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 (170.1 g) frozen spinach, thawed
- 1 cup (150 g) crumbled feta cheese
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup (40 g) finely chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp 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.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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My new favorite recipe of yours! I doubled the pizza dough recipe because I am making a pizza later, but I forgot to double the egg, so my dough ended up extremely crumbly and I could only get 12 thin squares out of it. Rolling the dough was most certainly time-consuming, but that might have been from all the patching I had to do from my ingredient mistake. Despite this, my husband and I agree that this will have to be made regularly.
Carolyn.. The link to “magic mozz dough” in the Spanekopita recipe takes me to “keto fathead pizza dough”. Is this an error? Can you clarify please? Grazie.
Nope… same thing!
I’m craving pumpkin empanadas. I wonder if this dough would work.
These look great! I would love to make a huge batch. Do you know if they freeze well? (assuming any have lasted long enough) 🙂
They should!
Hi. How many hand pies is for one serving (of the Spanakopita)? Thanks so much.
It states in the nutritional panel in the recipe.
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.
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 ????
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.
Sounds great!
This is a great recipe! I’ve always love spanakopita. Sometimes I prepare it in muffin tins, or ramekins for individual portions.
BTW, when I first saw the name Antigone, I thought it was Anti-gone. The same with Penelope…Penna-lope. I learned quickly enough.
PS I ADORE so many of your recipes!!!
I think we ALL do that when we’re younger and haven’t heard them said out loud.
Love this spanakopita recipe but I can’t have dairy products. Do you have any other dough made without cheese? Thanks
Sadly, not one that will work for folding over fillings. It needs to be stretchy and only mozzarella gives it that quality.
Question: Do you think this dough might work for wonton wrappers for a crab Rangoon?
It probably won’t crisp up the same way but it would be a tasty alternative.
Hi Carolyn, this recipe looks amazing! Do you think they would freeze well?
After baking, yes.
How do I avoid cake becoming dark green when cooking with sunflower seed flour?
A tablespoon of acid (lemon juice or vinegar).
I have a problem eating feta cheese …it just doesn’t agree with me even thought I Love it!! Can’t do blue cheese either. What else could I use? or maybe just a little feta mixed with something else? Thank you, Carolyn..
Maybe just parmesan?
Thank you, I’ll try that..
They will be a definite have to make. Just a tip on squeezing out the excess water in spinach or similar foods, I use my potato ricer and fill about half full. Works like a charm and no more stained towels or fabric softener flavoured foods lol.
Just made them. The house smells great and they taste delish! Thanks for the great recipe.