The Second Meal in My Challenge
Do you ever have random pastry in your freezer? Maybe from leftover pies or Christmas baking, or making a recipe that involved filo pastry that does not use it all? This next recipe for my using what ingredients I have challenge uses that leftover pastry. I made spanakopita with homemade tzatziki sauce. I have always made my own tzatziki sauce so I have the elements to make it, and when you make it ahead, the flavour just gets better. We not only use it for Greek dishes but usually, we use it as a veggie dip in our lunches.
The Spanakopita was more of a wing it situation. I looked up a few recipes, and they are pretty much the same. I did not have a lot of fresh ingredients so instead of fresh parsley I used the dried stuff in my spice collection and I did not have enough feta to make it nice and creamy, so I added some ricotta that I had in the fridge. Honestly, I think if you used the fresh stuff and all feta, I think it would be even better!
After reflecting on making the spanakopita, I would make it again, maybe not as big, and it is very time-consuming because you have to olive oil each layer to make it super light and fluffy. I got 6 thumbs up from the peanut gallery.
**Sorry for some of the pictures, I was having technical difficulties while making these and used my phone for the process pictures**
Tzatziki Sauce:
1 Cucumber
4 cloves of garlic
Juice of a Lemon
2 cups of greek yoghurt, full- fat and plain
Salt and pepper
Method:
Using a cheese grater, grate the cucumber and sprinkle some salt on the cucumber. Using a paper towel or a very clean dishtowel, twist and squish all the liquid out of the cucumber. In a bowl, add the cucumber, minced garlic, and the 2 cups of greek yoghurt, mix it all together, add the juice of the lemon and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and keep in the fridge while you make the Spanakopita.
Spanakopita:
16 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
2 tablespoons of fresh or dried parsley (I used dried because I didn’t have fresh)
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 eggs
Feta Cheese
Ricotta cheese
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil
1 packaged of Filo Pastry
Method:
Pre Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Make sure the filo sheets are also thawed Prep the spinach, make sure it is also entirely thawed, and you get as much as the liquid out as you possibly can. To make the filling, mix the spinach, garlic, onion, parsley, olive oil, eggs, the cheese and pepper. Make sure it is all mixed well.
Prepare a baking dish and brush the bottom, sides and corners with olive oil. To assemble the spanakopita: Line the dish with two sheets of filo letting them cover the sides. Brush with olive oil, add two more sheets and brush with olive oil, REPEAT until about 2/3 of the filo is used.
Evenly spread the filling over the filo crust and top with two more sheets and brush with olive oil. Continue just like the base layer until all the filo is gone. Brush the very top layer with olive oil, and sprinkle with a bit of water
Cut spanakopita only part way through into the squares, so it is easier to cut later on. Bake for an hour or until it is nice and crispy and the inside is hot.
ENJOY!