Feta Day 1: Spanakopita

Description:

If you've never had spanakopita before, you're missing out. If you have, it's probably been way different everytime. There are a lot of variations on it, and this one is amazing and very easy!

Basically, this recipe will make about 10 servings. Each one will look similar to an eggroll, with a flaky, layered crust and a spinach filling. If you don't like spinach, don't be dissuaded - I hate spinach and found these wonderful!

Recipe:

Ingredients:
- about 1/4 a package of phyllo dough
- melted butter (about 1/8 cup)

- 3/4 cup packed fresh spinach (you can use about 1/3 cup frozen spinach instead. Make sure the spinach is defrosted and drained!)
- 1/8 lbs feta
- 1/4 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 egg
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- salt


Directions:
1. Remove phyllo dough from freezer to defrost (it says to do this about 2 hours before so it isn't too brittle to use, but I neglected to do this and took it out right before using it).

2. Preheat the oven to 400F.

3. In a food processor, add together spinach, chopped onion, and garlic. Process this until all the ingredients are chopped into small pieces.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients (aside from the phyllo dough and the butter) and process until smooth and pretty well incorporated.

4. Carefully unroll the phyllo dough, which tears really easily. However, it doesn't really matter that much if it tears; you'll be layering it anyway. Make sure you have the melted butter on hand, and a pastry brush if you have one. Lay out one sheet of phyllo and lightly brush butter on it - you don't want it soaking. Repeat this until you have a layer of three sheets on top of each other

5. Put a dab of the spinach filling in the middle. Roll the phyllo until you have a tube of the dough with the spinach inside, then fold ends to seal. This probably sounds more complicated than it is; think of egg rolls while you do this and it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out.

6. As you do this, you'll want to put the finished rolls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (or sprayed very well with a cooking spray). Once you have them all on, brush the remaining butter of the tops of the rolls.

7. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown (once again, think of eggrolls).8. Brush the tops again with a bit of melted butter. Place in the oven for 20 min or until golden brown. Let cool for about 5 min. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Review:

We loved these! They were buttery crisp, and crunchy on the outside and the filling was flavorful and rich. I found them to be surprisingly filling, too. 4 stars out of 5, simply because it is hard to make them all look uniform and pretty!

Pros:

Delicious, primary ingredient is spinach!

Cons:

Slightly tricky to assemble, no leftovers :(