Greek Spinach-Feta Buckwheat Crêpe

A Spinach-Feta Buckwheat Crêpe is a gluten and lactose free dish merging French Galette with a Greek spinach filling.

The difference between pancake, crêpe and galette

Pancakes are a thicker version of crêpe, however not foldable, usually eaten with sweet toppings. Although if you visit France, you’ll find many types of “crêpes” in other words thin pancakes, there is the Galette, a buckwheat crêpe for savory fillings like cheese and ham and many more. There is also the Crêpe Bretonne which is also a buckwheat crêpe but ultra thin (paper thin) and crispy and finally the sweet crêpe made with normal flour that is used for all sweet fillings.

Healthy buckwheat

A great thing about buckwheat is its low glycemic index, meaning it will make you full longer and prevent the spike of sugar in your blood levels like regular pancake do. It’s called buck”wheat” but truthfully there is no wheat in there. It’s actually a fruit seed which makes it gluten free. Anyhow this “seed” called “wheat” is an healthy alternative to wheat based product like wrap or any dough and has so much more health benefits that could take ages to list here… google it.

Greek Spinach Filling

As everyone knows, fresh spinach always loses about 90% of its size when cooked, plus it’s engorged with water making it leaky and unpleasant on the plate if not well drained. I usually prefer fresh veggies, but for this particular recipe, it’s way easier with the frozen spinach. This way you’ll get way more believe me, and it’s going to lose way less water, risking to make your pancake wet… If you want to make it with fresh spinach it’s up to you, you’ll have to buy 8 more bags of spinach to equal the simple bag of frozen spinach and probably end up having to squeeze the excess water in a clean towel but it’s possible. However for the sake of making it easy, go frozen on this one. For the residual liquid in the end, I’ve added a few pine nuts in the end to thickens things up and give it an always welcomed nutty note.

Let’s make these Crêpe!

Greek Spinach-Feta Buckwheat Crêpe

Makes: 10 crêpes | Preparation: 1 hour | Difficulty: easy breazy

Instrument

• a crêpe pan or non-stick pan

Ingredients

Buckwheat crêpe

• 300g (2 cups) buckwheat flour
• 500ml (2cups) water
• 1 egg
• 1 pinch of salt

Greek spinach filling

• 800g of frozen spinach
• 150g of feta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 onion cut finely
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 1 hand or 1/4 cup of finely chopped flat leave parsley
• 50g of pine nuts
• 30ml of olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Start by making the mix for the crepe, 1 hour in advance, by following the instructions from the video above
2. During that time make the Spinach filling by starting to lightly roast the pine nuts until light brown, then blend them into a sand texture, reserve
3. Soften the onion in a bit of olive oil for 10 minutes at medium-low heat
4. Add the garlic, spinach and cook at medium-high heat until hot and almost no more liquid at the bottom, about 5 minutes
5. Add the egg, and cook for another 2 minutes
6. Finish it up by turning off the fire, adding the feta, parsley, pine nut powder, salt and pepper
7. Make the crepes and fill them up with the spinach filling

Enjoy!