The best spinach cheese pie?

[Dustyblue]

I love a spinach, ricotta & feta arrangement, in all its forms 😁

Have been craving it recently, and my friend grows the best silverbeet (believe it's called swiss chard or similar in the UK? I'm in Aust). This stuff has the red stems. So he's delivering loads of it for me, woo hoo!

To me spinach/silverbeet are very similar, except silverbeet/chard has those stems to be removed.

So am thinking cooked silverbeet with feta, ricotta, garlic, spring onions or chives, done in layered & buttered filo pastry. In a pie shape, in the oven.

Do you have a better one? Maybe with puff or short pastry?

There's another one called 'Hunza Pie' but I believe that involves making a wholemeal pastry base. My pastry skills aren't that good enough for wholemeal flour!

Someone else out there must love a spinach pie? 😎

Regular thing in my house.

5 or so sheets of filo layered in a Swiss roll tin. I use an oil spray but you could brush each sheet with oil. Layer over cooked, squeezed out and seasoned spinach, mixed with cooked onion and garlic. Sprinkle block of feta over the top, then cover with the rest of the filo pastry sheets, oiled as you layer.

Oven for 25 mins. Serves 4 to 6.

Easy peasy

Oh, and if you've got any leftover pesto, spread that over the pastry before you chuck the spinach on. I also stir a beaten egg into the spinach sometimes.

Spanakopita is my favourite - uses filo pastry

We love this and have it regularly! (I halve it and then it basically feeds a hungry 4).
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spinach-ricotta-slice

I grew up in Sydney and we always had a fair amount of silverbeet planted. Our "spinach pie" filling was made with onions and the silverbeet stalks cooked gently in the bottom of the saucepan, then the leaves piled on top with a little water to cook. When cooked then stir in some beaten egg and stir till it's cooked through (not long). The filling then went in a dish lined with puff pastry, cheese layered on top plus or minus a pastry topping.

Edited - I forgot the seasonings!! Salt/pepper to taste, but parsley/marjoram/thyme is nice as well, and always but always nutmeg.

I suspect that the red stemmed variety of chard may be slightly more delicate that what we used to have, but I don't know.

When we went gluten free in my teens (whole family turned out to be coeliac, what fun), the same filling served with cheese on top. Except that we none of us could tolerate much cheese too often either ... Once we'd a successful recipe for pancakes then the same pie filling does rather nicely in savoury pancakes, add cheese individually to taste or tolerance!

I add cubed, lightly cooked pancetta, or sometimes chorizo, to my spanokopita.

Spanakopita. I sort of wing the recipe but basically, sautéed onions/shallots or leeks (or both I guess). Wilted spinach (or other greens). All mixed up and chopped. Lots of fresh herbs - dill, chives, bit of mint, fresh parsley or whatever combination you prefer. Then loads of feta and all mixed up together. I think you're supposed to add an egg to bind it, but I don't think I did last time? This is a useful article to give you the overall guidance, and you can adapt for yourself: Spanakopita

Than in filo. I like to make individual triangle shaped ones because I can freeze them and cook them in the air fryer from frozen in about 8 minutes.

This is a regular recipe in our house, great with tzatziki and simple side salad
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lighter-spanakopita

Apologies for slow reply- thanks so much for all these. There are some ingredients I'd never have thought of!

@JonVoightBaddyWhoGrowls I usually adore Felicity Cloake's take on classic recipes, but I'm really not keen on bulgar in this. Great article though.

I've gone with this, quantities by eye but aiming at a 50/50 ratio of greens to everything else:

50/50 silverbeet & spinach, cooked and water rung out
Feta (skipped ricotta this time, think it can make it a bit pasty)
Parsley & mint
Green onions/scallions
Plain greek yoghurt, just a spoon or 2 to bind the mixture
Nutmeg
Lemon zest
Garlic

WELL buttered filo sheets, 8 layers for the base. Filling on, leaving a border, then grated parmesan on top of filling. 6 buttered sheets on top and bring edges together. Freeform on a baking sheet, not in a tin. Thought it might crisp the base up better but we shall see! Smells lovely in the oven.

Thanks for the inspiration, much appreciated. It's such a great meal & quite healthy if you forget about the butter. 😍