Vegan Spinach Pockets

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I'll tell ya right now. I love Spanakopita, deelish little pockets of bright green spinach and salty feta. Sadly, these days I can't eat cheese so I don't get to dig in. This morning after scrubbing the kitchen floors like a scullery maid I decided to reward myself with fresh vegan spanakopitas. But how? I figured that if tofu can replace ricotta why not feta?

INGREDIENTS

1 package of filo pastry defrosted

1 large bunch of fresh spinach cleaned and de-stemed.

1 small white onion chopped (I didn't chop it fine and regret that a bit)

1/2 a block of firm tofu crumbled up

3 cloves of garlic sliced

(I read recently that chopping garlic finely makes it more pungent. Interesting)

1 TB herbs de provence.

2 TB nutritional yeast

Start with your onion. Saute that little feller in some olive oil and salt until translucent. Add the crumbled tofu, herbs de provence and pepper. Once your tofu is starting to get a little bit of a golden crust add the spinach and garlic.

Cook the spinach down until dark green and tender

Add the nutritional yeast to give a bit of that cheesy flavor.

Next comes the filo pastry. Start with 1 sheet. Delicately brush olive oil over the sheet. Tip: I might add a sprinkling of salt or yeast next time to mimic butter flavor. I didn't have a pastry brush but luckily had an old feathering paint brush that looked like it had never been used. Boy I really need to get to Home Goods and buy one already, along with a dang rolling pin.

Back to the pastry. Continue lightly brushing with oil until you have 4 layers.

Then cut the sheet into 4 strips. Place a spoonful of filling at one end.

Then fold over the corner like you are going to fold up a flag.

Continue folding the corner up and over and place on sheet with the flap down.

Continue with the rest of your filling and filo. Brush the pockets with a bit of oil and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Oh and careful not to eat it right out of the oven as much as you may want to. It will burn the living daylights out of the roof of your mouth.