Savory spinach pie

Savory spinach pie is a pastry eaten throughout Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Turkey. Of Greek origin, this pastry’s filling is made of chopped spinach (sometimes chard) and usually feta or white cheese, and egg.

Etymology and history

Greece

Spanakopita (; Greek: σπανακόπιτα, from σπανάκι spanáki 'spinach', and πίτα píta 'pie') is a Greek savory spinach pie. It often also contains cheese, typically feta, and may then be called spanakotiropita (Greek: σπανακοτυρόπιτα "spinach-cheese pie"), especially in northern Greece. In southern Greece, the term spanakopita is also common for the versions with cheese. A version without cheese and eggs is eaten during religious fasts throughout Greece. Spanakopita appears in many traditional Greek cookery books and appears in numerous restaurants and hotel menus throughout Greece and internationally.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Zeljanica in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a savory pie filled with spinach, or sometime chard (in Bosnian blitva); the word burek (Turkish börek) is a pie filled with minced meat.

TasteAtlas, an encyclopedia of traditional dishes, in their presentation of the 100 best pastries in the world ranked Bosnian and Herzegovinian traditional pastry dishes, putting zeljanica above burek, sirnica and krompiruša.

Turkey

Ispanaklı Selanik Böreği and/or Ispanaklı Boşnak Böreği, is a Turkish savory spinach pie, or börek.