Recipe - Spanikopitakias & Keftethes (Spinach triangles and Greek meatballs)

Spanikopitakia (Spinach & feta triangles)

1 pkg froz. Spinach
1 onion, chopped
1 TB olive oil
1/2 TB parsley
1 Ts dill
1 goodly shake of nutmeg
½ cup ricotta
1 cup feta
¼ cup parmesan, grated
1 serv. of tofu egg-replacement, recipe below (or 2 eggs)
salt
pepper
1/2 box of fillo sheets
1 stick butter (melted)

1. Thaw spinach, let cool, squeeze out most of the liquid. Fry onion in the olive oil until lightly browned.

2. Mix together spinach, onion, herbs, cheeses and egg-replacement (or eggs if preferred). Stir.

3. Roll out and cut fillo sheets in half longways.

4. One at a time, brush sheets lightly with melted butter. Place a generous dollop of spinach mix and fold into a triangle. ( I do this with the flag fold method. )

5. At this point you can freeze the triangles if you like. They freeze excellently! I place them in a large tupperware container, seperating the layers with wax paper.

6. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place ¼ pat of butter on top of each triangle. Cook 20 minutes if frozen, 15 minutes if fresh. Check after about 10 minutes to see if the corners are getting too browned.

7. For miniature triangles, cut fillo sheets into thirds longways instead of halves.



Keftethes (Originally this recipe was for meat patties, I transformed them into meatballs)

1 pkg morningstar farms crumbles
1 serving of tofu egg-replacement, recipe below (Or 2 eggs)
¼ cup bread crumbs
2 slices slightly stale bread, crumbled
1 onion, chopped really small
1 TB lemon juice
1 TB parsley
1 Ts cilantro
1 Ts paprika
1 Ts cumin
salt
pepper
2 TB parmesan cheese

1. Mix egg replacement (or eggs) with crumbled bread, onion, juice, cheese and seasonings. Let sit 10 minutes.

2. Cook MF crumbles with 1 TB olive oil & ½ TB soy sauce.

3. Add cooled crumbles to mixture along with ¼ cup bread crumbs.

4. Form into balls, roll in more bread crumbs.

5. At this point you can freeze the meatballs if you like, just like the spanikopitakias they freeze really well! I will place a batch in a tupperware container with enough room between each to not have any touching so that they won't stick together. Once they are well frozen I combine them into a large freezer bag to save space.

6. Shallow fry meatballs in butter until browned. You can put the frozen meatballs directly into the frying pan from the freezer. If frozen, place in 325 degree oven for 10 minutes, or microwave for 2 minutes. If fresh, microwave for one minute after frying in butter.

Tofu Egg Replacement

2 Heaping TB of silken tofu
3 TB water
3 TB all-purpose flour

Mix all ingredients together until mostly creamy. This amount will replace 2 eggs in the recipes above. For added stiffness 1 TB soy flour can be added. For a more liquid solution just add more water.