Onion Spanakopita (Braised Onion Pie)
“Why can’t you help out more with the housework?” I screamed at my husband early on Saturday.
I must have shocked him at six in the morning but I was tired and grumpy and the dogs were whimpering for a walk and I wanted him, for once, to take care of it.
“Where is this coming from?” he asked. “I’m always walking the dogs, cooking and washing and YOU need to do your share!” I told him.
Now, I know that arguing with your husband at six a.m. isn’t the best of ideas and no arguments get resolved so early in the morning, but I wouldn’t back down. So back and forth we went about who was going to walk the dogs and why I thought he wasn’t “sharing the burden” (yes, those were my words) and how he thought I was crazy for bringing this up so early in the morning and after twenty minutes we never really got to any resolution.
Instead of dwelling on our fight, I decided to take my mind off things and bake this beautiful Braised Onion Pie which I saw from the cookbook of Gary Mehigan and George Colombaris called “Your Place or Mine” The recipe is George’s take on his Mum’s Spanakopita, a Greek pie made with spinach and feta. Instead of the spinach, George makes onions the star of this dish. The dish is made with caramelized onions, shallots, garlic, leeks, ricotta and a beautiful crumbly Greek feta.
Onion Spanakopita
A word of caution, there is a lot of onions to go through with this dish. I normally refrigerate my onions prior to slicing them which, at least for me, helps to prevent my crying while I slice them. But on that morning, there were lots of tears.
It was worth it though. I started cooking at 10:00 am and at 10:30 my husband took the dogs for a walk. At 11:30 he came back and watered the plants…. at 12 noon he took the trash out.
Something was going on. Could it be the smell of the sweet caramelized onions making him sorry? Was he trying to make amends so he could have some lunch?
As we sat down for lunch I asked him why he was being so nice.
“I knew you were upset, I saw you crying and wanted to make it up to you.” he said.
Crying? Should I admit that it was the onions?
Or maybe wait for him to read this post… 🙂
Onion Spanakopita (Braised Onion Pie)
Onion Spanakopita (Braised Onion Pie)
From Your Place or Mine? Gary Mehigan & George Calombaris
- 150 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 12 onions, thinly sliced
- 8 shallots, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 3 leeks, white part only, thinly sliced
- 10 sprigs thyme
- 2 fresh bay leaves
- 400 grams firm ricotta cheese
- 400 grams feta, crumbled
- 18 sheets filo pastry
- 200 ml butter
- sea salt flakes
- salt and pepper to taste
- Heat the olive oil over high heat in a heavy based sauce pan. Add the onions, shallots, garlic, leeks, picked thyme sprigs and bay leaves and cook out for around 5 minutes over high heat. Turn the heat down to low and cook the mixture gently until the onions are caramelized, this will take around 45 minutes. Make sure to stir frequently to prevent the onions from catching the bottom of the pan and burning.
- Allow the onion mixture to cool and remove the bay leaves. Mix in the ricotta and crumbled feta.
- Pre-heat the oven to 170c fan-forced.
- Cut the sheets of filo to fit a baking tray (I used a baking tray measuring 30cm by 24 cm) and lay the sheets on top of some greaseproof or baking paper and then cover with a damp cloth to prevent drying and cracking. Take one sheet of filo and butter the bottom of the tray. Spread a layer of the filo and brush some butter to cover and then layer another sheet of filo and brush some more butter to cover. Repeat this with six more sheets, brushing some butter each time.
- Place half of the onion mixture on the filo sheets and spread evenly. Next, cover with three more buttered sheets of filo and then the remaining onion mixture. Finally, place another seven sheets of buttered filo (make sure you butter the last sheet).
- Bake the pie in a pre-heated oven for 45 minutes and serve warm. If you are making the pie in advance, you can reheat the pie in a 180c oven for 15 minutes.
Trissalicious 
I found this post though Pinterest. The photo was so beautiful that I just had to come here to read the recipe! Love it! And love your site :-).
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I love your thinking… my man probably does more housework than me, but having a little trick like this up my sleeve I think could still come in handy. I’ve actually gotten to taste George’s spanikopita when he made it at work once… it’s a vegetarian’s dream!
BAHAHA Nice work Trissa! I’m noting down this trick of yours
Woah that’s a lot of onions… but they are so delicious 🙂
A spanakopita like none I’ve seen before. I love this fresh spin on things, Trissa!
