Can You Freeze Spanakopita?

3 minutes

It might just be pastry filled with spinach and feta but spanakopita can be surprisingly filling. If you’ve made a huge spanakopita that you won’t eat in its entirety then how do you store it?

How to Freeze Spanakopita

Freezing spanakopita isn’t too tricky, but follow our steps to ensure you get a final product that’s as good as possible!

1. Make, But Don’t Bake: Follow whatever recipe you’re using for spanakopita to the letter until you get to the point where you’re told to place the food into the oven. Don’t bake the spanakopita, as it’s a lot easier to achieve well-frozen pastry when the frozen pastry is raw and cooked after being thawed.
2. Wrap: Wrap the spanakopita in a layer of cling film quite tightly. The aim is to ensure that as little air is pressing against the spanakopita as possible. Press the cling film down tightly, and ensure it seals to itself well.
3. Wrap Again: Wrap the spanakopita in a layer of foil to protect it from the frost front in your freezer. Ensure that the foil is quite strong, as it will protect the spanakopita from anything that might drop on it in the freezer or from being dropped itself.
4. Freeze: Freeze the spanakopita at the centre of the freezer so that it’s as far as possible from the frost front that typically forms at the edge of your freezer. This will keep it away from freezer burn for as long as possible.

3 Tips for Freezing Spanakopita

Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing spanakopita to have the best results:

Consider a Rigid Container
A rigid container would help to protect the spanakopita as much as possible from things being dropped onto it or from it being dropped itself in the freezer. 

Avoid Decorative Pastry Designs
Artistic pastry designs made with filo pastry are sure to be crumbled or crushed during the wrapping and freezing process. To ensure that this doesn’t matter too much, we recommend keeping it simple with the pastry – you’ll thank yourself later. 

Make It Thicker
Filo pastry is notoriously fragile. To ensure you don’t puncture the outer layer of pastry, dampening it and making it less enjoyable, add a few extra layers of pastry to the outer edges. This should ensure that your spanakopita is a little more resilient to being damaged, which is sure to help the final consistency of the dish. 

How Long Can You Freeze Spanakopita?

You can freeze spanakopita for up to 2 months.

The reason that we wouldn’t recommend freezing it any longer is that filo pastry is quite likely to get damaged from the moisture in the freezer, even when it’s all wrapped up.

How Do You Defrost Spanakopita?

The best way to defrost spanakopita is to totally unwrap it and then cook it directly from frozen. Thankfully, this is really easy!

Follow the cooking directions in your spanakopita recipe, but allow an extra five to ten minutes to ensure the food is thawed.

Can You Refreeze Spanakopita?

Technically, yes, you can refreeze spanakopita.

All of the ingredients in the food are pretty robust, meaning that they can be refrozen without worrying about them being totally damaged.

However, the pastry will lose texture over time as it’s repeatedly refrozen. Therefore, it probably isn’t wise to refreeze spanakopita – the pastry is an essential part of the dish.

Does Spanakopita Freeze Well?

Yes, spanakopita does freeze well!

It’s a rich, dense dish, meaning the filling maintains itself well over time spent in the freezer. The pastry is a little fickle, but it should stay good if you follow the directions we laid out earlier in the article.

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing spanakopita or spanakopita in general, then these may help: