Vegan Spinach Pie (Spanikopita)

There are a few foods from my childhood that are very memorable and make me think of comforting family time. One of these is Spanikopita..Greek spinach pie. Traditionally my grandmother would brush butter between the thin layers of philo dough and the spinach filling was bursting with feta cheese and used eggs. I set out to create a vegan version, and I was very pleased with how it came out. I replaced the butter with vegetable oil, and I prefer the lighter, flakier pastry. I used tofu and nutritional yeast in the filling and it was amazing.

 My proudest moment with this recipe is that my boys gobbled this up! I am pretty sure Joseph ate three pieces, and then as I was cleaning up he asked me to put it in his lunch for tomorrow. It blessed my little Greek heart!

Vegan Spanikopita

1 medium onion diced
3 garlic cloves minced
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup Braggs liquid aminos (or soy sauce)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 cup chopped fresh dill
16 oz frozen chopped spinach
14 oz firm tofu
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 roll of frozen philo dough, thawed
vegetable oil

1. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Warm 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, then add onion, garlic and red pepper flakes. When the onions are translucent add the wine, Braggs, & lemon juice.

2. When the liquid is boiling add the spinach. Toss to combine and cook until the spinach is warm. Season with salt and pepper. Crumble the Tofu into the spinach mix using your hands. Add nutmeg dill and nutritional yeast. Stir well.

3. Prepare a 9X13 pan by brushing it with vegetable oil using a pastry brush. Lay one sheet of the Philo pastry in the bottom of the pan. Lightly brush the pastry sheet with oil and add another sheet. Repeat the process until you have used 10 sheets.

4. Pour the spinach filling on top of the prepared pastry sheets. Cover the spinach filling with a sheet of pastry, brush the pastry sheet with oil and  layer with another sheet of philo. Continue the layering technique until you run out of pastry sheets.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top layers of the philo are golden brown.