3 cups flour (unbleached white flour mixed with whole wheat 70:30)
1/2 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
1 cup soy yogurt, or silken tofu whizzed with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to make 1 cup, or even 1 cup of Tofutti sour cream works.
1/2 cup oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 large Roma tomatoes, chopped or 1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
1 16oz bag frozen spinach, defrosted and drained or steamed and drained
1/2 lemon, juiced
sumac (found in Middle Eastern groceries)
fresh ground pepper
salt, to taste
What You Do:
Mix together the yeast and water. Set aside to proof the yeast, 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt.
Add the oil and yogurt to the yeast mixture and stir well to mix.
Make a well in the flour mixture and pour the liquid ingredients in.
Stir well until the ingredients form a dough. When the dough has
formed, knead it for about 5 minutes to make a soft elastic ball.
Place in an oiled bowl and turn the dough over to coat. Cover with a
towel and put in a warm, draft-free place to double in size about an hour.
Meanwhile, Get the Filling Ready:
Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until just beginning to brown.
Add the chopped tomato and cook so that the tomato pieces break up
and cook into the onions making a thick but chunky sauce.
Add the defrosted and drained spinach and stir well. Cook another few minutes.
Remove from heat, stir in the lemon juice and season well with salt, pepper and sumac.
Putting it Together:
Preheat the oven to 350-375F. Spray a cookie sheet with a Pam type spray or oil well.
Divide the dough into 16 or 24 evenly sized balls. Stack them in a bowl and cover to keep from drying out.
Take out a ball and roll it into a very thin circle (a). The dough should be thinner
than 1/8th an inch but thicker than 1/16th. (I am able to roll this dough out on a counter without sticking.
If you have problems, lightly flour a board first and then try again.)
Spoon some spinach filling into the middle (b).
Pull up three sides of the dough as shown (c).
Pinch the dough together to form a triangle. Fold the pinched edges over once more
and pinch again to seal well. Be sure there are no visible holes, especially in the middle, or the pie will blow apart in the oven.
Place on cookie sheet and repeat until everything is used up.
Bake until golden brown on top and very brown on the bottom.
Notes (the more I make these, the more ideas I get)
You can use half unbleached white and half whole wheat pastry flour for a good wheat dough.
You can cut the oil in half, but you will definately need to flour a board in order to roll them out.
Try filling some with a mix of spinach and tofu filling. I just made some with Tofu Spread and they came out great (don't use the olives!).
