Spinach Pizza and/or Flatbread

Pizza versus Flatbread.  What the heck is the difference?  I have no idea.  I just know that I love the entire category. You could even call me an enthusiast.  I'm also kind of a pizza snob.  As a native Chicago Suburbian, I grew up with some fantastic pizza.

Once a week in our house, a certain Bengali gentleman and I have pizza night.  We try all sorts of different permutations and combinations, but this spinach pizza is particularly tasty.  It's got two delicious kinds of cheeses for twice the delicious and some nice spinach to keep the green veggies in our diet, and decrease the guilty-pleasureness of pizza.  I tend to like to make it spicy (no surprise there!), but you don't have to.  You can also add some cherry tomatoes if you have them on hand.  That's the great thing about homemade pizza, it can be whatever you want!

Okay, so here we go with the recipe:

Tortellini Soup

So, I know that August isn't exactly full of what I would call Soup Weather (cold, possibly rainy, and generally dreary weather), but I'm telling you, this soup is a winner even in the summer.  Besides, let's be honest with ourselves, there's no such thing as Not-Tortellini-Weather.

So, this soup is another awesome go-to weeknight dinner, full of lovely vegetables, as well as some cheese, which is good for the soul (unless you are a vegan, in which case, butternut squash or artichoke stuffed tortellinis are good for the soul too).  The other nice thing about this lovely dinner is that you can have the stuff on hand all year round, because you can use fresh or frozen spinach and fresh or canned tomatoes and artichokes.  Hooray for versatility!

This recipe is taken and adapted from a lovely little blog called the Well-Fed Newlyweds.

So, here goes nothin' (recipe-wise):

Spinach Pinwheels

I had a serious debate with myself about what to call these. There aren't a lot of circle words that we use to describe food that are all that appetizing. Wheels? Nah, too transport oriented. Twirls? That's not food, that's movement. Rounds? Discs? Rings? None of these sound terribly appetizing. I really wanted something that sounded as tasty and light and crunchy as these lovely things. Ultimately, (as you can see above), I landed on pinwheels, but I'm not totally satisfied with that. Do you, my lovely readers, have any suggestions?


Anyway...this dish is, in the most basic description, spanakopita in a hurry. I posted a recipe a while back on here for spanakopita, the traditional way. It's a spinach pie with feta cheese and it's deliciously flaky and lovely. But, the fact of the matter is, working with phyllo dough is really time consuming. So, this recipe is a way to enjoy the wonderful spinachy-flavor of spanakopita, without having to worry about all that finicky phyllo. You make the filling in exactly the same way, but then you spread it on some puff pastry, roll it all up and they are in the oven in less than an hour. Gotta love a good shortcut!

Bulgur (Vulgar) Wheat

Bulgar, Spinach and Tomato Pilaf

Well, after such a meat-centric dish, It's probably time to go mostly vegan, right? The dinner can be completely vegan if you choose, just omit the yogurt.

Tonight's dinner (to celebrate a fabulous friend's successes!) was bulgur wheat pilaf. One regular at dinner has taken to calling it "Vulgar Wheat," and that sort of stuck. It's a tasty combination that is a variant of a recipe from Heidi Swanson's fabulous blog, 101 Cookbooks. For my purposes, I streamlined the recipe a bit and served it with some hummus, baba ganoush, cucumber/tomato salad and pita chips. A lovely middle-Eastern inspired feast!

Recipe (serves 3-5):
1 Medium sized white onion, diced
5-8 tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 1/2 cups bulgur wheat
(I prefer the finer ground wheat, but the coarser grinds work as well, they just take a bit longer to cook)
2 cups vegetable broth
10-12 oz. fresh spinach
12-15 plum tomatoes
2 tbsp. balsamic vineagar
1 1/2 tsp. chili garlic hot sauce (like Cholula)
2 tsp. soft brown sugar

Directions:
1) Preheat over to 350 degrees.
2) Cut the plum tomatoes in half. Mix half of the olive oil, hot sauce and balsamic vinegar together. Toss the tomatoes in the mixture.
3) Place the tomatoes cut side up in a baking dish. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake tomatoes for 20-25 minutes.
4) Heat a large skillet over medium heat with the remaining olive oil. Fry the diced onion in the oil until it is starting to turn golden on the edges. Add garlic and cinnamon and fry for another 1-2 minutes.
5) Add spinach to the pan and cook with onions, garlic and spices until beginning to wilt. Add lemon juice and cook for another minute.
6) Add vegetable broth and warm. The broth doesn't need to boil, but should be warm.
7) Add bulgur and stir. Cover the pan and cook until all the liquid is absorbed.
8) Add tomatoes on top of the mixture. You can also pour any of the remaining olive oil/balsamic/hot sauce mixture over the pilaf at this point, if you want.

Serve with Greek yogurt, pita chips or just by itself. Mostly, just enjoy it!

Until our next dinner,
ceh.

Any word, I show you that the root of that word is Greek.

Spanakopita

My best friend is Greek, and I can tell you for sure that nothing in the world compares with her dad's spanakopita. It's a delicious spinach pie that is lightly spiced with a bit of feta cheese. to. die. for. This is my version, which is (I think) the next best thing. The important thing to remember here is to get as much water out of the spinach as possible before you start to assemble the pies. I make two 8-inch pies with this and then put one in the freezer (for up to a month or so) to whip out for a quick dinner.

This recipe makes 2 8-inch pies

Recipe:

1/2 package filo dough

3 packages frozen spinach, thawed

5 tbsp. garlic

1 large white onion

6-8 oz. walnuts, toasted

16 oz. (approximately) feta cheese

2-3 eggs

8 tbsp. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp. of nutmeg

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put all of the spinach in a colander, and squeeze out as much moisture from it as you can. After you are done, it should be significantly smaller in volume, but that's good.

2) In a non-stick pan, heat approximately 2 tbsp. of olive oil and add the onions. Fry them until they are soft and just turning brown at the edges.

3) Add garlic, nutmeg, salt and pepper and fry for another 1-2 minutes.

4) Add Walnuts and spinach and stir until everything is incorporated. Then, turn of the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature

5) While the mixture is cooling, get out your filo dough. For tips on working with this infamously tricky material, I think this is a great resource: Tips on Handling Phyllo Dough Sheets. You can get your station set up with the damp towel, pastry brush and extra olive oil in a bowl.

6) Take the cooled spinach/onion/garlic mixture and mix in the eggs and feta cheese. It's a judgement call on whether it is 2 or 3 eggs. You are looking for a texture that loosely holds it shape, but isn't too sticky.

7) Commence filo dough layering. Put one layer down, brush it with olive oil, then put another down. You want to form a crust that is about 6-8 layers deep in the bottom of each pan. It's also good if there are edges hanging over, these will be folded over the filling later.

8) Divide the mixture in half and fill each pan. Fold the edges of the bottom crust over the top of the filling, making sure to brush oil on each layer.

9) Layer the top crust, again 6-8 layers deep, pushing the edges of the filo dough sheets down into the sides of the pan.

10) Put the pie in the oven, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden.

*A side note: if you are cooking a pie from the freezer, do not thaw in advance. Just put the pie from the freezer in the oven at 350, and bake it for about 40-45 minutes. And there you have it!

Until our next dinner,

ceh.