To stop the filo drying out, keep the sheets covered with a damp cloth while you work.
1 hr
Not Too Tricky
serves 8
About the recipe
A cracking combination of creamy feta and spinach packed into flaky filo and baked to perfection makes this pie straight-up delicious. Enjoy with a simple salad.
Ingredients
1kg frozen spinach
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
1 lemon
100g feta cheese
½ a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley (15g)
½ a bunch of fresh dill (15g)
200g natural yoghurt
4 large free-range eggs
1 x 275g pack filo pastry
10g Cheddar cheese
Top Tip
Filo pastry is a delicious, lighter alternative to puff or shortcrust, and the perfect casing for this veg-packed filling.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
- Defrost 1kg of frozen spinach and squeeze out some of the excess water.
- Peel and finely slice 2 onions and 2 cloves of garlic, then fry in a large non-stick pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 10 minutes, or until softened and sweet.
- Stir in the spinach, then add a good grating of nutmeg and finely grate over the zest of 1 lemon. Crumble in 50g of feta cheese and season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.
- Pick and roughly chop ½ a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley (15g) and ½ a bunch of fresh dill (15g), then stir half into the spinach mixture.
- In a bowl, whisk the remaining 50g of feta with 200g of natural yoghurt and 4 large eggs until well mixed.
- Working one at a time, lay a sheet of filo pastry on a clean worktop, brush with a little olive oil and spread with a little spinach mixture. Roll into a long sausage shape and place in a 30cm x 40cm baking dish. Repeat until all the filo (275g in total) and spinach is used up and the baking dish is filled with neat rows of filo.
- Pour over the egg mixture, brush with olive oil, then finely grate over 10g of Cheddar. Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden.
- Scatter the remaining herbs over the top, and serve.
You can use any soft or hard cheese you like, such as goat’s cheese or red Leicester. Have fun experimenting!
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