Cooking Venture -- Greek-Style Spinach Pie

Spinach is one of the first things we harvest in the spring-time here. It is very tolerant of cold weather, and when planted under cloches or in a cold-frame, you can get a very early harvest! It is so refreshing to have fresh greens after a long winter.

One of our favorite things to do with spinach in this house is to incorporate it into a variety of Greek and Mediterranean dishes. Our favorite, hands down, is spanikopita. The traditional version calls for many, many sheets of phyllo pastry and a lot of butter that's brushed between the pastry sheets. While it tastes fabulous (sometimes I swear I hear an angelic chorus when I take my first bite), it is loaded with a lot of fat. And the fat cells in my butt are the friendly sort, always welcoming to newcomers.

Soooo, after some experimentation, I have come up with a lower-fat version using pie crusts. Notice I did not say "fat-free", pie crust has enough lipid storage-inducing action of its own. But the fat content of the pie crust is still much, much lower than the traditional phyllo and butter combination. Without further ado, my perversion of Greek spinach pie:

Non-traditional Greek-style Spinach Pie

2 pounds fresh spinach -- washed, stemmed, and chopped
olive oil
1 medium onion -- finely chopped
1 bunch of green onions, or about 4 to 5 scallions -- finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh snipped dill
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
4 large eggs
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 to 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (if you have kefalotiri cheese, use that)
1/4 tsp salt, to taste (optional, depends on how salty your feta is)
freshly ground black pepper -- just a few grinds
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg -- a little goes a long way
crusts for a covered 9-inch pie (two pieces of pastry, one on top and one on bottom)


Preheat oven to 375 deg F.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet, over medium heat. Add onion and green onion/scallions, cook until softened (about 6 minutes).

Add chopped spinach a little at a time, cooking until wilted and liquid is released. Once all the spinach has been added to the pan (and this takes a few minutes), turn up the heat to "high" and cook until the liquid is gone and the spinach is fairly dry. Stir often to prevent burning!! The liquid evaporation will take about 10 minutes or so.

Add the dill and parsley, mix well. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Place spinach into colander and press to remove any excess liquid that might be in there.

In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the cooled spinach mixture, the feta, parmesan cheese, salt, a few grinds of black pepper, and the pinch of nutmeg. Mix well, ensuring the egg is completely incorporated (otherwise you'll get weird veins of scrambled egg in the middle of your spinach pie...just speaking from experience here).

Lightly grease a glass/ceramic pie dish with cooking oil. Place one crust on the bottom of the dish, making sure it fits on the bottom and up the sides, and filling in any holes or gaps. Put spinach/egg/cheese mixture into crust, spreading to evenly fill. I tend to make mine a little higher in the center and lower around the sides, but that's just my preference. Top with the other pie crust, sealing around the edges. Cut a few vent slits on the top of the pie with a sharp knife.

Bake for 45 minutes or so, or until your crust is golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

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NOTES: If you don't grow your own spinach, you can buy 2 of the 16-oz bags of fresh spinach at the market, or 3 of the 10-oz bags will get you close enough. I've also used 3 10-oz boxes of the frozen chopped spinach and it turns out just fine. DO NOT USE CANNED SPINACH, I can tell you from experience that it just does not work out well.

Also, you really do want to drain the cooked spinach mixture in a colander. This is important, because if there is extra liquid it makes the finished dish soggy and limp, and the crust is slimy. This goes for making it the traditional way with the phyllo, too. Removing all that liquid makes the dish have more body and a pleasing texture. You don't have to let it cool before doing this step, I just don't like to burn my hands. Allowing it to cool slightly also prevents the hot spinach from immediately cooking the eggs in the next step.

I have found that it is generally cheaper to buy a solid 8-oz block of feta and crumble it myself, than to purchase it already crumbled.

You can use dried herbs in place of the fresh ones, just use way less since dried herbs are so much stronger in flavor.

You can make your own pie crusts, or buy a box of 2 at the market.

My kids scarf this recipe, even my anti-vegetable son. He loves it!

Enjoy!