Monday 29 March 2010

Spanakopita- a Greek savory pastry

I am not an ardent fan of Greek food, but from the one time I tried it, the only dish that impressed me was the Spanakopita. Did some research online and I had to make it part of one of our Saturday brunch sessions...which btw is my favourite meal of the week. You can make them like small filo parcels, but I went ahead and made a pie. I am not in a mood to ramble, so here goes:

Spinach- 500 gms (washed and blanched)
Egg- 1
Feta Cheese- 120gms
Onion- 1, roughly chopped
Garlic- 2 pods, roughly chopped
Filo Pastry sheets- 6 to 8
Melted butter- 1/4 cup for brushing the filo
Olive oil- 1 tbsp
Sat and Pepper- to taste

Preheat the oven to 180C
In a frying pan, heat the oil and sauté onions and garlic till light brown. Add the blanched spinach and sauté for a few more minutes. Season with salt and pepper and keep aside.
Whisk the egg in a mixing bowl and add the cooked mix. Crumble the feta cheese over this and mix till well combined. Its ok if the feta cheese is still lumpy in a few places.
Assembling: Grease a baking dish with butter and place 4 filo pastry sheets on top of each other, generously greasing after each layer, except the last one. Spread the spinach filling over the pastry evenly and cover with the remaining 4 sheets, again following the same procedure of buttering each layer before you put another on top. This time, go ahead and grease the lastpastry as well..so that the buttery top gives a nice golden brown colour.
Bake for about 40 minutes. Remove and leave to cool for a while and then cut into squares and serve with a salad.
Notes: If you want to serve it as a starter, you can make filo parcels instead..like how we roll for spring rolls or samosa with the spinach and feta as filling.
You can replace feta with ricotta cheese.
be careful while you take the filo pastry sheets, it can easily tear and even worse become dry..so have a wet towel ready and keep covering it to keep it moist

I am sending this to the AWED Event hosted by Curry Leaf where the theme for this month is Greek Food. Kudos to DK who kick-started this event. I am also sending it to Dil Se who is hosting this months Healing Foods Event, an event started by Siri's Corner, and the theme is Spinach.

18 comments:

Ms.Chitchat said...

Interesting, new to me.Sounds tasty too.

Pointblank said...

U are already a veteran di... participating in events and all.. -;)

Trendsetters said...

having prob viewing the pics...some prob with my blogger i guess...it sounds very tasty....

Gomathy S said...

I'm coming to know about various Greek Foods now.. this sounds good..

Sarah Naveen said...

wow!!! love it...looks so yummy and nice and easy recipe..

Hayley said...

Looks delicious and crispy! Got some filo pastry in the fridge,I'll give a go..

Unknown said...

It looks delicious..Great Recipe!

Simplyfood said...

This greek pie looks so crispy and delicious combination of feta and spinach.

Sanchita said...

Crispy on top, soft and moist inside. With a glass of white wine its Heaven!
BTW, thanks for dropping by my blog. I am glad that you liked my photos.

Namitha said...

Great recipe..never tried this one..But i like Greek dishes, well, whatever I've tasted so far..lol..

Cool Lassi(e) said...

Dear,
Spanakopita is one of my favorite appetizers that I always have in the freezer. I am a bit clumsy dealing with the phyllo pastry ..its too delicate and requires a lot of TLC..never attempted to make it at home.You make it look easy.

Cicily Antony said...

new to me...liked the name...

shriya said...

Never tasted it before totally new to me. But recipe sound interesting. Nice click.

Tina said...

Yummy yummy..

Priya Suresh said...

Such a beautiful,delicious and healthy spanakopita...looks awesome..

Unknown said...

Love the dish.It is indeed hearty and I have tried the parcel version before.Greek cuisine has lots of vegetarian/vegan dishes.Hope you may start liking some of these now that you have made & loved spanakopita.Cheers & Thanks for the hearty entry.

Miriam Korula said...

nish...u always come up with such interesting dishes...spinach n' feta cheese is great combination....i recently had some lebanese bread with this filling n' loved how light it felt...:)...it's great you are participating in so many events too...

Unknown said...

Thanks for dropping by my blog. Amazing recipes you have. And yeah you could send in non-veg entries for the global kadai event.