Greek
Vegan Spanakopita Recipe
Prep
30 minutes
Cook
20 minutes
Yield
20 -24
Have you ever had that delicious little triangle bite-sized vegan spanakopita your mom made for dinner parties? You know the ones, that look super fancy and you probably burnt the shit out of your mouth because you didn’t wait for them to cool down. That was my childhood, me eating my mom’s homemade spanakopita (Greek spinach and feta pies) straight out of the oven!
❤️ Why You’ll Love Vegan Spanakopita
- Easy: Tastes and looks fancy but can be made in only 50-minutes
- Delicious: I love the spinach and creaminess in this vegan spanakopita recipe. So good!
- Classic Recipe: This recipe is inspired by a classic recipe of spanikopita but with some spins that make it special
🍲 Ingredients
Nooch/Nutritional Yeast: I’m going to let you in on a little secret, I put nooch (also known as nutritional yeast) on pretty much everything! Okay, I know that’s not a secret, I tell everyone about my obsession with nooch. It is just a vegan’s best friend, packed with so many essential vitamins and minerals how can you not mix it into every recipe. My pantry is stocked with a few jars of this stuff from Bob’s Red Mill. Why do I love this stuff, let me tell you:
- It’s a complete protein
- Nooch is jammed packed with B vitamins (essential for plant-based eaters)
- It contains trace minerals like zinc, selenium, manganese, and molybdenum
👩🍳 How to Make Vegan Spanakopita
1. The night before making your spanakopita, make sure to remove your phyllo dough from the freezer. Allow to thaw in the fridge.
I’m Your Mommy Now
Your Greek mommy that is. 😍 Step into my kitchen to learn how to make yummy Greek food. 🍽️💃
2. In a large pot, heat your olive oil on medium heat for around 30 seconds.
3. Add the onions and leek, sautéing until caramelized and golden brown.
4. Stir often to avoid burning.
5. After about 10 minutes, your onions and leeks will be ready. Add the green onions, dill, parsley, mint, nutritional yeast, seasonings, and vegetable stock paste.
6. Cook for around 2 minutes or until wilted considerably.
7. Next, add the spinach, and stir until wilted- you want to cook this down until there is no moisture left.
8. Once the spinach is ready, stir in the feta, and remove from heat to cook for around 10 minutes.
9. Preheat the oven to 375F and prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
10. Melt the butter and set it aside. Have it ready with a brush to gently coat your phyllo.
11. It is best to keep your phyllo dough moist, so I suggest laying it out flat and then covering it with a damp cloth.
12. Gently place one sheet of phyllo dough onto a large cutting board or flat surface. This is a very delicate ingredient, so be patient.
13. Coat the whole thing with melted butter, using your brush, then repeat that step with more sheets, 4 layers total.
14. Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut the layered phyllo dough into 4 long strips.
15. Scoop approximately 2 tbsp. of the spanakopita filling 1 – 2 cm away from the edge of one strip.
16. Roll the phyllo dough directly over the filling to fully cover it.
17. Next complete a diagonal fold towards one side, to begin a triangle formation.
18. Continue this type of diagonal fold down the entire strip, making sure to alternate the sides of each fold.
19. Arrange onto the baking tray and lightly brush with the melted butter.
20. Complete these steps until all of the fillings is used.
21. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, until golden brown and crisp.
22. Serve with tzatziki! ENJOY!!
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- The mixture is great in vegan spanakopita, Phyllo Rolls, and Calzones. Can be made ahead of time and frozen. Lasts up to one week in the fridge before consumption
- Always cook your phyllo dough and puff pastry from frozen for the best outcome!is spanakopita vegan?
🗒 Best served with
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Phyllo Pie lasts up to one month, uncooked and frozen in the freezer.
🤔 Common Questions
Always check the label, but traditionally, filo does not contain butter or milk.
It is a very good source of dietary fiber, phosphorus, vitamin B1, and choline.
I love it on its own, but you can also pair it with a salad, or serve it as a side in replacement of bread for a Greek dinner of souvlaki, veggies, rice, etc.
Tiropita only has cheese in its filling but spanakopita has spinach and feta.
Vegan Spanakopita Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium white onion finely chopped
- 2 ½ cups leek finely chopped
- 1 ½ cups green onion finely chopped
- Season to taste
- 1 cup fresh dill
- 1 cup fresh parsley
- ½ cup fresh mint
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp vegetable stock paste
- 900 g fresh spinach
- 1 cup vegan feta
- 1 packet vegan phyllo
- 1 cup Easy Greek Tzatziki Sauce
Instructions
- The night before making your individual spanakopita, make sure to remove your phyllo dough from the freezer. Allow thawing in the fridge.
