Spinach Banitza Recipes

BANITSA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit (175° Celsius).
• Meanwhile, take a round oven-proof dish and grease it with oil or butter and set aside.
• Put drained feta in a mixing bowl and crumble it with a fork (or your fingers). Add yogurt, eggs and baking soda and mix everything well. Set aside.
• Spread one sheet of phyllo (filo) pastry on a clean work top, the wider side facing you. Brush some melted butter over the sheet.
• Spoon some of the Feta mixture over and spread around a little. Lift the edge closest to you and roll/fold into a "sausage".
• Now, roll this into a snail (like you would when making cinnamon rolls). Place the "snail" in the middle of your oven dish/cake pan.
• Repeat step 4 with another phyllo sheet. When ready, place it in the cake pan, just around the first "snail" and repeat with the rest of the sheets until you fill up you cake pan.
• When done, pour the leftover melted butter over banitsa. Transfer the pan in the oven and bake at 350° Fahrenheit (175° Celsius) for 25 minutes or until puffed and golden brown on top.
• When ready, take it out and let it cool slightly before slicing.
• Enjoy!

SPINACH BANITZA

Steps:

• The filo dough takes two hours to thaw, so either plan ahead, and let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight, or be sure to put it out early in the day.
• Put the chopped spinach and finely sliced leek in a frying pan with a very small amount of oil. Sauté just until spinach is wilted, and leeks have become transparent (about 5 minutes).
• Set spinach mixture aside to cool.
• In a large bowl. mix the crumbled cheese, milk and eggs together. Don't over mix - cheese should be lumpy.
• Add well-drained cooked spinach, mix lightly.
• Take a sheet of filo dough, lay it flat, brush it with melted butter, and stack another sheet of dough on top. Butter again, then lay one more sheet on top. Now you have a stack of three layers. With a teaspoon, place a line of filling all along the bottom edge, then, roll it up into a tight roll with the filling on the inside of the roll. The long roll is then taken and rolled up in a circle. This first sheet of dough is then placed in the baking pan. (I used a pizza pan, it worked perfectly) The process is repeated with the remaining sheets of dough and each consecutive roll is placed around the first one in the pan. The resulting shape resembles a spiral. Repeat until all mixture is used. Brush the remaining butter all over the top. Bake about 30 minutes @ 400 F, or until golden.