Spanakopita, Greek Spinach & Feta Filo Pie

A surfeit of chard at the allotment led me to make this recipe. It is not the kids favourite ingredient, but feta and garlic are. And the filo pastry gave it a surprise crisps like topping. What's not to like?

Serves 4 

1 pack filo pastry

500g spinach or chard

300g feta

4 large free range eggs

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 tsp dried Greek oregano or thyme

1 coffee cup olive oil

Wash the spinach and roughly chop. Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a saucepan, cram the spinach in and wilt it. Turn off the heat and leave to cool whilst you prepare the rest of the filling.

Beat the eggs into a small mixing bowl. Crumble in the feta, and stir in the diced onion, garlic, and oregano.  Roughly chop the cooled wilted spinach some more if you like, and stir into the egg and cheese mixture. Season with pepper, and sparingly with salt as the feta is quite salty.

Brush a lasagna type baking dish, just smaller than your filo pastry sheets, with olive oil. Place the remaining filo sheets on a clean work surface and smear the first one with about 2 tbsp of olive oil. I started off brushing on oil but found didn't spread easily and found by far the most effective method was to smear the oil with my hands.

Smearing the top of each filo sheet one at a time, line your baking dish with about 1/3rd of the pastry. Overhanging pastry is fine, even desirable.

Once the baking dish is lined with about 1/3rd of the pastry, fill it with the spinach mixture. Then continue to oil the remaining filo sheets one by one and place them on top of the filling, wrinkly them up if necessary so they don't hang over the sides of the dish. Fold up any overhanging pastry and brush the top with a little extra oil.

Bake for 40 minutes at 180C, or until the top is a deep golden brown.

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