Spinach & Feta Filo Pie
This is a wonderful vegetarian pie full of Spinach, Feta Cheese and Sun-dried Tomatoes. Most people find this is a lovely recipe, which is oh so easy to make, with vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike coming back for seconds time and again.
Spinach & Feta Filo Pie Recipe
Serves 4. You need a 22 cm loose-bottomed cake tin.
Recipe Ingredients:
- 250g spinach leaves
- 180g vegetarian feta cheese (crumbled)
- 100g sundried tomatoes (buy them in a jar with oil)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 170g filo pastry
- 2 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp of toasted pine nuts (roughly chopped)
- 2 tbsp of pitted and chopped black olives
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Recipe Method:
In a large saucepan add the spinach. Pour over the water and cook on a medium heat until the spinach is just starting to wilt. To drain, tip the spinach into a sieve and leave to cool. Once cool gently squeeze out any excess water (the dryer the better) and then with a sharp knife roughly chop it up.
In a mixing bowl add the chopped spinach, crumbled feta cheese, black olives, chopped toasted pine nuts, freshly ground black pepper, and beaten eggs. Mix this together well.
Drain the oil from the jar over a bowl (to reserve half of it) and roughly chop the sun dried tomatoes – put these into the bowl with the spinach mixture and mix them in well.
Add two tablespoons of olive oil to the reserved half of the oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes.
Take a 22cm loose-bottomed cake tin and brush it all over inside with some of the reserved oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes.
Carefully unroll the filo pastry. Take a sheet of pastry and brush liberally with some of the sundried tomato oil. While you are working with each sheet cover the rest of the pastry with some damp sheets of kitchen paper to stop it drying out.
Drape the filo sheet (oil-side down) into the cake tin – over some of the base and up the sides – making sure you leave some of the pastry hanging over the side. Brush oil on another piece of filo pastry and place this in the tin, only a little further round, and just overlapping the first sheet. Keep placing the brushed filo pastry sheets in the tin, overlapping and hanging over the edge, until you have roughly three layers and the tin is completely covered, sides and base.
Preheat the oven to 180C
Spoon into the bottom of the lined tin the pie filling. Pull the overhanging sides of the pastry sheets into the middle, covering the pie filling – lay them flat to seal. Brush over the top with a little more oil, and sprinkle over a few toasted sesame seeds.
Place the pie in the cake tin on a baking tray and place in the oven to bake for 30 minutes at 180C or until the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Take the pie out of the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove the Spinach & Feta Filo Pie from the cake tin, cut it into thick wedges and serve with a seasonal salad or boiled new potatoes with butter.