Gluten-Free Spanakopita by Helen Tzouganatos

Even Greek food can be gluten-free — including this finger-licking-good spanakopita recipe from Australia-based cookbook author, food connoisseur and TV personality Helen Tzouganatos.

Tzouganatos has become affectionately known as Australia’s “gluten-free queen,” the first person people turn to when seeking the trick on how to turn their favorite recipes into foods that all can eat.

Originating from Sydney, Tzouganatos discovered she was a coeliac 13 years ago during IVF treatment, after which her doctor told her to eliminate gluten from her diet to heal inflammation in her body.

“There were not many gluten free offerings in the market at the time. You couldn’t even find a single loaf of gluten free bread in the supermarket and what was available in health food stores was horrible,” Tzouganatos said. “So I started experimenting with gluten-free ingredients at home.”

After more than a decade of trial-and-error Tzouganatos said she has now “mastered” the art of gluten-free cooking.

Before her culinary adventures, Tzouganatos she spent most of her career working as a marketing manager for some of the largest food companies in the world — including Nestle and Kellogg’s. But she said that her real passion always lay in “making beautiful food from scratch” in her home kitchen.

In 2015 she left the corporate world and launched her food blog “Hungry and Fussy” as a creative outlet and way of staying mentally stimulated with three young kids at home.

Fast forward four years and Tzouganatos has published her first hardcover cookbook, become a TV presenter and hosted Australia’s first gluten-free TV series, “Loving Gluten Free” for SBS Food.

See the ingredients and instructions for her gluten-free spanakopita recipe — and try bringing it into your own kitchen.

1. Gluten-free Spanakopita

Ingredients

** Serves 4 – 6

** NOTE: The spanakopita is made using Tzouganatos’ gluten free rough puff pastry. See the separate instructions and ingredients for this below.

Cheese & Spinach Filling

• 300g ricotta
• 200g Dodoni feta cheese
• 1 cup silverbeet or English spinach, chopped
• 2 shallots, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons chopped dill
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• Pinch of cracked pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil for brushing
• Sesame seeds (optional)
• GLUTEN FREE ROUGH PUFF PASTRY (Separate ingredients/instructions follow) **

Rough Puff Pastry

Tzouganatos’ golden rules for a perfect golden puff pastry are:

1. All ingredients and utensils should be as cold as possible. Ensure your butter is very cold or even frozen. If you do freeze the butter ensure you cube it first otherwise you may lose some fingers. You need those!
2. The initial dough should be rough looking like the picture above. Visible chunks of butter are a good thing in puff pastry. When the visible pieces of butter melt in a hot oven oven they help create a flaky texture so don’t overwork the butter into the pastry dough.
3. Roll the dough as thinly as possible between two sheets of baking paper when ready to use to ensure your cooked pastry is crispy and not gluggy.
4. Cook puff pastry at a high temperature of at least 400 F to achieve maximum lift.

Pastry Ingredients

• 1 cup or 120g cornflour
• ¾ cup or 120g potato starch
• ½ cup or 70g sorghum flour
• 2 tsp xantham gum
• 1 tsp sea salt flakes
• 250g very cold butter, cubed
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup chilled water

** NOTE: When ingredient shopping be careful not to confuse potato starch with potato flour, they are not the same thing. Potato starch is made from the dried starch component of potatoes and has no potato flavor. It creates a beautiful light fluffy texture in baked goods. Potato flour is a heavy cream flour made from whole potatoes and has a distinct potato flavor. Tzouganatos bakes exclusively with potato starch.

Pastry Instructions

Conventional Method

1. Put the cornflour, potato starch, sorghum flour, xantham gum and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine.
2. Add the cold butter and egg and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add the water and mix until the dough resembles rubble.
4. Tip the rubble onto a sheet of baking paper and press together with your dusted hands into a rectangular shape. Place another baking sheet on top and roll out the dough, you still want to see butter streaks so don’t overwork the butter. Fold the top and bottom short edges to meet at the centre then fold pastry in half. Wrap pastry in cling wrap and rest in fridge for 30 min. Repeat the roll and fold 2 more times, if your dough is too sticky dust with some extra cornflour.
5. When ready to use roll out pastry between two sheets of baking paper to produce a thin pastry sheet which will deliver a flakier texture.

Thermomix Method

1. Put the cornflour, potato starch, sorghum flour, xantham gum and salt in Thermomix and combine 3 sec/speed 4.
2. Add the cold butter and egg and mix 5 sec/speed 4 until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. With the motor running add chilled water and mix 5 sec/speed 3 until just combined.
4. Tip the rubble onto a sheet of baking paper and press together with your dusted hands into a rectangular shape. Place another baking sheet on top and roll out the dough, you still want to see butter streaks so don’t overwork the butter. Fold the top and bottom short edges to meet at the centre then fold pastry in half. Wrap pastry in cling wrap and rest in fridge for 30 min. Repeat the roll and fold 2 more times, if your dough is too sticky dust with some extra cornflour.
5. When ready to use roll out pastry between two sheets of baking paper to produce a thin pastry sheet which will deliver a flakier texture.

Spanakopita Instructions

Conventional Method

1. Combine filling ingredients in bowl and mix thoroughly with hands.
2. Remove gluten-free rough puff pastry from fridge and place on a dusted surface. Slice into three long strips and roll each strip out thinly between two sheets of baking paper. A thinner pastry will deliver a crispier texture.
3. Place a strip of cheese filling along edge of pastry. Brush long pastry edges with beaten egg.
4. Use a pastry scraper to gently lift the long edge of the pastry and roll it over the filling. Pinch each end to seal. Twist into a coil.
5. Generously brush top of pastry coil with olive oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
6. Place coil on lined baking tray. Cook for 40-45 minutes on 400 F oven or until golden brown.

Thermomix Method

1. For the filling add spinach and herbs to mixing bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 5. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix 5 sec/speed 3.
2. Remove pastry from fridge and place on a dusted surface. Slice pastry into three long strips and roll each strip out thinly between two sheets of baking paper. A thinner pastry will deliver a crispier texture.
3. Place a strip of cheese filling along edge of pastry. Brush long pastry edges with beaten egg.
4. Use a pastry scraper to gently lift the long edge of the pastry and roll it over the filling. Pinch each end to seal. Twist into a coil.
5. Generously brush top of pastry coil with olive oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
6. Place coil on lined baking tray. Cook for 40-45 minutes in 400 F oven or until golden brown.

About Helen Tzouganatos

Tzouganatos is a gluten-free cookbook author, TV presenter, food photographer and recipe developer — and she’s obsessed with making delicious gluten-free food from scratch for family and friends. She loves sharing her passion for food with others, so she taught herself to use a camera and started her gluten-free food blog “Hungry and Fussy” in 2015 as a creative outlet. Her latest cookbook “Hungry and Fussy” is available online and she currently hosts her show “Loving Gluten Free” on Australia’s SBS FOOD channel.

Click here to purchase her cookbook