courtesy of Skinny Mom
This is one of those dishes that I have loved since I was in college. I went to an International Festival in Muncie, IN of all places and fell in love with the Greek cuisine. I really like Baklava, but the Spanakopita Triangles (little phyllo dough pillows stuffed with feta, spinach, onions) just stole my heart and my palate.
Later, when I moved to MN, I stumbled across the Spanakopita casserole, which was basically the same ingredients, except easier to make. I didn’t have to spend hours perfecting rolling everything into tiny triangles, instead the time from prep to my mouth was considerably decreased. That makes a happy Megan!
And then I came across this recipe, promising less calories and fats of the original recipe, with less prep time as well. Booyah!
Ingredients:
- 10 oz. fresh spinach (or frozen)
- 5 scallions (white end of the green onion), minced
- 2 green onion stalks, chopped
- 1 cup part skim ricotta cheese
- 1/3 cup fat-free feta cheese crumbles
- 1/4 cup fresh dill, snipped
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 10 sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- In a large frying pan, add half of the spinach and cook on low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally
- Add the remaining spinach and stir occasionally for another 5 minutes.
- Spray a 9 inch pie pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine ricotta, feta, dill, egg, scallions, green onions, lemon juice and salt. Mix well.
- Add spinach to mixture, and mix together well.
- Lay 1 sheet of phyllo in prepared pie pan and allow it to extend over the rim. Lightly coat with cooking spray.
- Repeat with 4 more sheets of phyllo, placing corners at different angles and lightly coating each sheet with cooking spray.
- Press down the dough to form the shape of the pan.
- Spread spinach mixture over the dough in the pan.
- Carefully layer the remaining sheets of dough as previously done on top of the spinach mixture.
- Roll excess dough around rim of pie pan, creating a pie crust.
- Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.
- Let stand for 10 minutes.