- In a large pot, heat your olive oil on medium heat for around 30 seconds.
- Add the onions and leek, sautéing until caramelized and golden brown.
- Stir often to avoid burning.
- After about 10 minutes, your onions and leeks will be ready. Add the green onions, dill, parsley, mint, nutritional yeast, seasonings, and vegetable stock paste.
- Cook for around 2 minutes or until wilted considerably.
- Next, add the spinach, and stir until wilted- you want to cook this down until there is no moisture left.
- Once the spinach is ready, stir in the feta, and remove from heat to cook for around 10 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375F and prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Melt the butter and set it aside. Have it ready with a brush to gently coat your phyllo.
- It is best to keep your phyllo dough moist, so I suggest laying it out flat then covering with a damp cloth.
- Gently place one sheet of phyllo dough onto a large cutting board or flat surface. This is a very delicate ingredient, so be patient.
- Coat the whole thing with melted butter, using your brush, then repeat that step with two more sheets, 3 layers total.
- Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut the layered phyllo dough into 4 long strips.
- Scoop approximately 2 tbsp. of the spanakopita filling 1 – 2 cm away from the edge of one strip.
- Roll the phyllo dough directly over the filling to fully cover it.
- Next complete a diagonal fold towards one side, to begin a triangle formation.
- Continue this type of diagonal fold down the entire strip, making sure to alternate the sides of each fold.
- Arrange onto the baking tray and lightly brush with the melted butter.
- Complete these steps until all of the fillings is used.
- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, until golden brown and crisp.
- Serve with tzatziki! ENJOY!!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Bob’s Redmill
This pie was amazing! Definitely now my favourite. I did cheat a little and used already made puff pastry for quickness. When I have more time I will make the pastry from scratch too. The filling was oh so delicious 😋 Thanks Maria for this recipe.
You’re so welcome Laura! Glad you loved this one. It’s one of our favourites. xx
These are a family Fave for sure!
This one is so lovely! Glad you and your family enjoy it xxx
On step 7 while still frozen, is it supposed to come out of the 8×8 pan and go onto the baking sheet separate from the 8×8 pan?
I think you meant a damp cloth! When I use phyllo, i put a dry paper towel over the unused dough which is covered with a damp paper towel. This keeps the dough from getting sticky, as it is not directly in contact with the damp towel.
Hello Fonda, where I live a paper towel and cloth are the same thing. Thank you for reminding me that there are different terms for things all across the world. Have a great Sunday. Happy Canada day long weekend from us!
I made this last night for dinner and was overall happy with how it turned out! I used puff pastry but had to skip the freezing step (ran out of time) – the finished pie was a bit soggy on the bottom, but I wonder if that would have been prevented by the freezing step. I didn’t use all 900 g of spinach – I suspect I used closer to 700g and still had leftover filling. I also gave the cooked filling a few quick pulses in the food processor as I could tell the spinach stems would have been a bit much for me if I hadn’t. Next time I’ll try using phyllo instead, I won’t skip the freezing step, and maybe try using less filling for a thinner pie (or make 2 pies using the same amount of filling?). But the flavour of the filling was amazing and having never made any sort of spanakopita before I was quite pleased with how this turned out for me! Thank you for this recipe!
Hey Kathleen, the soggyness is 100% due to the fact that you skipped the freezing step! Let me know how your next time goes.
I just recently tried making the spanakopita from your cookbook (man that phyllo dough was a pain in the ass to work with) and they came out great, I can only imagine these will taste even better with the leek! : )
Thank you so much beauty! hahah yes, phyllo can be “fun”) I am glad you stuck it out and made those bad boys!
How hot should the oven be? I don’t see this included in the recipe.
So sorry about that, the blog has been edited! Cook at 425F!
Maria x
I would love to make this! I’ve eaten many variations of this on holiday in Greece and it is delicious! I have pinned the recipe for later. One point – it would have been useful to see a picture showing the filling, just to be able to see the colour and consistency of the inside of the finished pie.
I have photos on my IG that I always say to use as a point of reference. @foodbymaria. As a small team we are working towards getting process shots done but it will take time, that we currently don’t have but it’s in the works. I appreciate your feedback a lot but at the time I would love the patience and ill let you know when we get to that stage! Free content, yay!
leek is spelled with two ees
hello anonymous, thanks for your input and english lesson.
Can’t wait to try this recipe- I giggled about the covering phyllo dough with a “damn” cloth… but the question I have is there is option of using vegan puffed pastry but no directions for puffed pastry… will you be adding those directions soon?
Hey Rebecca, it’s really simple just place on the base and top of the pie, exactly like how you did with the phyllo but just with puffed pastry. I hope that helps. Have fun in the kitchen – there is really no wrong way to do this!