Spinach Christmas Tree Pie

This is a healthy, non-greasy, and cute Christmas dish, specially thought for dote dates when everyone gain a bit (or more than a bit) of weight. It is delicious and, if you are going to celebrate Christmas at some relative's or friend's house, this is a great choice.

For the tree in the picture, I used the following ingredients. You may change the quantities if you want a smaller/bigger one.

- One spinach bag (255g or 9oz)
- One medium onion
- Canned mushrooms (113g or 4 oz)  
- Walnuts (225 gr or 1 cup) and some more for decoration
-Cottage cheese (237ml or 1 cup)
-Two eggs
-One puff pastry sheet
- Olive oil (45 ml or 3 tablespoons)
- Some salt
- Some pepper


You´ll also need wax paper or butter to prevent it from sticking to the oven tray.

In the first place, clean the spinach with water and put them in a large pan. Afterwards, cut the onion and the mushrooms in tiny squares and save them for later.
Do the same thing with the walnuts and save them separately.

Then, put the puff pastry sheet in a plate, folded as it come in the original package and let it become softer. To prevent it from getting excessively soft, letting it rest in the fridge. Otherwise, it might be difficult to give it a shape afterwards.

Heat the pan with the spinach in the stove and add two tablespoon of oil (I usually use olive oil, but butter or other kind of oil would work too). Stir the spinach from time to time to prevent them from burning/sticking to the pan.

When the spinach is reduced as in the image, throw away the remaining water. After that, add the chopped mushrooms, the onions and another tablespoon of oil. Let it fry until the onions are done. Don't forget to stir often, we don't want anything burned.

Once the onions are done, add the walnuts and stir them with the vegetables for 5 minutes. Then turn off the stoves.

Take the puff pastry from the fridge and let the vegetables mix cool for around 10 minutes. Then, add the cottage cheese to the vegetables mix and stir until it becomes homogeneous. Then, add the eggs and repeat the same process.

Finally, add some salt and pepper to taste (in the picture I added the pepper and salt with the cottage).

Before doing anything else, cover the table with a layer of waxed paper.  If you don't have it and don´t want the dough to get stuck, you can also spread butter on your oven tray. I prefer to make the pie shape on the table and after it's done move it in to the tray, but you can do it directly on the tray.

First, use a rolling pin to make a thin layer from the puff pastry sheet on the wax paper. Then add the filling and give it the shape of a Christmas tree. 

Fold the layer around the Christmas tree shape and cut the excess of pastry. Make sure to carefully close the spaces between layers.

You can use the dough leftovers to make the garlands and add them to the main shape.

Finally, add some walnuts as if they were Christmas tree decoration.

Put the tree on a tray and then put it inside a preheated oven at  400Fº (200Cº).

Let it bake for 30 minutes or until it becomes light brown (the exact time might depend on the oven).

Eat it!!!!

I prefer to let it cool down to room temperature before eating it. But it is delicious hot, warm, cold... however you want!

I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Happy holidays!