Spanakopita has always been one of my favorite appetizers. If I were to pick, my absolute favorite was at Marietta Diner located just outside of Atlanta, GA. Then, I went vegan. I am going to show you how to make both the vegetarian AND vegan versions today since I know we have about a 50/50 split in readership. This photo is the VEGAN version. Looks pretty good, right? 🙂

What is Spanakopita?

Spanakopita is a traditional Greek pastry (also widely known as “spinach pie”) made from layers of flaky, golden phyllo dough, spinach, cheeses and copious amounts of butter in between.

I’ll be showing how to make either a vegetarian OR a vegan version, depending on your personal preferences.

The first step is to saute the onions in a bit of oil, adding in the herbs.

Ricotta (or vegan alternative), parmesan (or vegan alternative), feta (or tofu) and an egg (or vegan egg equivalent such as 1 Tbl flax plus 3 Tbl water allowed to stand for 15 minutes until gelatinous) are combined.

The cheese mixture, the onion mixture and the chopped spinach are combined until well incorporated. I like to add the frozen (defrosted), drained, squeeze of excess water and chopped, to the onion mixture. Warming it helps to break up the mixture. Allow to cool completed before adding to the cheese mixture however.

To assemble our Spanakopita, we will be needing a few sticks of butter (or vegan margarine), melted. I do this in a pan over low heat, then remove from the heat to cool slightly.

Brush the bottom of your baking pan just to be sure nothing sticks.

I like to set up a station of all of my ingredients so they are ready to go when I am. I unwrap the frozen phyllo sheets that I have defrosted in the refrigerator overnight at the last minute. The layers are very thin and tend to dry out quickly.

Lay one layer of phyllo on top of the butter in the baking dish and brush with more butter. Repeat 9 more times, taking care to only use about half of your melted butter at this point.

Spread your spinach and cheese mixture over the 10th layer.

Now add a layer of phyllo and butter it. Repeat 9 more times for a total of 10 sheets, buttering every layer as you go. Tuck in the edges of the dough. I use the pastry brush to help accomplish this.

Before baking, you’ll want to take your very sharpest knife and score the top layer of phyllo into triangles (or squares if you prefer).

Bake at 350 until golden. If the tops get too brown before your notice the puffing of the layers, just loosely lay a sheet of aluminum foil over top and continue to bake.

You should have nicely separated and golden layers. It’s important to take that same knife now and score all of the way through your previous cuts before it cools. This will help make removal easier.

This is our vegetarian version…

And this is the vegan version. I decided to get creative and instead of layering those last 10 sheets, I took them and scrunched them up life ruffles on top. Drizzle with the remaining butter. Either way, they are both delicious.

If you enjoyed this recipe, why not PIN IT FOR LATER! 🙂