Opah! The Greek God of Spanakopita smiled down favorably this week here in Wisconsin, providing tender green spin
ach along with the first of our dill — which means it’s spinach pie time. The Greeks sure know how to pack in the healthy, iron punch with an abundance of greens alongside poignant feta cheese. And while spinach pie can be made just fine with frozen spinach, you just can’t beat the tender flavor of fresh.
Like other mainstay international dishes, this Greek dish has various versions — and spellings: “Spanakopita” for “spinach pie” and “spanakotyropita” for the more detailed “spinach and cheese pie.” But the short gist is an abundant bowl of cooked spinach and herbs mixed with feta and eggs, nestled in between buttered layers of phyllo. By accident once, we bought puff pastry sheets instead of phylo dough which worked surprisingly well. Combinations of spinach and Swiss chard work equally well.
Harvest those local greens and enjoy!
Recipe after the jump.
Spanakopita
Ingredients:
2 lbs. fresh spinach (about 5 c. frozen)
1 large onion, finely chopped
¼ c. olive oil
1 lb. finely crumbled feta cheese
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3 t. dried dill
½ lb. phyllo pastry dough sheets
(defrosted)
½ c. butter, melted (1 stick)
Directions:
* Wash fresh spinach, pat dry and chop fine.
* Sauté onion in olive oil until soft and slightly browned. Add spinach and simmer to remove excess moisture.
* Crumble cheese and mix in eggs and dill. Combine with spinach mixture until well blended.
* Line a 9-in. x 13-in. pan with 10 buttered sheets of phyllo. Pour in spinach-cheese mixture. Top with 8 buttered sheets of phyllo.
* Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until top is golden brown.
Serves 8.
From Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity
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Lisa Kivirist
Lisa Kivirist embodies the growing “ecopreneuring” movement: innovative entrepreneurs who successfully blend business with making the world a better place. Lisa is co-author, with her husband, John Ivanko, of Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the Good Life, capturing the American dream of farm living for contemporary times. Her latest release, ECOpreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet Before Profits is a compact, dynamic tool kit for a fresh approach to entrepreneurial thinking, blending passion for protecting and preserving the planet with small business pragmatics. As a W.K. Kellogg Food & Society Policy Fellow and Director of the Rural Women's Project, Lisa champions a voice for women farmers and rural ecopreneurs through media, speaking and advocacy work. Lisa runs the award-winning Inn Serendipity Bed and Breakfast in southwest Wisconsin, completely powered by renewable energy and considered amongst the “Top Ten Eco-Destinations in North America.” Her culinary focus on local and seasonal cuisine – with most ingredients traveling less than 100 feet from her organic gardens to B&B plates – earned recognition in publications from Vegetarian Times to Country Woman and inspired her cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity. In addition to feature writing for publications such as Hobby Farm Home, Mother Earth News and Wisconsin Trails, Lisa is the lead writer for Renewing the Countryside, a non-profit organization showcasing rural entrepreneurial and agricultural success stories. Lisa also penned Kiss Off Corporate America: A Young Professional’s Guide to Independence. Lisa shares her farm with her husband, their young son, a 10kw wind turbine and a colony of honeybees.
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[...] dishes we can’t seem to get enough of that, ideally, use up a lot of a certain stockpiled item. Spanikotpita, the Green spinach pie dish, uses a whopping five cups of packed, frozen spinach or Swiss chard, so [...]