Greek Spinach Pie-spanakopita Recipe

Spanakopita is an all year round great Greek dish. Spanakopita means spinach pie and the dish is included in every Greek restaurant menu as well as in every Greek family dinner table at least once a week. To make spanakopita from scratch means that you will have to make the filling as well as the crust or in other words the phyllo. To make both the spanakopita filling as well as the phyllo you will need to different sets of ingredients. First, lets list the ingredients for the phyllo and then for the spanakopita filling. To make the phyllo you will need: ½ kg of flour, ½ a cup of oil, 1 cup of water, 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of vinegar and some sesame seeds. To make the filling you will need 1kg of spinach, 2 whole leeks, 4 fresh onions, 1 bunch of dill, 3 eggs, 250gr of feta, salt, pepper and 1 cup of oil. Lets first start with the spanakopita filling. To make the spanakopita filling we first have to clean the spinach and the leek. Wash both the spinach and the leek well and chop them into not so fine pieces. Then chop up the dill and the onions. Make sure you chop the onions in fine pieces so they get caramelized properly. In order to make the spanakopita you ought to follow the next step of the process which is to place the olive oil in a pot. Let the oil heat up and sauté the onions, the leek, the dill, and the spinach. Add salt and pepper to your liking, taste the mixture if necessary. After the salt is added, the onions are caramelized and the spinach has wilted lower the temperature and leave the spanakopita ingredients for a few minutes to dry up. Don’t add any water at this point. It is important to let everything sit and dry up for a bit. Then take the pot off the stove and after it has cooled off add some crumbled feta as well as the beaten eggs. At this point the filling for the spanakopita is pretty much prepared. Remember that you don’t necessarily have to make the filling first. You can manage your time and process accordingly. Aside from the filling, you will have to also make the phyllo. The process to make the phyllo is the same for every kind of pita. In order to make the phyllo for the spanakopita you ought to follow the following process. To do so you will need to use a bowl. Empty the flour in a bowl and in the middle of the bowl we create a little hole in which you add the salt, the oil, the vinegar, and slowly add the water. Knead well and make the dough in to a single ball. Let the spanakopita phyllo dough ball sit for about half an hour.


Make sure you cover the dough with a cloth to protect it. After you let the dough sit, separate it into four parts. Take each part, each smaller ball and open them up flat out. Take one of the opened phyllo layers and place them in an oiled up pan, on the bottom of the pan. It is imperative to make sure that every phyllo piece matches the size of the pan you will use to bake your spanakopita. Also make sure that every single phyllo layer is not thick. You might end up with more than four phyllo pieces depending on how thick they are. That is fine. The more pieces you get the crunchier your pita will be. Take a small cooking brush and proceed to oil up the phyllo layer you just placed on the pan. Then place a second phyllo piece over the first one. You might have more phyllo pieces at this point, save them for the top. Make sure you oil up every single piece of phyllo you plce on the pan. This way the phyllo for your spanakopita wont stick. After you place a couple of solid phyllo pieces on the bottom of the pan then spread the filling evenly on top. Proceed by covering the filling with more phyllo pieces. Remember to oil them up individually. On the final one you can spread some sesame seeds if you like. Place your Greek spanakopita in a preheated oven for about an hour.

By: Constantine Jameson

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Eat healthy learn a few Greek recipes. Greed food is healthy and easy to prepare in most cases. Learn how to make spanakopita, the recipe Greek spinach pie