Lamb Exohiko (Lamb, Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Phyllo Parcels)

When I made the roast lamb leg on the weekend I chose a piece of meat that was larger than I needed to ensure lots of leftovers and after making some quicky roast lamb gyros I was ready to to something more interesting. Up first on my list was this recipe for a lamb exohiko , once again from Kalofagas , which is a dish where the lamb along with other ingredients are wrapped up in phyllo and baked until it is golden brown. I really like the idea of baking things in phyllo like this! Whereas smaller phyllo pies are great for snacks and light meals and larger phyllo pies like spanakopita make many servings, these phyllo parcels contain an entire meal in single serving size! The possibilities for fillings for these are near endless and this time I went with the roast lamb, spinach, onions and peppers, tomatoes and cheese!

With the phyllo dough and the spinach in the filling I could not help but think about spanakopita so I mixed some more ingredients from spanakopita filling into the spinach including; feta, dill and green onions. The lamb was of course already cooked and just needed to be warmed up and I sauteed the onions and peppers a bit to ensure that they would be tender even with the short bake time. These phyllo parcels also include a nice big, 1/4 inch thick, slab of cheese which is placed on top of filling ingredients and melts down into everything else in the parcel when it bakes. Any melty cheese would work in these parcels but it seemed only fitting to go with a Greek cheese so I went with a graviera , but a good substitute would be a gruyere.

You just can’t go wrong with parcels of light, buttery, flaky phyllo wrapped around tender lamb, spanakopita filling like spinach and other vegetables all swimming in plenty of melted cheese! I served the lamb exohiko with a salad to complete the meal.