Spanakopita was always a favorite main dish at the Cottage. It is a traditional Greek spinach pie that tastes so good. The girls were always so happy to have their own Spanakopita that was mini-size just for them. Once you get the hang of it you can change up the ingredients and make it your own.
This is a really easy dish you can purchase phyllo sheets in your grocery store’s frozen foods department.
Leftover spanakopita will last for two or three days in the refrigerator. Cover it with foil and pop it in the oven or put it in the microwave for a delicious hot meal. We like to serve this with a big salad and eat it as a vegetarian dish main course but you it would make a great side dish as well.
What you will need:
- ​Flat work surface
Ingredients For The Filling
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- 16 oz frozen thawed spinach and well-drained or baby spinach
- 2 bunches of fresh parsley stems removed and minced
- 1 large sweet onion, chopped finely
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil (we use extra-virgin olive oil)
- 4 eggs
- 10.5 oz feta cheese, crumbled (we use our homemade)
- Freshly-ground black pepper
- Add a little salt (we like Himalayan pink salt)
The Spanakopita Dough
- Sheets of store-bought phyllo dough (filo pastry)
- 1/2 cup of melted butter
- or 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
Directions for Spanakopita
- Preheat the oven to 325 F
- Before you begin if you are using frozen spinach make sure that it is completely thawed and it is well drained. Squeeze out any extra water from it so your filling will not be so wet.
- Get your mixing bowl, place spinach in the bowl, and put in all of the rest of the ingredients with it.
- Stir until well mixed.
- Take your phyllo dough sheets from the freezer and thaw them.
- Carefully unroll the thawed phyllo sheets and place them between two damp towel or damp flour sack towels.
- Brush a casserole dish that is 9 ½” X 13″ on the bottom and all of the sides and sides of the dish with extra virgin olive oil or butter.
To assemble the Spanakopita:
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- On the bottom of your casserole pan place two sheets of phyllo pastry. Allow the puff pastry to cover the sides of the baking dish brushing them well with olive oil or butter.
- Get more of the sheet dough and add it in the same way brushing them also with a pastry brush with olive oil or butter.
- Repeat this process until 2/3 of the phyllo dough is used up.
- Take the spinach mixture and grab a large spoon. Scoop up the filling and Now, evenly spread the spinach and feta filling over the phyllo (fillo) crust. Top with two more sheets, and brush with olive oil.
- Continue to layer the phyllo (fillo) sheets, two at a time
- Make sure that you are brushing Phyllo sheets with extra virgin olive oil as you go.
- Brush the very top layer with olive oil
- Sprinkle the top with just a few drops of water.
- The excess Phyllo will need to have you fold them up over the top.
- Brush them with olive oil.
- If they are too long you can cut them with a pizza cutter
- You can now cut your Spanakopita partway through the upper parts of the dish but leave the lower edges alone. If you don’t want to do this now you can cut it later after done. The reason we cut them now is the phyllo dough is soft and later after baking you will have to cut through the flaky phyllo dough crust that will want to crumble.
- Heat oven to 325 degrees F
- Place the baking dish on a sheet pan to protect your oven just in case it leaks over the edge.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for 1 hour, or until the layers of flaky phyllo dough crust is crisp and golden brown.
- Remove it and the baking sheet from the oven onto a trivet
- At this point, you will finish cutting through the savory Greek spinach pie into squares and serve hot
Before you go, check out these other recipes
- Delicious Caesar Salad
- Easy Crusty Bread Recipe
- Perfect Herb-Roasted Chicken Recipe
- Delicious Three Bean Salad
- Khachapuri
- Garden Bounty Salad
- Delicious Tender Roasted Carrots Recipe
- Tender Garlic Seared Chuck Roast Recipe
Check out our YouTube Channel for more recipes
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