The Best Spanakopita Just Happens To Be Vegan Recipe

How to make it

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• Thaw phyllo dough according to package direction
• preheat oven to 375
• have a cookie sheet or oblong flat pan
• prepare the ricotta mix
• in a large bowl mix the 3 containers of vegan cream cheese and 3 firm tofu with your clean hands, mix until it looks like a creamy cottage cheese
• slice and dice small the two big onions and add to mix
• shred 2 carrots and add to mix
• cut up spinach (i use kitchen scissors) in thin shreds (put half a pack in mix and save half a pack) a pack of baby spinach, pre-packaged, in produce section of supermarket
• add lots of dry basil
• add lost of italian seasoning
• dice up at least one whole bulb of garlic and add it in
• mix it up with your hands
• quarter all the grape tomatoes and in
• mix it up with your hands real good
• take a taste to see if you need more salt or something and if you like (i like) add a couple shakes of cayenne or red pepper to the mix
• squeeze out all the juice from 1 large lemon, add it in
• mix it up real good
• (this should taste great already)
• put tinfoil on cookie sheet then spray olive oil on tin foil
• cut rolled phyllo dough into 3 sections, take one section (cover unused potions sections with a wet paper towels), unroll it,
• on a large cutting board lay out three layers of the dough,one at a time, spraying each layer with olive oil. (careful it's delicate but if i can do it, anyone can)
• put at least 1 heaping tbl spoon onto one end of the oblong sections of the dough
• fold the dough over (like a folded flag) corner to corner, over and over again until you're done this should looked like a puffed triangle of dough, with little or no filling spilling out
• place it on the cookie sheet
• put in preheated oven and check in 10 minutes, then keep checking every 10 minutes until dough is golden crispy, if it's taking too long just up the heat to 400, they should not be any darker than the photo
• continue with this process until all the filling is used or all the dough is used
• heat up your own or your favorite marinara sauce (i like rao), 2 jars
• if you want to add some seasonings to the sauce, garlic would be good and some basil
• to display on buffet: what i usually do is go to the dollar tree or deals and pick up 3 plastic/crystal round platters (i like the cobalt blue ones).
• put like a pre-made doily or nice looking square napkins on the tray in some king of decorative way
• lay out the spanikopita following the circle of the tray, right up against the outer edge, then fill in the center in an orderly circular fashion, then build layers up making a kind of pyramid
• sliver the rest of the spinach with the scissors and decoratively add to each pyramid (you should make at least 3 pyramids from this recipe and more than likely will run out of mix before the dough)
• serve with marinara sauce in a couple of bowls with serving spoons, the guests can drizzle the sauce over the spanikopita for extra flavor.
• this is a gourmet finger food that your guests will LOVE and you've made it look good and delectable AND it is VERY healthy as well as being vegan.