For January we are happily travelling to sunny Greece for Around the World in 12 Dishes. Today was kind of a grey day, so it was nice to spend some time imagining we were enjoying some sunshine. In our house, Greek food is part of our regular repertoire.
In fact, my kids LOVE Greek food. By Greek food I mean lemony chicken, rice, greek salad, and pitas. We make this dinner about once a week. What I love is how healthy Mediterranean food is and I think what my girls love is how simple the flavors are. So, for our exploration of Greece, we grabbed some phyllo dough and some spinach and got baking.
Simple Spanakopita
½ cup butter (plus 1 tablespoon melted butter)
1 shallot, finely chopped
8 cups fresh spinach
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt and pepper
phyllo pastry (thawed)
1. Melt ½ cup butter in large saute pan.
2. Saute shallot, until transparent, about 2 minutes.
3. Wilt spinach in the saute pan, with the butter and shallot.
4. Once the spinach is wilted, remove from the saute pan. Cool spinach in a large baking dish, or on a large baking sheet, placed in the fridge.
5. Once cooled either chop the spinach with a knife, or place in a food processor to chop. The spinach should be roughly chopped.
6. Add feta, nutmeg, salt, pepper and lemon juice to the spinach...mix until everything is combined.
Now for the fun part...when working with phyllo dough be sure to cover any dough that you are not working with, with a damp tea towel. The dough will dry out very quickly, so it needs to be kept covered.
1. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and place in a small bowl with a pastry brush.
2. Cut phyllo dough into strips that are approximately 12" x 3"...we started by cutting about 10 strips...you have enough filling for about 24 triangles.
3. Place one strip of dough on the table and brush butter on to the strip.
4. Drop about ½ tablespoon of filling onto the end of the strip.
5. Fold the strip forward and to the left...creating a triangle and beginning to seal in the filling.
6. Repeat the folding to alternating sides until you reach the end of the strip of dough. My daughter pretended she was folding a flag. Over and over until you reach the end.
7. Place the triangles on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake in a 375F oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
What a great food for kids to make. My daughter really enjoyed folding them up. When they were done baking we enjoyed eating these tasty handheld treats. We placed a few unbaked triangles onto a baking sheet and froze them. Once they were frozen we placed them in a freezer-safe bag and pulled them out and baked them as an after-school treat. We just had to bake them for a few minutes longer than the ones we baked from fresh. They were just as delicious baked from frozen.
Have you been following along with Around the World in 12 Dishes? Be sure to check out all the other co-hosts' amazing dishes and activities around Greece.
Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Domestic Goddesque, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kid World Citizen, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids' Makings, Montessori Tidbits, Mummymummymum and The Educators' Spin On It
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Valerie GlitteringMuffins says
Love that it's a hand food! And so glad the girls enjoyed the making and eating 🙂 Thanks for participating again.
Becky says
Thank you so much for posting this- I have the ingredients and might try to make it this week:).
Leanna @ Alldonemonkey says
Looks great, excited to give it a try!
Terri Thompson says
Yum! I love spanakopita, but am terrified of working with phyllo. I may need to give it a shot though, because these look yummy!