(Photography: Tim Roberts, Styling: Michele Cranston)
Golden, flaky and packed with flavour, this Spanakopita and Pumpkin Plait puts a delicious twist on the classic Greek pie. Creamy spinach, sweet roasted pumpkin and salty feta are wrapped in crisp pastry and baked until beautifully golden. It’s the perfect centrepiece for a relaxed lunch, meat-free dinner or festive gathering.
Ingredients
Method
Make rough puff pastry.
Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced. Put pumpkin on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle with oil, then season. Roast for 25 minutes or until tender. Allow to cool.
Combine spinach, ricotta, feta, garlic, green onion, mint, parsley, lemon zest and egg yolk in a large bowl. Season, then mix well.
Roll out pastry on a lightly floured bench to a 30cm x 50cm rectangle about 3mm thick. Cut a 10cm-wide strip of pastry from one of the short edges and reserve for decorating. You should now have a 30cm x 40cm rectangle. With a short edge facing you, arrange the spinach mixture down the centre-third of the pastry (10cm wide), leaving a 2cm border at the top and bottom. Press pumpkin pieces into filling.
Using a sharp knife, cut pastry on both sides of the filling into 2.5cm-wide diagonal strips. Brush strips lightly with beaten egg. Fold the strips from each side over the filling, alternating to create a plaited pattern, and fold the top and bottom inwards to enclose.
Take the reserved pastry strip and cut out 10 flowers using 6cm, 4cm and 2cm flower-shaped cookie cutters. Arrange on pastry plait and brush with beaten egg.
Put a large baking tray in the oven for 10 minutes to preheat. Carefully transfer the plait onto a sheet of baking paper, then lift onto the hot tray. Bake for 40 minutes or until the pastry is crisp, puffed and golden brown.
Allow the plait to stand for 5 minutes. Slice plait and serve with lemon wedges.
Cooks tips:
- You’ll need to work relatively quickly when making the plait so the dough doesn’t become too soft. If the dough is soft, refrigerate the plait for 10 minutes before baking.
- No green onion? Swap in a small brown onion, finely chopped, and add it to the pumpkin for the last 10 minutes of roasting.
