I’m not proud of it, but I made a Spinach Pie with a Filo Crust. If my Golf Buddies find out, I’m toast. They don’t like playing with Snowflakes.
But even Manly Men like Popeye the Sailor like spinach and I had a spinach craving. Spinach is one of those rich vegetables that needs a little help, otherwise it can be too much of a good thing.
I was shuffling through recipes and saw one for Spinach Pie with a Filo Crust. I had never much worked with Filo other than those little cups for appetizers, but how hard could it be?
And I chose a Filo Crust because it has about a million less calories than a standard pie crust. Naturally, I altered the recipe a bit, but it turned out pretty well. Even Nancy liked it.
Here’s the Spinach Pie scoop, as best I can remember.
Frozen Filo Crust comes 2 rolls to the package, so take one out and let it get to room temperature (about the time it takes to drink two cocktails.)
In a large skillet with a couple T of olive oil, sauté ½ C chopped onions and 2 cloves of minced garlic for about 7 or 8 minutes, then add a package of fresh spinach and cook down until it just turns dark green, don’t overdo it.
Add salt and pepper to taste, remove from the heat and check out the Filo. If it’s unthawed, the job begins. Start by spraying a pie plate with Canola Oil Spray. Then get a few sheets of Filo (2 or 3 ply) and place it in the plate so that most is on the bottom of the plate, but a few inches of the dough hangs over the side. Brush each of the sheets with a little olive oil and place the oil side up. Continue going around the side of the plate with the sheets until you have the laid the crust all around the pie plate. Back to the stove. Add a 5 oz. pkg. of Feta cheese to the spinach mixture, mix well and pour it into the pie plate. Now fold all the crust edges back to the center of the pie. It will look like a mess, but it works out. Put the pie in a 350 oven and cook about 30 minutes, until the crust is a golden brown.
If you tell anybody I told you how to make a Spinach Pie, I’ll tell them you lied.
1 pound package fresh spinach
½ C chopped onions
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic
5 Oz pkg Feta Cheese
1 roll Filo Frozen Crust