Spinach Pies

One of my favorites! Lebanese spinach pies are perfect to cook for parties and get-togethers. If you're cooking for less people (or just for yourself) you can stick these in the freezer and take them out as you please. Flattening the dough and cutting out the small circles to make each individual pie will seem a little tedious, but it will be worth it when you see how delicious they will look the second you take them out of the oven. If you're a fan of spinach, you will love the mixture you'll be preparing to add to the dough. Eva remembers eating the spinach mix as a child with her siblings whenever her mother cooked spinach pies (it's that yummy), so be sure to make extra! 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound of pre-made dough (pizza dough or bread dough or you can also make your own)
  
• Flour
• 8 ounces of spinach
• 1 cup diced white onion
• Lemon juice (or juice from fresh lemon)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil

Instructions:
1. Spread dough out to flatten, sprinkle with flour to keep from sticking (Eva uses a long stick from Lebanon but you can use a rolling pin)

2. Once flattened, cut out circles of any size and set each circle aside. Eva uses a plate (15 inches in diameter or you can use a soup bowl) to measure the circle and cuts around it (if you have leftover dough, you could re-work the dough to make more circles or you can always make it into garbage bread with some of your spinach mix)

3. In a bowl, add spinach, diced onions and add 2-4 dashes of pepper (or preference), 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice (taste after 2 tablespoons, personally I love more of a lemon taste), 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil & mix well, spinach is hard to mix but be sure to mix it all and don’t  be afraid to break some of it.  Taste mixture in case you want more salt, pepper, or lemon juice

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
5. Coat bottom of a baking pan with olive oil (or your choice)
6. Add small handfuls of spinach to dough circles. Don't be afraid to add a lot, spinach will cook down

7. Bring two sides together to the center and press the sides closed, do again for the other two sides to form a triangle, leave opening in center for venting *don’t worry about making a perfect triangle, you can do any other shape you'd like as long as you have an opening

8. After folding all of your dough into triangles, add to baking pan and put on bottom rack of oven for 30 minutes
9. After 30 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown, add to top rack for up to 5 minutes or until the top is golden brown
10. Remove pan from oven and remove spinach pies to a cooling rack, enjoy!

Yummy!