I know, I know and I am sorry but does it help if I promise this is the last kale recipe for awhile and it’s a good one? This kale spanakopita recipe was inspired by a neat idea from a farmers market and comprises the last of my fall kale. This give us all at least 6 weeks of kale-free recipes before the summer harvest begins.
Now, unlike fettucine alfredo and mushroom soup, spanakopita is one of the few dishes I ate when I was a vegetarian that I never got sick of. Traditionally, spanakopita is a savoury Greek treat made with spinach, feta, onions fresh herbs, and eggs. If done well, the crispy pastry is delicate and buttery with a soft and fresh interior.
Kale works just as well as spinach. Better even, as it has a bolder flavour and holds it’s texture. Because the eggs are omitted this recipe would be very easy to adapt to be vegan, swap the butter for olive oil and simply omit the cheese or substitute tofu or nuts.
Kale Spanakopitas
(makes 8)
Thoroughly wash the kale. Remove the stems and roughly chop. Heat a large saucepan to medium low and add olive oil. Sweat onion in olive oil until very soft, about 8 minutes. Add oregano and sweat for another 2 minutes. Add kale, a big pinch of salt and the sugar and turn heat up to medium. You may need to add kale in batches as it cooks down. Cook kale, stirring regularly until it is nice and soft. About 15-20 minutes. Turn off heat, and gently pour off any excess liquid. Let the mixture cool in the pot to further dry it out.
When it is cooled to room temperature crumble in the feta and taste for salt and pepper. Melt the butter and prepare yourself a station to assemble the spanakopitas. If you want to bake them right away you should also turn on your oven to 375F. Prepare each spanakopita the same way. Brush butter onto a sheet of phyllo and then layer another sheet on top, brush again with butter. Now place about 1/2 cup of the mixture in the bottom left corner of your buttered sheet. Fold in triangles until completely wrapped up, seal the edges with melted butter. Place on a buttered cookie sheet and brush with butter. Continue until all triangles are prepped. You can now refrigerate these as is for a few hours. If you want to freeze, just don't brush with butter first.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until nice and brown. Allow to cool on a rack for 5 minutes and then eat, they are best when still nice and warm!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh brilliant! I LOVE spanakopita – and love this kale!
I never thought to use kale instead of spinach. We love spanakopitas so I’ll have to try this when my kale gets going outside
What a wonderful idea! I would absolutely love this!
@Heidi – I can’t take credit for the idea, I had them at a farmers market!
Nice take on spanakopita!!
Prep time took me closer to an hour, including the kale washing, chopping, cooking, etc. I still found it bitter, so I added an extra 1/4 tsp of sugar. Ended up cutting my philo sheets in half length-wise, don’t know if that was the original size you were working with, it seemed way too big otherwise. I was attempting to make it vegan with crumbled firm tofu, vegan cream cheese, tamari, lemon juice and nutritional yeast instead of the feta. But really, feta would just taste better I think
I managed to get six out of the recipe, the kale cooked down so much, wouldn’t have been able to get eight out of it, don’t know how you guys did it.
I think it’s always awesome to see kale and swiss chard used in new yummy ways. Thanks for sharing with us.
Courtney – I usually wash kale by putting it in a clean sink full of cold water. Swirling it around for 30 seconds and then walking away. Most of the dirt should fall to the bottom and you can carefully lift the kale up.
I actually cut my phyllo sheets down more than that so they were 4″x16″.
I love the idea of nutritional yeast and some tamari. Yum!
I really enjoy preparing these wonderful recipes for my family
If I freeze them, I shouldn’t butter them at all, not even between sheets? Amd just butter the outside before I bake?
Do butter between the sheets, just not the outside, do that before baking.