Last week I had my close friends from school for dinner. It was very refreshing to cook for friends in between all the catering gigs! I made a nice little menu from baba ganoush to stuffed peppers, but I also wanted to try something new. And as the absolute lover of phyllo dough, of course I baked something with it instead of many other options!
So, I believe we can call this pie as “börek” in Turkish, though, it is slightly different than my regular “börek”s. The making of this, especially creating the phyllo layers, reminds a bit more of a pie. Anyway, I will call it a pie in this post because it’s easier to write! It is a recipe I first saw on Grains Are Good book, and then I did a bit of twisting and turning and voila!
This pie has a large variety of ingredients which make it extremely rich in taste. There is the moist, juicy spinach and leeks, there is rice and mushroom which make it pretty filling, there is the anise-like flavour from fennel which is not overpowering. And there is of course some cheese and egg to keep everything stick together and give even more flavour.
One thing that you need to pay attention to is to remove the pie from pan as soon as it cools down a bit. If you leave it to cool completely or to cool a rather long time in the pan, then you will lose most of the crispiness of phyllo. It will still taste great, don’t worry. But that nice crispy texture is phyllo’s signature (and I love it!) so it might be a shame to lose it.
This pie, all by itself, is so filling and rich that you can practically eat it alone as a main dish. However, you can also have thin slice of it and combine with fresh, basil salad to make a light but nourishing combo. I think it will also be a nice brunch dish if you like brunching with friends! Enjoy!
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Ingredients:
Difficulty: ★★☆ (Medium)
(makes 1 pie in 26cm springform pan)
Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)
25 gr, about 2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp olive oil, plus more to grease the pan
1 small fennel (about 200 gr.), trimmed and thinly sliced
200 gr. mushrooms, sliced (any mushroom of your choice is fine, I just used common jarred mushrooms so that they don’t overpower the whole pie)
300 gr. leek, white and green parts, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
200 gr. (2.5 dl or 1 cup) risotto rice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
200 gr. fresh, whole spinach leaves
3 dl (or 1 cup + 3 tbsp + 1 tsp) boiling water or boiling vegetable stock
4 sheets of phyllo pastry
50 gr. melted butter
50 gr. (or 1 dl + 4 tsp or 1/2 cup) grated parmesan
4 eggs
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1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Brush a 26cm springform pan generously with olive oil and put aside.
2. In a large pan or a wok, put butter and olive oil and let it warm on medium high heat for half a minute.
3. When butter starts melting, add fennel and mushrooms and cook stirring for about 2-3 minutes, until fennel is soft and mushrooms are juicy.
4. Add leek and garlic cloves and continue cooking by stirring for 3 more minutes until leek is softened.
5. Add rice, salt and nutmeg and continue cooking by stirring frequently for about 1 more minute.
6. Add spinach and water (or vegetable broth), stir, turn the heat to medium and let it cook until all the water is absorbed. When it’s absorbed, take the pan out of the heat and let it cool while you prepare the phyllo sheets.
7. Put 1 sheet of phyllo on your table and brush generously with melted butter. Put another sheet perpendicular to the first one and again brush with melted butter. Put third and fourth sheets diagonally in different directions, brushing with melted butter after adding each layer.
8. Put the phyllo sheets on top of prepared springform pan and by gently pushing the dough into the pan, let it take the shape of the pan (there is no photo of this step because of a technical problem with my camera, sorry!!). There will be extra parts of phyllo hanging outside of the pan, leave it like that for the moment.
9. Transfer the cooked filling to a large bowl. Add parmesan and eggs and mix well.
10. Pour the filling into phyllo crust. Smoothen the surface with a spatula. Fold the remaining parts of phyllo hanging out of the pan on top of the filling to cover the whole surface.
11. Brush the top phyllo surface generously with remaining melted butter. Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes, until the crust is golden and crunchy. Take it out of the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes and then take out of the pan, transfer to a plate or preferably onto a wire rack. Enjoy as a main dish or as a light treat with some tea, but most important of all, enjoy with friends and family!
My Dear Kitchen in Helsinki 
This looks SO yummy! Thank you for sharing! <3
Great to hear that! Enjoy!
Looks yummy. http://www.shesatomboy.com
Thank you! ^_^
Looks delightful, Asli. I shared on Facebook; ‘My Food Lover’s Corner’ page.
