just defrost the whole packet)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 8 scallions, chopped
• 2 lbs fresh spinach, chopped
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp dried dill
• 6 oz feta or tofu, crumbled
• 3 Tbs nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper to taste
• Spray cooking oil (such as Pam)

How to make it

1. Heat oven to 375.
2. Heat oil in a large dutch oven or pot and saute scallions for 2 minutes.
3. Add spinach to pot, stir, and cover.  Lower heat to medium-low and let cook for 10 minutes until wilted.  This will look like a LOT of spinach and it is- but it will reduce in volume by 90%.
4. While the spinach is cooking, beat the eggs and dill in a separate large bowl.
5. Add the feta or tofu to the egg mixture and stir in the nutritional yeast.  Add salt and pepper (if you are using feta beware it is already salty).
6. When the spinach is done, drain it for a couple of minutes in a colander and then add it to the egg mixture and stir it up.
7. Spray a 10-inch pie dish with the cooking spray.
8. Open the filo, unroll it, and pull of one sheet.  Place it in the dish with the edges overhanging and lightly spry with oil.  Dont worry if you accidentally get two sheets stuck together, or if it tears.  Filo is VERY forgiving.
9. Repeat until there are 4 layers of filo in the dish.
10. Spread the spinach mixture into the dish, and top with 4 more layers of filo and spray.
11. Cut around the edges of the filo as you like and roll the edges up into the dish.
12. Bake for 45 minutes and enjoy!