Vegan Dinner Recipe: Spinach filo comfort pie

I've really missed spinach and feta pie since going vegan, and I'm going to try and replicate it. Right now. With you guys as my witnesses.

Be afraid.

Kidding.

To the kitchen!



Ingredients:

750g frozen spinach (or a kilo of fresh, I'm all about frozen for convenience)
One onion
Ten spring onions
A quarter of a cup of olive oil
The equivalent of three eggs
A pinch of nutmeg
Half a tablespoon of fresh dill
A third of a cup of parsley (I prefer flat leaf and I grow it in the garden)
Half a quantity of tofu ricotta (recipe is here)
One hundred grams of vegan cheese (I used a combination of homemade cashew cheese and notzarella)
Two tablespoons of flour
Up to a teaspoon of salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Around a third of a cup of dry breadcrumbs (optional)
Twelve sheets of filo pastry
A quarter of a cup of vegan butter, or olive oil, or a combination of the two

Instructions:
Cook the spinach as per the packet instructions.

Meanwhile, heat the quarter of a cup of olive oil on low and throw the onion in.

Cook it for ten minutes, cook it good. You want the onion cooked, you hear? Okay, I'm overemphasising, it isn't that important.

Chop the spring onions and throw them in as well, once the onion is cooked.

In a separate bowl, mix up your egg replacements in whatever way they mix.

Add the parsley, nutmeg, dill, tofu ricotta, chopped up vegan cheese, flour, salt and pepper. I'm going to emphasise the importance of salt because I used to make this recipe with feta so when it was a vegetarian recipe the cheese mix was quite salty. So have a taste and make sure you've got your balance right (be careful, my household are massive salt fans)

Now give it a mix.

You know that spinach you cooked up/thawed? Let's assume it's done. Now put it in a sieve and give it a good squeeze (watch out, it's hot!) and get all the excess water out. Once that's done, turn off the heat on your onion and spring onions and add the spinach, mixing thoroughly.

Now mix in the faux-cheese and egg mix. The heat is still off, there's no need to keep cooking it at this stage. If you would like to, add the breadcrumbs at this stage just to get a slightly more "crumbled feta" texture.

Turn your oven on to 180, or, if you're like me and going to cook it for longer because you're going to the gym, 160.

Set up a clean work space and melt your butter/spread. If you're just using oil don't worry about it, but get it ready to brush on! Also, get out a lasagne dish to cook in. Brush it with some butter.

Lay out one piece of filo on your clean work space. Brush it with butter, lay a second piece on, brush it, lay a third piece on, brush it, lay a fourth piece on. Pick up this layer of four and lay them evenly into the dish.

Spread half the spinach mix evenly over the pastry in the dish.

Go back to your clean workspace. Lay out one piece of filo on your clean work space. Brush it with butter, lay a second piece on, brush it, lay a third piece on, brush it, lay a fourth piece on. Pick up this layer of four and lay them over the spinach layer in the dish.

Spread the rest of the spinach mix over this second layer of filo. Now for the rinse and repeat:

Go back to your clean workspace. Lay out one piece of filo on your clean work space. Brush it with butter, lay a second piece on, brush it, lay a third piece on, brush it, lay a fourth piece on. Pick up this layer of four and lay them over the second spinach layer in the dish.

Phew!

Now, you want to fold the edges all nicely in,

and brush the top with the rest of your butter.

Now place in the oven. If you're on 180, it's about forty minutes. 160, about an hour. It should be nicely browned.

 Now this sucker is HOT. So let it rest for at least five minutes before slicing and serving, because otherwise you're just going to burn your mouth.

Enjoy!