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Cheese, spinach and ham Greek pie

Cheese, spinach and ham Greek pie

A perfect recipe for using up any leftover cheese.
By Caroline Marson
Serves 6
Prep/Cook time: 1 hour
a plate of spinace and cheese filo pastry pie

Ingredients

75g butter
200g onions, peeled and chopped
Use up what you have. Spring onions, leeks or shallots work well too.
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
½ tsp dried rosemary
4 tbsp crème fraiche
175g filo pastry
450g frozen leaf spinach, defrosted
Salt
Ground black pepper
½ tsp ground nutmeg
200g any leftover cheese
Feta, Stilton, Brie, Camembert, Goat's cheese, cheddar etc
175g sliced cooked ham
For a vegetarian version, replace with 225g sliced brown cap mushrooms which have been fried in butter until golden. Allow to cool before mixing with the cheese.
Beaten egg, to glaze
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Tomato and olive salad to serve

Perfect portions

Use our portion calculator for a quick and simple way to check how much food to serve with this meal.

Use portion calculator

Recipe

  1. Heat half the butter in a large frying pan and cook the onions and garlic over a gently heat with the rosemary for a good 10-12 minutes or until very soft. Stir in the crème fraiche, remove from the heat and cool.

  2. While the onions are cooking, squeeze the liquid from the spinach and stir over a low heat until it is completely dry. Roughly chop, season with salt, pepper and ground nutmeg.

  3. Melt the remaining butter and lightly grease a 23cm base measurement, 3cm deep loose based flat tin. Line with sheets of filo pastry, brushing with butter between the layers and overlapping them in a random manner. There should be no gaps in the pastry and the excess pastry should hang over the sides of the tin.

    (Remember to keep the filo covered with cling film while lining the tin, as filo dries out very quickly once exposed to the air and then becomes difficult to work with).

  4. Lay across the bottom of the pastry the sliced ham (or mushrooms). Spoon in the cooled spinach, top with the onions, then the crumbled cheese. Wrap over the pastry to enclose the filling. Brush with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

  5. Put a baking sheet in the oven to heat up. Place the pie on top and cook at 190°C (375°F) mark 5 for about 45 minutes, cover lightly with foil after about 20 minutes so it doesn’t over brown. Cool for 10 minutes before turning out and serving.

    Serve with a tomato and olive salad.

  6. To freeze: Cool quickly by removing from any hot dish. Once cold, portion and wrap really well with cling film and foil. Label and pop in freezer for up to 3 months.

    Defrost your frozen portions in the fridge and use within 24 hours, or in a microwave on 'defrost' directly before use.

Make the most of your leftovers
Store in
Airtight container
Time
Fridge for 2 days, freezer 3 months
Where to store
Fridge or freezer
Reheat
Oven or microwave until piping hot. Reheat only once.

Perfect portions

Use our portion calculator for a quick and simple way to check how much food to serve with this meal.

Use portion calculator

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Inside of the fridge with someone changing the fridge temperature dial

Keep your fridge at 5°C or below

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