Day 41: Spanokopites

It was Tia's birthday (my husband's great aunt) last week and we are getting together with the family tomorrow after church to celebrate! Tia is the sweetest and kindest woman around and I absolutely adore this woman. It just so happens that she has tried my Spanokopites (spinach pies) before and really likes them, so I'm making them for part of tomorrow's lunch. 

Spanokopites are Greek spinach pies that have onions, a little garlic, and some cheese as the filling and is wrapped in buttery and flaky phyllo dough. I love phyllo dough so much that I eat if I have any scraps while wrapping, I just dunk it right in the butter and eat it- don't judge me, it's delicious.

You can either make a Spanokopita- which is a 9X13 baking pan whole spinach pie that you cut after baking or Spanokopites- which are individually wrapped spinach pies.

I personally enjoy the Spanokopites because that means more crispy buttery phyllo dough in every bite but my yiayia (grandmother) always makes the Spanokopita and it's delicious. It's all personal preference. 

Cooking Greek food always makes me think of my family. I love that the aromas of food can bring me closer to them, even when I'm far away. I always take the opportunity to call my yiayia before cooking just to make sure I have the recipe down and that I don't forget anything. It's also a good way to take notes and try to figure out all of her tips and secrets!

This recipe is a combination of three different recipes and this is my favorite variation so far. Previously, there was either too much cheese or not enough spinach... it just wasn't right. But this time, I feel like I finally mastered this recipe! Let's see what my husband's family thinks about them tomorrow. 

Hope you enjoy :)

*Ingredients

2 11 oz packs of fresh spinach

1/2 large Vadalia onion (or 1 small)

1 small shallot

1 bunch scallions

2 TBS olive oil 

2-3 small cloves garlic, minced

2 eggs

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp oregano

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 roll out of a pack of phyllo dough

about 1 cup fresh homemade cheese or 3/4 cup whole fat ricotta cheese

*Directions

Chop your onions finely and place in saute pan with 2 TBS olive oil. Cook for 5-10 minutes until soft and translucent. Season with salt and pepper and add your minced garlic; cook for one minutes until fragrant. 

Add the fresh spinach, half of a pack at a time. It seems like a lot but the spinach will wilt down while cooking. Once the spinach cooks and reduces add another half of the spinach. Continue to do this until you've cooked all your spinach. 

Place a strainer in your sink and pour the spinach and onions in the strainer. Let the spinach cool in the strainer and drain excess oil and liquids from spinach. 

Once spinach is drained and cooled, add spinach to a large mixing bowl. Add feta cheese, homemade cheese, eggs, onion powder, garlic powder, and oregano. Stir to combine and season according to your taste if need be.

Once combined, open your phyllo dough. Open the packet and cut the phyllo dough the size you would like your spanokopites to be. This time, I wanted smaller ones so I made about 5 sections out of the sheet of phyllo dough. Once your sections are cut, only keep out the dough you are immediately working with, phyllo dough dries out very quickly and you don't want it to break or crack. I like to make three layers of phyllo dough for these spanokopites. I think it's a good phyllo to spinach ratio. When the sections are cut, place one layer of phyllo dough on a piece of wax paper. Using a brush, dunk the brush in melted butter and lightly coat the first layer of phyllo dough. Grab another piece of phyllo and place it on top of the buttered phyllo. Lightly coat that layer with butter as well. Finally, add the third layer of phyllo dough but do not butter it.

Get a spoon and put about a TBS of spinach in the right hand bottom corner. If you've ever made a paper football back in the day at school, this is exactly what you're doing. You grab the bottom right hand corner and flip is diagonally, to make a triangle. Then from the left side, you do the opposite and flip it to the right and so on until it is a triangle. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Add your spanokopites to the baking sheet and lightly butter the tops of your triangles. Cook for about 15-25 minutes, depending on size, until golden brown.

Enjoy!