I love Spanakopita. One of the first restaurants I worked at was a greek restaurant and that is where I fell in love with spinach pie. A flaky crust stuffed with a delicious spinach, feta and dill filling. It is addicting! The last time I had it, I was on the beautiful island of Santorini. There was nothing like eating this over looking the Caldera. Since becoming gluten and dairy free I thought I might not be able to eat this again. But hooray, I found the most delicious gluten free puff pastry! Finally I was able to make my version of Gluten free spinach pie. It was better then I remembered! I hope you all will enjoy this as much as me.
Tips For Making Gluten Free Spinach Pie
Puff Pastry
This all started with finding gluten free puff pastry. Schars is an Italian company that focuses on making gluten free bread, cookies, crusts, ex. This has changed my view on gluten free products. Their products are moist and chewy. This puff pastry can be found in your gluten free, frozen food section in your grocery store.
You can also use regular puff pastry for this. Originally Spanakopita is made with Phyllo Dough which is thinner then puff pastry. Which gives it a flakier texture. Either will work for this dish but if you want to keep it gluten free you will have to use the Schars brand.
When you are ready to make your pie. Make sure you take your pastry out to thaw at least 3 hours and put it in the fridge before you use it. You will use both sheets.
Spinach Filling
Thaw and strain your frozen spinach out. Make sure you remove any extra water it may be holding. Put it into a large bowl. If you want to use fresh spinach you will have to cook roughly 4 cups of spinach and let it cool and strain.
Add in your chopped onions, garlic, lemon juice and zest, chopped parsley, seasonings, feta and beaten egg. Mix well.
Feta
This time around a tried a local dairy free feta from a place called The Herbivorous Butcher
I was very surprised at how well it melted in the pie. If you are unable to access this and you want it to be dairy free you can use Violife Feta Block.
Assembly
I like using a 10″ Springform pie pan
I use this pan because it’s easy to remove the walls and cut it when it’s done. However you can use any type of pan. You could also use a shallow baking dish.
Once your pastry is thawed roll it out to fit the bottom of your pan. Use a sharp knife to cut it in a circular shape. Take off the extra edges and add that to the space you need to fill on the pan and press it out.
Add the spinach mixture on top and spread it out evenly.
Take another piece of pastry and place in on top cutting it the same way you did with the bottom.
Using 2 tablespoons of olive oil, coat the top of the pastry using a brush.
Place in the oven for 55 minutes or until the pastry starts to brown.
Serve
When your pie is done, remove from the oven and let it cool. Remove the springform ring and cut into slices.
Gluten Free Spinach Pie
Equipment
- 10 inch springform pan
Ingredients
- 16 oz Frozen Chopped Spinach Thawed and well-drained
- 1 Bunch Fat-Leaf Parsley Stems trimmed, finely chopped
- ½ Yellow Onion Diced
- ¼ Cup Green Onion Chopped
- 2 Garlic Cloves Minced
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Tsp Nutmeg
- 1 Lemon Zested and 1 Tbsp Juice
- 1 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 4 Eggs Beaten
- 10 Oz Feta Cheese Crumbled For Vegan use Violife
- ¼ cup Fresh Dill Chopped
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Freshly-ground black pepper
- 17.6 Oz 2 Schar Puff Pastry Sheets
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Thaw out frozen spinach and squeeze out any excess liquid by hand.
- To make the filling: In a mixing bowl, add the spinach and the remaining filling ingredients. Stir until all is well-combined.
- Unroll the 2 puff pastry sheets and place them between two very lightly damp kitchen cloths.
- Prepare a round pie pan or baking dish. Brush the bottom and sides of the dish with olive oil.
- To assemble the spanakopita: Line the baking dish with 1 sheet of pastry, cutting the leftover sides and using them to form a crust on the bottom of the pie pan.
- Add the spinach filling evenly on top of the puff pastry. Cover with a second sheet of pastry. Form around the pan. Brush with oil on top.
- Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F heated-oven for 55 minutes, or until the crust is crisp and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven. Let cool and cut into triangles.