Oh wow, super! Thank you! 😍
Thanks. Keep them coming.
Looks really good, well detailed, thank you so much🙏
Thank you for visiting!
Yw😉🙏
Looks great I have nourothopy in my hands and the dough can become a major problem with the help of.friends life is enjoyable
This dough is ready and easy to handle. Hope you give it a try. Cheers!
Great tasty. Janoulis Sweets say nice. Come see my site have a nice day
Thank you!
Hello, and thanks for sharing this recipe with us. It looks delicious and I would love to try to make some. But as a man who doesn’t like to cook but has to. I look for quick easy and simple things to cook. I hate prep time.
I don’t like to complain but my wife is having some health issues and is unable to get out of bed and cook. I don’t mind sharing the cooking and cleaning responsibilities, but it is starting to get to me.
Thanks for letting me vent. Have a Great Day!
Well, I hope you try to cook this one too at some point. It’s fun! :)
Ola
Estou lendo seu post às 11:30 h,
um pouco antes do almoço. aqui no
Brasil. Apenas pelas fotos e ingredientes
aguçou minha fome. Infelizmente não
Vou poder fazer tal receita pois meus dotes
Culinários são mínimos. Admiro quem faz.
Meus parabéns e obrigado
Hmmm can’t speak Portuguese, sorry!
Great! I highly apprevciate the helpful illustration with photos of each step of preparation. Thx.
Lovely to hear!
I literally got hunger pangs😄 thanks for sharing!
Haha good!
You had me at pie…..!
Perfect :)
Wow, am definitely going to try this😍😍. Visit my blog ndeeba to see different Africa traditional dishes.
Great!
This looks yummy!
Thanks!
Looks like this recipe will be a perfect side for my Thanksgiving dinner. (My husband keeps inviting more people, so I need more sides!) Fun to find you here and to follow. I’m a fiction writer and blogger in the U.S., and I’ve just started working on a manuscript set (partly) during Finland’s Winter War. Anyway, beautiful site and photos. Can’t wait to try the recipe! Kiitos!
Oh, that sounds very interesting! I hope to know about it more in the future!
Thats looks so yummy!!!
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I am certainly going to try this.
Great! ^_^
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Looks delicious. Your cooking instructions are really clear, I can’t wait to try to try this.
Pingback: Phyllo Pie With Fennel, Mushroom, Rice, Leeks… And So Many More Things! — My Dear Kitchen in Helsinki
🤤🤤thnks for sharing
Looks delicious!!😛
That looks delicious!
Thanks for showing all the steps with photos.
Can’t wait to try this recipe
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Omgg it’s Soo yummy.. I will try this at my home for sure…
Your pastry look beautiful, my mouth is watering just looking at these photos. Well done!
Be right back. Let me run to the store for some phyllo sheets. That is one serious tasty looking pie.
Looks delicious!
Awesome post! I loved the amount of detail you used
Mmm 💗💖
This looks delicious and you can tell how much work went into making this blog post – thank you!
This looks incredibly delicious -thank you for sharing. Great blog!
Absolutely Love your versatile recipe, to none saturates in food …..:)
This looks yummy
This looks delicious, thanks very much for sharing I will definitely give this a go. Cheers
This looks amazing
Sometimes I feel as though I love exquisite and extravagant meals more than life itself.?
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Delicious-looking savory pie!
HI, am new here. It just feels like you are living and enjoying your life’s purpose.
How nice!
In case you visit an African village in future, here are some food rules to learn :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67vnbkUvbVU&feature=youtu.be
Çok farklı bir tarif ✌🏻
Tesekkurler!
Great photography and awesome level of detail. This blog stands well above the pack.
There is a fennel invasion in the paddocks and parks around my home, and I think I need to harvest some and make this recipe!
Whoa looks delish..gonna try this one
Impressive stuff!
This sounds delicious! I’m going to have to give it a try.
My grandma use to cook leeks often. She passed away a few years ago.
Ohh looks very delicious, unfortunately i can’t cook : ((( : D
Very impressed by the amount of pictures you post for each recipes.
It is clear and very easy to understand the instruction.
Will try it as soon as I can find some Phyllo locally :)
This looks good, and there’s the recipe! Gotta try it out at home =D
Brilliant!