Puff Pastry Spinach and Feta Pie (Spanakopita)

This Puff pastry spinach and feta pie skips the phyllo and comes with a truly creamy filling and deliciously flaky pastry. This is a fancier version of Greek Spanakopita.

This Spanakopita, or actually Spanakotiropita (Spinach and Cheese Pie), is more creamy and filling than traditional ones made with phyllo. It can proudly stand as a main dish with a nice salad on the side.

Table Of Contents

• The Filling
• The Puff Pastry
• Fresh Or Frozen Spinach?
• Additional Ingredients
• Serve With
• Recipe

The Filling

The filling for this puff pastry Spanakopita is made with a bechamel-like cream as a base. First, sauté the spring onions in butter, and then cook the spinach until it wilts. Next, add flour and milk to make a creamy mixture. Let it cool down a bit, then stir in the eggs, cheese, and dill.

TIP: The filling shouldn't be too hot when you assemble the pie, so it won't soften and moisten the dough too much. Also, it sets more while it cools.

The Puff Pastry

I'm using store-bought frozen puff pastry to make this Puff Pastry Spinach and Feta Pie. It's quick and easy. However, you can easily make your own Homemade Puff Pastry using real butter in the dough instead of the unhealthy fats used in the ones you buy from grocery stores.

Before baking the puff pastry pie, cut it into pieces. This helps the puff pastry to rise and steam to escape from within the filling. Make sure not to cut all the way to the bottom, though. Only the top layer of puff pastry. Otherwise, the filling will leak and stick to the bottom of the pan.

TIP: While the pie bakes, the cuts you made at the top might stick together again. So keep an eye on it, and if you notice the pie getting puffy and rising in the center, run your knife again through, to revive the cuts.

Fresh Or Frozen Spinach?

I prefer using fresh produce whenever possible. So, for me, fresh spinach is the best. On the other hand, frozen spinach can be more convenient and can also be used to make this spinach and feta pie.

To make this pie using frozen spinach, thaw it in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for 2-3 hours. You don't need to squeeze it because its water will drain when you cook it on the stovetop before adding it to the pie.

Additional Ingredients

Instead of just plain spinach, you can use a mixture of greens, as is done in the Hortopita recipe. Prefer sweet greens like Swiss chard and tender beet greens.

Combine feta cheese with a semi-hard, yellow, melting cheese like Gruyère for a stronger cheese flavor. For example, you can add 250 grams of feta cheese and 150-200 grams of Gruyere.

Or combine feta with cream cheese for a softer, creamier cheese flavor. In this case, you can use 250 grams of feta and 250 grams of cream cheese.

Greek Anthotyro cheese or soft Greek Myzithra cheese also goes well here. Their texture and flavor are similar to that of thickened Ricotta cheese (so yes, you can use that if you can't find the aforementioned cheeses). Again, use half and half, 250 grams of each.

You can sauté 1-2 chopped garlic cloves together with the onions when making the pie filling. Garlic is often used in Spanakopita.

And if you don't fancy dill, like many people do, you can use fresh or even dried spearmint instead, or a handful of fresh parsley, which has a subtler aroma.

Serve With

Serve this puff pastry spinach and feta pie with a herby and aromatic salad, such as a Marinated Tomato Salad, or a White Bean Salad with Lemon, Garlic, and Herbs, or a Simple Beetroot Salad.

Recipe