Frankly, I do not like the spinach feta combination so I think this would be so much better. As for arguments, I guess six in the morning is as good as any time to make a point.
Maybe you need to stock up on the onions. 😀
I have always loved onions 😉
Most of the time, tears are a woman’s most powerful weapon :). Onions can now be a woman’s best aid.
Oh that’s too funny! I love that he was trying to make you feel better though, that’s sweet. I wonder if the onion trick would work on my husband? 😀
Very nice and yes, house work is at the bottom of my priorities and does cause alot of arguments
This is a nice post. The next time I have an argument with my Quay Lo, I will go to the kitchen and I make sure to cut lots of onion and that he sees me crying! hehe.. Nice photos and your pie looks awesome!
Hahaha! Oooh, classy move! Now I know what to use when I want my hubby to do more chores 🙂 I would walk your dog though for a slice of this!
Your recipe is very interesting but Spanakopita in greek means pie with spinach! We usually add onion and feta but the basic ingredient of the filling is spinach.
Looks delicious!
Don’t admit anything! 😉
Oh… those arguements… we have so much of it at home as we both hate cleaning….
I think I need to get this cookbook… looks awesome!
Nice story! Next time when I’m upset and having arguments… I’ll make this right away! I’ve never heard of onion spanakopita before though. Have to try this.
Your posts always make me smile. And frankly, I think those arguments indicate a far more normal (and healthy) relationship with our spouses than if there were never disagreements at all. Or am I just saying this because we’ve had those similar arguments before? And no, it’s not just hubby on the receiving end; in our case, it’s me, too, sometimes. 🙂 My hubby also hates to see me cry–maybe I’ll try the onion bit sometime, LOL!
Have a great week, Trissa!
Sorry to hear you had an awful start to the weekend lovely. But, I’ve gotta say, what a way to make your Mr feel terrible, chop a few onions up. LOL. I am in love with this here pie, it looks gorgeous. Great piccy too.
LOL.. indeed the best way to get things done around the house! the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, after all :))
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Hahah – well it seems onion tears are good for something 🙂
The tart looks amazing!
What a way to get Dan to help out. Ehehehe. No matter what I do, the onions always win. I have such sensitive eyes. Ski gogles are the only ones that help. Although they are not very glamorous.
Don’t tell him it was the onions. Tears don’t work with getting my boyfriend to help with the housework, but bribing him with baking does. Whatever works I say!!
The spanakopita looks absolutely divine. I’m always looking for new and interesting vegetarian recipes, so I am going to have to try this…when I have a huge amount of onions on hand that is!
Haha. This is a normal fight in our family. We just have different definitions on what is cleaning. Very very annoying. The spanakopita looks great.
You always get your way, don’t you? hehe. Nice and funny post. Not to mention the gorgeous spanakopita.
LOL! Domestics at 6 a.m? At least your tears were worth it…I haven’t seen this version of “spanakopita” before but it looks mighty delicious…and more-ish! Nice one Trissa!
I loved the look of this pie from the book – yours really does it justice, so it was worth the buckets of tears, wasn’t it??
LOL! Remind me to get the onions chopping the next time I feel the need to guilt trip the boy. That spanakopita looks so delicious, I am a sucker for anything full of caramelised onions!
Trissa, your story is killing me – in laughter! Darn, I was in the same argument with my husband the other night. Next time, I know better.
Oh this looks delicious! And you got your husband to do some more chores? That’s icing on the cake!
oh trissa that is so cute! i say wait and let your husband read the post hehe
oo so cutting onions is the trick 😛
HAHA! I wonder how he’ll react when he reads this. Lol
This sounds so incredibly delicious. I can see myself eating the whole pan quite easily 😉
Haha… That is one funny (and rather recognizable) story Trissa!! I hope he kept up the ‘good work’ by helping out with the housework onions or no onions! Love this take on spanakopita! Looks totally delicious!
Wow, that’s a lot of alliums! Given how easily they can make a dish a bit flat, does the feta in the recipe lift the flavour enough, or did you find yourself wanting to tweak it a bit? I suppose the sweetness of the caramelised onions helps too…
@Duncan – I didn’t tweak at all – although I did serve with a side salad and some tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinegar – I found it very rich – but was quite good. 🙂