Meatless Meals: Greek Spinach Pie



This spinach pie recipe has been passed down through my husband's family. My husband's Greek family is from Ioannina, a city in northwestern Greece. The Jewish community in Ioannina prepared a number of unique dishes, mostly focused on vegetarian foods containing dairy products in keeping with Kosher dietary rules. 

Other Jewish families in Ioannina add feta cheese to this recipe, which I think sounds delicious, as well. The original version, which uses plain unseasoned matzo meal, get most of its flavor from the spinach and grated cheese topping. Personally, I use seasoned breadcrumbs and add garlic and onion powder to taste to bump up the flavor.

This pie has no crust, which saves you the trouble of buying or rolling out a pie crust!

 Ingredients:

 2 packages (10 oz each) of frozen chopped spinach, drained
2 eggs, beaten
8 oz farmer cheese (or cottage cheese)
4 oz cream cheese
1 tsp salt
Handful of matzo meal (I always use Italian seasoned breadcrumbs)
Grated cheese (for topping)
Butter (optional, for topping)

If you have large bags of spinach like I do here,
just weigh out 20oz of spinach and save the rest
for later.


Instructions:

 Preheat the oven to 375F.

Allow the cream cheese to come up to room temperature and break it up as much as possible. You can use a potato masher, if you have one. I usually use a fork.

Defrost the spinach by placing it in a colander and running warm water over it. Squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible by pressing on it. You don't want to water down your dish!

Drained spinach


Mix all of the ingredients together (except the grated cheese and butter, if using). Do not use a handheld mixer, as the filling is too thick.

Pour the mixture into a greased 10 inch pie plate. Sprinkle with grated cheese and dot with butter, if desired.

Thoroughly cheesy and ready to bake!

Bake for 50 minutes or until browned on top. Serve cold.

Cost Breakdown:
  • Spinach (1.25 16oz bags $2.19 per bag) = $2.74
  • Breadcrumbs = $0.05
  • Cottage cheese (8oz) = $0.58
  • Parmesan cheese to taste = ~$0.10
  • Cream cheese (4oz) = $0.45
  • 2 eggs = $0.26
Total cost: $4.18
Total cost per serving: $0.70 per serving

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