Spinach Pie

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Dear Kaki,

Have you worked with phyllo dough at all?  I attempted, if memory serves, on two separate occassions to use the stuff, and never got the results I was hoping for.  Enter puff pastry (again); all of the buttery layers with none of the work, done and done.

Because Kaki, I freakin’ love spanakopita*.  Well, all Greek food, really.  But spanakopita, ah, how I love thee.  I love thee for your buttery, flakey pastry.  I love thee for your can-do-no-wrong spinach-and-cheese combo.  And I love that I can relatively cheaply and easily whip up a pie inspired by your awesomeness and eat is at an entree instead of as an appetizer.

This also magically falls into the category of “Vegetarian food that non-vegetarians probably won’t roll their eyes at.”  Which can be important.

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Spinach Pie

makes 6 servings

adapted from Budget Bytes and Allrecipes

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 16 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed very dry**
  • 1 teaspoon dried dill
  • 1 pinch ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 10-15 grinds fresh cracked black pepper
  • 1 ½ tablespoons flour, plus more for rolling out the puff pastry
  • 6 ounces feta, crumbled
  • 3 large eggs, divided (I like to beat all 3 eggs together and then pour a little bit into a small bowl; it’ll be used for the egg wash at the end)
  • 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed via instructions on package (save the other sheet of puff pastry for something else)

Pre-heat oven to 375*F.

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat***.  Add the olive oil and heat until the oil shimmers.  Add the onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the minced garlic and saute another minute, until garlic is fragrant.

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Add the squeezed-dry spinach, dill, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and flour to the skillet, and stir into onion and garlic mixture.  Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.  There should be no more liquid in the pan very early, but keep cooking so the flour loses some of its raw flavor.  Remove skillet from heat to cool for a few minutes.

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Combine feta and eggs (reserving some for the egg wash) in a medium mixing bowl.  Once cooled a bit, add the spinach mixture to the bowl and stir to incorporate the eggs and feta.  Set filling aside.

Reserve a little of the beaten eggs for the egg wash later.

Reserve a little of the beaten eggs for the egg wash later.

Unfold the puff pastry and lay flat on a lightly-floured counter.  Lightly flour the top of the puff pastry, then use a rolling pin to roll out dough until it is several inches larger than your baking dish.  (I used a 9-inch round ceramic dish, so I probably rolled it out to around a 14″ square.)

Not yet rolled out...

Not yet rolled out…

Rolled out!

Rolled out!

Gently lift the rolled-out puff pastry and place it in your baking dish, making sure the dough extends over the sides of the dish.  Spoon the filling into the puff-pastry-lined dish.  Fold the overhanging edges of puff pastry over the filling.  It should cover the filling completely.

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Brush the top of the pie with the reserved egg.  Place the dish in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes.  The center will really puff up at the end, so wait until you see that.

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Remove the pie from the oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes. The pastry will deflate until it is roughly as level as it was when it was un-baked.  Slice into 6 pieces and enjoy!

Deflated

Deflated

Hope this lovely early fall is treating you well, my dear.

–Caitlin

 

*And samosas.  And calzones.  And tacos and burritos.  Actually, if it’s a tasty filling with a handheld, carb-y outside, odds are I dig it.  And I suspect I am in the majority with this feeling.

**Really, really dry.  I placed the thawed spinach in my strainer, then got a bowl just smaller than the strainer and pressed it down into the spinach to squeeze it against the sides of the strainer.  Then I took handfuls of the spinach and squeezed that, too.  Liquid in the spinach could make your final crust soggy, and nobody wants that.

***That’s a lot of medium.

Lentil and Hatch Chili Pepper Taco Filling

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Dear Caitlin,

Admittedly, lentils are not the stuff fancy food blogs are made of.  They aren’t pretty.  Ungarnished, they’re pretty bland.  They’re cheap.  In short, they lack sex appeal.

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But real talk.  We eat a lot of lentils.  So, blog world, step back, because I am bringing you a lentil recipe.  And I didn’t even used red lentils (rentils, if you will).  No, I used the really ugly brown ones.  We’re all going to take a deep breath and be ok with it, though, because this recipe is so-worth-it.

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This recipe is sort of a summer-meets-fall kind of deal.  We’re still enjoying hatch chili peppers, but we’ve acknowledged that, notwithstanding current temperatures, fall is en route and it’s time to eat some squash.*

(*But it’s not, and I emphasize that it never will be, time to get a pumpkin spice manicure.)

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This squash gets roasted into all kinds of delicious.

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This is a very pretty recipe….

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… until you add the lentils.

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I thought for some reason that adding salsa would make it prettier.  I’ll have another think next time.

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All insults aside, I’ve made this four times so far this season.  It’s crazy good, crazy healthy, and crazy inexpensive.*  Dinner winner.

(*You’ll notice that when I meant it pejoratively, I said “cheap,” but when I meant it positively, I said “inexpensive.”  These are the persuasive writing skills I learned during seven years of very expensive higher education.)

