Spanakopita – Greek Spinach pie

I’ve recently rekindled my love for Pinterest (you can follow me here) and was inspired by a recipe.

I tweaked the recipe somewhat and here it is…

Ingredients:
3 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 chopped shallot
1 tspn chopped garlic
1/2 large bag of frozen chopped spinach (about 450 g)
1/2 tub of low fat onion and chive cottage cheese
4 or 5 sprigs of fresh mint (chopped)
3 eggs
1/2 block crumbled feta
1 box of Just Janet “Ready to Roll” puff pastry

Utensils you will need:
Mixing bowl
Colander
Pie dish

Traditionally, Spanakopita is usually made with Filo pastry but that’s a bit fiddly, plus the puff pastry was on offer, and I love a bargain!

Often, Ricotta is used, but I happened to have cottage cheese in the fridge, and I wanted to use what I had.

So…

1. First, thaw out the spinach, and then squeeze all of the water out over a colander.

2. Pre heat your oven to 190 degrees (fan assisted)

3. Chop the shallot and garlic (or use ready chopped if you’re lazy, hey, I won’t judge!)

4. Fry this off in some of the extra virgin olive oil

5. Mix in a bowl the spinach, chopped mint leaves, fried shallot and garlic, cottage cheese, feta, olive oil, and two of the eggs (beaten)

6. Use a little olive oil to grease the pie dish

7. Pull the pastry out of the box, if you are a smart cookie and got the ready rolled stuff, you can just place it over the pie dish, if not, you’ll need to put some flour down and get the rolling pin out!

8. Spoon the spinach mixture onto the pastry in the pie dish, and then fold the excess pastry from the sides over the top of the filling

9. Beat the last egg and using a pastry brush, brush over the pastry

Place in the oven for 45 minutes until pastry is cooked through and golden.

Let it stand for a few minutes and then serve.

Serving suggestions:

For meat eaters you could serve with slow cooked lamb, paprika chicken or moussaka and salad.

For pescatarians you could serve with a Mediterranean cod bake or sea bass with salad or vegetables.

For vegetarians you could serve with salad, slaw, olives, a tomato based bean stew or a spiced rice dish.

I personally had it as a stand alone dish with a simple salad.