I had been given some out of date pastry. Friends give me their out of date food as I am always banging on about not wasting anything. However, except for fruit, I didn’t have anything to make a pie. Nothing had been defrosted. I didn’t even have any fridge gravel as we had already had some ‘use it up’ meals last week.
I therefore decided to make some ‘Greek’ pie as I had lots of giant spinach in my garden, as well as half a pack of Feta cheese in the fridge. To save time and effort, I made it into a giant pastie for myself and Mr S to share. We had it with a salad made from ingredients grown in the garden, and so except for the lemon rind and 100g of cheese, it was a free main meal. 😁. I only ate half of my half and so had it cold the next day. It was just as nice cold as it was hot.
Ingredients
400g spinach leaves
1 roll of puff pastry (320g)
100g Feta cheese
1 or 2 garlic cloves
1 small onion (or half a big one.
Grate of nutmeg (optional)
Oil to saute (I used olive).
Rind of half a lemon
Method
1. Wash the spinach and dry in a tea towel or kitchen paper.
2. Slice the onion and mince the garlic.
3. Add the oil to the frying pan and heat.
4. Throw in the sliced onion and cook gently until soft then add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes.
5. Add the spinach to the pan and wilt it down. Grate in the lemon rind, grate in a bit of nutmeg, and put in half of the crumbled cheese cook for a minute, and stir.
6. Roll out the pastry and add the filling to one half of the pastie leaving a gap around the edge. Crumble the rest of the cheese on top.
7. Dampen the pastry around all the edges and fold over to make a parcel. Seal the edges.
8. Cook at 200⁰C until the pastry is golden and flaky. Check that the bottom isn’t soggy. This can be done on a greased tray in the oven, but I did mine in the air fryer. It has been too hot to put the oven on. Mine took about 15 to 20 minutes.
9. This can be served straight away or eaten cold the next day if stored in the fridge in an airtight container.
This is a recipe that I often make during the hunger gap as spinach survives being frozen, or I will use nettles if I don’t have any. This Greek pie tastes lovely made with filo pastry, but is ok with short crust as well. What would you make with what you have in if you were given some puff pastry?
Thanks, Toni.
The first thing I made from scratch was a giant pasty. I still sometimes forget how versatile they are, though.
It is our go to, especially when ingredients are low. Thanks for commenting.
Looks delicious 😋
Thanks x
Thank you, I love pastries!!!!
Me too. I have tocrestrict myself, though 😊 Thanks for commenting.
Thanks Toni, that sounds delicious.
Thanks for commenting
Thank you, I think a fat sausage roll because I keep meaning to make one. I would take the skin off the sausages and probably add some chutney as I know you can buy them like that. When cooked cu I into about 1 inch rounds. It could be eaten for just a lunch or even a dinner.
Absolutely. Like you I will often add chutney, or spicy sauce to switch it up, especially if it isn’t the best sausage meat. Thanks for sharing
Love spanakopita, and yes I do sometimes make it with puff pastry instead of phyllo. I always have potatoes, carrots, celery, onions at home as I buy in bulk, quite often have leftover bits of other vege in the freezer too, so I’d make pasties or if I can’t be pfaffed cutting circles I take a whole sheet stick the cooked vegetables in a wide strip down the middle and cut slanting slits on each side then fold them over the filling left, right, left right etc, glaze, bake, serve with more veggies. Farmers Plait, , it’s a fancy name for a giant family sized pasty. Also good if you add a few beans for protein, or to hid the fact there’s no meat I add really finely diced mushroom which when cooked looks a bit like bits of mince.
Great idea. I make something similar but call it summer garden roll. Thanks for sharing.
That sounds delicious!
Aww thanks for your nice feedback x
if I had minced meat,carrot and onion.a little sambal and bouillon powder,it would become e.g. Vietnamese savoury appetisers.onion and carrot very finely minced meat seasoned with the bouillon powder and sambal,that together in small or larger pieces of dough and bake for 15 to 20 minutes,they are delicious both hot and cold
That does sound lovely. I need to go and look what sambal is now 😊. Thanks for sharing.
Hi guys Sausage Rolls are my husband’s favourite!! I always have sausages in my freezer ( just had No 1 sausages from Waitrose so will be only buying theses as they taste like my grandads favourite). So I always have spare jars & bottles in my larder for emergencies so a whole jar of apple sauce & lots of sage & a smidgen of mace & lots of black pepper too. God I’m salivating at the thought of it. I usually buy M & S butter puff pastry as I have found all the other well known brands are full of palm oil instead of butter. Grandad taught me that somethings needed to be made authentically & he was a passionate man about fruit & veg as he had an allotment in Shoeburyness & grew all of their food with Nana making bread, cheese, yoghurt & the best lemon curd & greengage jam you would ever have tasted.
Aww that sounds lovely. Yes I agree about the puff pastry. Thanks for sharing