Recipe
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 White Onion, Diced
1 Serrano Pepper, Seeded and Diced
2 Hatch Chili Peppers, Seeded and Diced
1 Red Pepper, Seeded and Diced
1 Cup Shredded Carrots
2 Medium Acorn Squash, Diced (About 6-8 Cups Squash)
1 Cup Dried Lentils
2-3 Tablespoons Taco Seasoning (Great Taco Seasoning recipes here and here.)
Cilantro, to Garnish (optional)

(1)  Dice, seed, and shred all vegetables.

(2)  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

(3) Place acorn squash on roasting pan and cook for approximately 30 minutes, until squash is easily pierced with a fork and begins to develop deep brown edges.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Once it is cool to touch, peel the squash flesh from the skin and set flesh aside.

(4)  Bring approximately 3 cups of water to a boil.  Add dried lentils and reduce to simmer.  Cook for about twenty minutes, or until lentils are soft.  Set aside.

(5)  Cook onion and olive oil on pan over medium heat for approximately 3-4 minutes.

(6)  Add serrano pepper and hatch chili peppers to onion.  Cook another 5 minutes, and then add red bell pepper and carrots.  Cook approximately five minutes more.

(7)While the peppers, onion, and carrot are cooking, take about half of the lentils and pulverize in a food processor.

(8)  Add whole lentils, mashed lentils, and squash to onion-pepper-carrot mixture.  Cook another 5 to 10 minutes, thoroughly combining all ingredients.

(9) Add taco seasoning and salt to taste.

(10) Serve over salad, in tacos, and definitely with cilantro.

Recipe Recap

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Kaki, your last post… so many things:

  • It reminded me of the song from My Fair Lady, that starts, “Words, words, words!  I’m so sick of words!”  (Yes, you should watch it, and the Julie Andrews version, naturally.)
  • You made a shaped cake.  You iced it in more than one color.  That is commitment.  I told Cooper I’d make this adorable monkey-shaped cake for her daughter’s first birthday, but I’ve never done this “Make a ridiculously cute cake” thing, so, um, tips would be much appreciated.
  • Yogurt raisins for teeth.  Inspired.
  • I didn’t know you were a Shark Week fan!  I can’t say I am.  Something about, um, fear?  But Rob Lowe’s commercial for it this year was a hoot.

Here’s what I’ve been cooking up these days myself:

Breakfast Pizza

I’m a huge cold-pizza-for-breakfast fan, but sometimes pizza dough is on sale at the store and you have some extra sausage and eggs to use up and breakfast pizza is the most logical use for all of these things.  This recipe, though I only used it as a jumping off point (mostly for temperature and baking times), worked great.

Rosemary Nuts

I bought that huge container of almonds you guys had purchased in San Antonio.  You inspired me.  But then I also had some fresh rosemary and decided to make these nuts.  They were super tasty just out of the oven.  However, once they’d cooled they suffered that all too common fate of nuts: all of the seasonings just fell off.  Sigh.  Do you have any tips for keeping flavorful tastiness on roasted nuts?

Smoky Spicy Sesame Coconut Nuts

These, however, kept their seasoning just great.  Only problem was (as it continues to be) my oven, which didn’t really crisp up the coconut in the baking time indicated.  Should I go longer and cooler next time, or hotter and quicker?  That coconut can burn in an instant.

Nectarine Pistachio Bars

Not that we need further proof that Deb is a genius, but, um, here is further proof.  These were inhaled at book club, even with the substitution of over-ripe nectarines for the suggested apricots.  Kaki, I adore apricots, but have never used fresh, only dried and in jam form.  But I swear there were fresh apricots in my grocery store for a week, tops.  Do they have just a crazy short season?  Well, next year I’ll be prepared.

Roasted Cabbage

I really like this recipe.  It uses up any leftover cabbage one may have laying around, it’s super flavorful, and it’s a vegetable, so, obviously it’s healthy*.  And I used up the last of a vinaigrette I’d mixed up a while ago that was languishing in my fridge for this recipe, so it used both leftover cabbage and leftover vinaigrette.  Make sure to just coat the cabbage in dressing, though; any dressing that pools on the bottom of the cookie sheet will cause the cabbage to braise instead of crisp up and roast.  Then you’ll be trying to gently pour 425* liquid down your sink with the oven door open and cabbage sliding almost off of your cookie sheet one afternoon.  It’s not a cute scene.

Manhattan

I have to look this recipe up every time I make one, but man, this is such a tasty cocktail.  In fact, I may or may not be writing this blog post after having consumed just such a beverage.

 

I’m missing you these days, my dear!  I hope there are fabulous late-summer vegetable dishes in your weekend plans.

–Caitlin

 

*Yes, yes, we all know it’s not actually obvious.  And that vegetables can be cooked in unhealthy ways.  But still, go with  me on this, it’s cabbage with dressing.

P.S.  I finally picked up House of Cards: Season 2.  And have been promptly obsessed all over again.  It has meant I’ve been up very late and been very sleepy at work this week.