Spanakopita

Serve as a first course or an entrée.

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 1/4  cup  water
• 1  (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
• 1  ounce  chopped sun-dried tomatoes, packed without oil (about 12)
• 2  teaspoons  olive oil
• 1/2  cup  chopped onion
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 2  cups  cooked basmati rice
• 1  tablespoon  minced fresh oregano
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground pepper
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 4  ounces  feta cheese, crumbled
• 8  sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
• Butter-flavored cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine first 3 ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook 10 minutes. Place spinach mixture in a colander, pressing with the back of a spoon until barely moist. Set aside.

Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, and sauté 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add spinach mixture, rice, oregano, pepper, salt, and cheese, stirring until well-blended. Set aside.

Place 1 phyllo sheet on work surface (cover remaining dough to keep from drying); lightly coat with cooking spray. Working with 1 phyllo sheet at a time, coat the remaining 7 phyllo sheets with cooking spray, placing one on top of the other. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over phyllo, pressing gently to seal sheets together; discard plastic wrap.

Spoon spinach mixture along 1 long edge of phyllo, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold over the short edges of phyllo to cover 2 inches of spinach mixture on each end.

Starting at long edge with 2-inch border, roll up jelly-roll fashion. (Do not roll tightly, or strudel may split.) Place strudel, seam side down, on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Score diagonal slits into top of strudel using a sharp knife. Lightly spray strudel with cooking spray.

Bake strudel at 350° for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

192 (30% from fat)

Fat:

6.5g (sat 2.6g,mono 1.9g,poly 1.4g)

Protein:

6.2g

Carbohydrate:

27.9g

Fiber:

1.7g

Cholesterol:

13mg

Iron:

2.2mg

Sodium:

387mg

Calcium:

133mg