Vegan Spanikopita

My husband and I have been eating a completely vegan diet for the last month. I must admit I am quite surprised about how much there is to try! We have not felt the least bit bored, deprived or malnourished. In fact, after a month we have noticed a change in our body shapes. We are definitely slimming down, while we have actually been eating MORE! Since I am a girl that LOVES to eat, this is fantastic news! On top of that, I have more energy, my head is clearer, and I just feel terrific!

So last night, I was in the mood to try something I have never tried before. I found this recipe in Vegan Fusion, and tweaked it a bit. I have never worked with phyllo sheets before, and they were quite tricky and fun, because they just want to fall apart when you touch them, and I'm not sure I put enough oil on each sheet to make them all brown up, (so they weren't all crunchy and oily, just the top layer was) and even so, this 13X9 casserole was almost completely devoured by us in one sitting! Talk about tasty! You don't even notice that there's tofu in there, and you don't miss the heart-clogging cheese either. This is a fiber-filled, nutrient packed home run. And if you don't want to mess with the fresh herbs, feel free to throw in 2 Tablespoons of Italian seasoning instead. I just toss mine into a small food processor and chop them up all together in seconds...


Vegan Spanikopita
Ingredients:
1 package phyllo sheets
2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cups onion, diced
1 entire bulb of garlic, minced
1 1/2 lb extra firm tofu, crumbled
3/4 cup tahini
1/2 cup kalamata olives, chopped
1/4 cup shoyu
2 Tablespoons Italian parsley, minced
2 Tablespoons basil, minced
1 1/2 teaspoon oregano, minced
1 1/2 teaspoon thyme, minced
1 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, minced
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast (found at health food stores)
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and mashed with a fork a bit
6 cups baby spinach

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large pot, place 2 Tbl olive oil and heat to medium. Add onions and garlic, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Drain tofu and crumble into the pot, cooking for 10 minutes. Add the olives, tahini, shoyu, and all the seasonings and spices and the nutritional yeast, and cook for 3 minutes. Add the slightly mashed garbanzo beans and cook for another minute. Fold in the spinach leaves and remove from heat.

Lightly oil a 9X13 casserole dish. Place about 7 sheets of the phyllo dough, one at a time, in the dish, oiling each sheet lightly with olive oil using a brush. Place half of the spinach mixture on top. Layer the next 7 sheets of dough on top of the mixture, one at a time, oiling each one lightly. Place remaining mixture on top of that. Layer the last sheets of phyllo on top of that, oiling each sheet individually. Put dish in oven and bake until phyllo is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.