Spinach Pie: Spanakopita Simple and Easy

We love spinach pie or spanako­pita at our house. Every­one will eat it at least 2 serv­ings. Even the kids, because it is to DIE FOR. There is some­thing about fresh and sim­ple ingre­di­ents in it that leaves you want­ing more. Seri­ously, once make your own spinach pie you will never go for any­thing less than a fresh spinach pie. There is no “UGH, SPINACH?” Instead it’s “OH, YES!! SPINACH PIE!!” It’s also very easy to make, my hus­band & I have been mak­ing it now for sev­eral years.

What you need:

1 Cup Dill (large hand­ful or a bunch)
1 1/2 Cup Flat Pars­ley (a bunch)
2 Bags Spinach at 10 ounces each (20 ounces total)
Olive Oil to “sweat” spinach with about a Table­spoon
1 Cup Green Onion
12 ounces Feta Cheese
1 Egg
Salt to Taste
Pep­per to Taste
10 sheets Phyllo Dough
1 full stick of But­ter (you’ll melt this)

You can also add a chopped clove of gar­lic and a dash of nut­meg if it suits your fancy.

Cook for 45 min­utes (until the top is brown) on 350 degrees

Alrighty…while your oven is preheating.

Put the spinach in a pan with some olive oil. AND I will admit it that the steamy, wilty and “sweaty” spinach with olive oil doesn’t look the best. But I will tell you that looks can be deceiving.

Chop it and you will add the fresh chopped dill, flat pars­ley, and green onions to it.

Behold the power of feta cheese. I could eat it by the truck loads, it’s dan­ger­ously good stuff. Add that into your bowl.

Then add some salt & pep­per to taste and your egg (beat the egg before adding it). Now is also the time to add your gar­lic & nut­meg if you roll that way.

Mix it & the fresh aroma starts to come together in such a way that you will have to stop your­self from sali­vat­ing over the bowl. Fresh dill, pars­ley, and green onion smell have this beau­ti­fully crisp scent against the feta and spinach.

You will take your but­ter & melt it. Then brush some on the bot­tom of your bak­ing dish before you ever put any of the phyllo dough in the dish. Then layer your dough, between each layer you will brush with but­ter. About 5 lay­ers on the bottom.

YES, it is a good amount of but­ter, but if you ask me it’s worth it. The fat from the but­ter with the feta rounds out the greens and herbs. I also believe the world is a bet­ter place because of but­ter, but that’s just me.

OK, on to adding the fill­ing to the dish.

Fin­ish with about 5 more lay­ers of phyllo dough, again but­ter between each layer. But­ter glis­ten­ing in the light, oh sweet heav­enly but­ter. Oh, butter…wait, what was I doing again? Oh, yeah spinach pie.

See how nice and brown it looks after cook­ing in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 min­utes. And the crunch is spectacular.

Tagged as: cooking, food and drink, home & garden, homecooking, homemade, meatless, recipe, spanakopita, spinach pie, vegetarian