Greek Spinach & Herb Pie (Without Cheese) A.k.a. Spanakopita

Submitted by Debbwl

"Spanakopita can be made with or with out cheese. The no cheese version is as popular with Greeks as the version with cheese, and is a popular Lenten dish. Although the name for this dish is often used for the spinach pie with cheese, traditional spanakopita does not include cheese.**Cooking time does not include the 30 minutes it needs to sit before serving.**"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 10mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 2 lbs fresh spinach, washed
• 1⁄2 cup fresh dill, finely chopped
• 1⁄2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 4 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1⁄2 medium leek, finely chopped
• Pam cooking spray
• 1⁄2 lb phyllo pastry sheet (approx. 14 sheets)
• sea salt, to taste
• fresh ground pepper, to taste

directions

1. Coarsely chop spinach and place in a colander. Salt lightly and let drain for 10 minutes. Press or squeeze to remove all excess liquid.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine spinach, dill, parsley, garlic, onions, leek, pepper, and mix well until ingredients are well blended.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
4. Spray 9" round or square pyrex plate with cooking spray. When laying the sheets in the pan, leave an overlap of phyllo outside the pan rim all the way around. Lay half the phyllo sheets on the bottom, spraying each one lightly with Pam cooking spray.
5. Spoon in the spinach mixture and spread evenly. Fold the extending phyllo in over the mixture. Lay the remaining phyllo sheets on top, spraying each with cooking oil except the top sheet. Tuck or tim eadges. I like to kind of ruffle mine.
6. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45-50 minutes in the middle of the oven. When done, remove from the oven and allow to cool 1/2 hour before serving.

Reviews

[Linky]

After I got the spinach out of the fridge, I realized that I had a 12oz. package instead of the two pounds called for. Also, had no leeks or green onions. Made it anyway, using close to 1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion. Also, only had dried parsley and dill, so I "guesstimated" how much to use. Everyone loved it - those who wanted cheese, sprinkled some feta crumbles on top, but it wasn't really necessary. One friend has already requested this again - hmm, her birthday is next month... Did I mention we all LOVED this? made for ZWT9 Soup a Stars

 

[alvinakatz]

For a vegan version of spanakopita, this is pretty good. I guess I just like mine better with some sort of binder in the filling. I was worried about the quantity of dill, but it turned out to be just right. I would have liked to have a higher ratio of filo dough for this amount of filling. Next time I would double the filo dough and use about 3/4 of the amount of filling. Taste was fine though. 4 diverse adults ate this for dinner and we all agreed on this assessment of the dish.