A buttery, tender almond flour dough stuffed with spinach and feta. This low carb keto spanakopita will have your tastebuds dancing!
How many times have you said a word you’ve used any number of times, only to find out you’ve been pronouncing it incorrectly for years? Possibly even decades. My husband just informed me the other day that I’ve been saying “detritus” all wrong, all this time. And he only knew because he said it at work and someone corrected him. Apparently, instead of DET-tritus, it is actually duh-TRITE-us. Strong emphasis on the second syllable, and a long i in that syllable. You could have knocked me over with a feather. It sounded so strange to my ears and it seemed like it couldn’t be true. But a little Googling proved that weird, formal sounding pronunciation to be correct. Damn, I hate it when I am wrong.
But we all do it at times. Many of us see words written before we ever say them aloud, especially longer, more formal words that don’t enter normal speech very often. When my sister was little, she thought that the word “briefly” was said “Bry-fly” and imagined it was some sort of briefcase. When I was teaching Kaplan SAT Prep, I asked one of my students to read a paragraph aloud and she read the word “epitome” as Epi-Tome. When I corrected her, she was flabbergasted. Of course she knew what an epitome was but had never seen it written and hadn’t made the connection. And I remember my husband (back in the day, when he was still my boyfriend) snorting with laughter when I first pronounced the word Episcopalian. I had all the em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble.
And then there come unfamiliar words from other languages. I am not sure when I first tried spanakopita but I’ve always loved it. I do know that I absolutely slaughtered the poor word upon my first few times saying it out loud. I was familiar with pita bread so I somehow emphasized those last two syllables at the end. Never mind, someone corrected me along the way and I happily ate the spinach, feta, and phyllo pie ever chance I got. It’s tasty stuff but I haven’t had it in years since phyllo and my blood sugar aren’t exactly friends anymore.
But I was working with the dough from my garlic knots a few weeks back, and it struck me how delicious it would be filled with spanakopita-type fillings. So I rolled my dough really thin and cut it into 16 squares, then mounded the spinach and feta goodness inside. The dough did crack at times, but it’s stretchy and malleable enough that I could pinch it back together and shape it into cute little triangles. And so low carb Spanakopita Hand Pies were born. No matter how you pronounce it, it is delicious!
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Spanakopita Hand Pies
Ingredients
- 6 ounces frozen spinach thawed
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 Magic Mozzarella Dough from Garlic Knots
- Additional almond flour for rolling out.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Place the spinach in a tea towel and squeeze out the excess moisture. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the feta, egg, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper and mix until well combined.
- Sprinkle a work surface with about 2 or 3 tablespoons of almond flour. Roll the dough out into a large square about 16 inches by 16 inches. Using a very sharp knife or a pizza wheel, cut into 16 even squares.
- Mound about 1 tablespoons of the spinach mixture into the center of each square. Fold the dough square over diagonally to make a triangle shaped pie. If the dough breaks or cracks when folding, simply pinch back together and shape around the filling.
- Place the triangles on the prepared baking sheet and make a small slit in the top of each to allow the steam to escape. Bake 20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and let cool on the pan.
Selena says
I’m craving pumpkin empanadas. I wonder if this dough would work.
Paula says
These look great! I would love to make a huge batch. Do you know if they freeze well? (assuming any have lasted long enough) 🙂
Carolyn says
They should!
Pinky Pincus says
Hi. How many hand pies is for one serving (of the Spanakopita)? Thanks so much.
Carolyn says
It states in the nutritional panel in the recipe.
Anna Wisner says
I’ve made this twice, with great success…except for the handling of the dough. I know you said to just squish them together, and I did, but next time I think I will try making a roll and cutting it, cinnamon roll style. However, the taste and texture is fabulous!! Oh, and btw each time I had a lot of filling left over, so I added three eggs, a dash of nutmeg, an ounce of grated mozzarella, and put it all into a greased 8×8 pan, baked it at 350 for about 20-25 minutes, made absolutely delicious frittata squares.
Gils33 says
Thank you for this great recipe.
I made it today and it was better from the original one!!!!
I had to stop my family members from eating it all ????
Barbara G says
This recipe looks very much like my non-keto spanikopita. Traditionally it contains dill
I would add a tsp or even more (I love the taste with a lot of dill) to the recipe. I’m 100% Greek and use my grandmother’s recipe from the old country. All except the phyllo and dill, you have a great recipe.
Carolyn says
Sounds great!