The only thing better than being on holiday? Plotting every last detail of it. Heading to Greece? Move the group chat to your dinner table and get on the spanakopita hustle. It’s the Greek filo pastry pie you probably recognise from being packed full of spinach and feta cheese. But- plot twist- it’s also traditionally made dairy-free during fasting periods, meaning this vegan take on a Grecian classic is an ideal fit for vegan pals.
By wrapping a rich spinach, vegan cheese, lemon and parsley filling in multiple layers of filo pastry, the end result takes on a wonderfully erratic surface and texture- at once both crunchy, brittle, chewy and soft. Bonus points are that it’s much easier to make than it looks.
While Spanish and Italian recipes get plenty of attention, Greece’s culinary heritage is something of an unsung hero. With oranges, olives, dates, almonds, pomegranates, figs, grapes and rice all grown across the country, Greece’s food is a great place to start if you’re looking for holiday inspiration, or, you know, just fancy eating your way through everything that’s delicious for a week.
For this spanakopita you can change the filling here to suit your own tastes- I’ve chosen to use vegan soft cheese but tofu with plenty of seasoning will also work just as well. In winter, you might want to take this recipe down a nutmeg and cracked black pepper route, but for summer, lemon juice, parsley and chilli feels about right.
Get your mates over on a weeknight, make sure they know it’s BYOB, and you can have this made in under an hour, for under a tenner.
Vegan Spanakopita
Serves 4 generously
Ingredients
Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped down small
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped small
2 red chillies, chopped small
2 spring onions, chopped small
Salt and pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
Around 600g of fresh baby spinach leaves, washed
250g of vegan soft cream cheese
100g vegan margarine, melted
1 pack of pre-made filo pastry, or about 12 sheets
2 tbsp sesame seeds
Serve with a chopped salad and tomatoes
What to do
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Use a large pan so as much liquid as possible can evaporate as you cook. Gently heat a little olive oil in the pan, and add in the chopped onions. Cook on a low heat for a few minutes until the onions start to soften.
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Add in the garlic, chillies and spring onions, and continue to cook for another five minutes until you can smell all the flavours coming together. Season with salt and pepper and add lemon juice.
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Working in small batches, roughly chop the spinach and add to the pan, stirring through the mixture. Cook each load of spinach down so it reduces, then add in another few handfuls of spinach until you’ve used it all. Make sure you’re letting the water from the spinach evaporate as you cook, so you don’t need to drain the mixture. By the time you’re done, it should be a rich, thick consistency.
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Tip in the vegan cheese and stir through. Check once more for seasoning- make sure you can taste the lemon juice and that there’s enough salt and pepper. Now turn off the heat spoon the mixture into a bowl to let it cool a little.
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Preheat the oven to 170°C
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Melt down the vegan margarine in the microwave or in a pan on the hob. This is what you’ll be using instead of butter to coat your filo pastry layers with. Using a pastry brush, grease an oven-proof dish or tray- ones that are about an A3 size of paper work really well for this.
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Grab the filo pastry out of the fridge. Find a clean tea towel and run it under the tap so it is damp. When you’re not using your filo pastry, wrap it in the towel so it doesn’t dry out.
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Cover the base of your pie dish in pastry, and brush over the melted margarine. Do this another three times - pay close attention to any pastry at the edges of the pan too- make sure it’s all really well covered. You want the filo pastry to overlap the oven dish so you can wrap it up at the end.
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Spoon in the pie filling and spread it out across the dish. Then fold over any over-lapping layers of filo pastry, and top with another four layers of filo pastry, covering in vegan margarine as you go- the more you add, the crunchier this will be.
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Finish your pie off with a final layer of margarine over the top, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for around 40 to 50 minutes- it’s a slow bake, and if it looks like the top has dried out a little, baste with a little more margarine around 10 minutes before the end of cooking.
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Serve straight from the oven, cut into large triangles, and eat alongside a huge fresh salad.
And, in case you need a little bit of help with your Greek before you head away, we've got a series of Greek phrasing lessons. Here's lesson one....
English: Please direct me to the nearest bar
Greek: που ειναι το πιο κοτινο μπαρ?
Fly direct with British Airways to Crete & Rhodes from London Gatwick. Book and discover more here and check them out on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. For a chance to win designer luggage and beach kits, travel tech packs and even a paid for trip to Greece, head here.
Follow Ava on Twitter @Guacandroll or over on her blog Guac And Roll
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.