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Squash Pitas

perfect golden color

squash pita

I couldn’t wait to find this pie in my lunchbox!  In Greece, pitas or pies can come in all shapes and sizes and can be filled with so many tasty things.  This recipe calls for orange squash and rice – a delicious, nutritious way to eat Greek vegan on the go.

These are made with a batter dough and can be baked in muffin pans for single serving portions or deep dish pie or cake pan. You can also use this filling layered between sheets of filo.

And I admit, I most often use organic canned butternut squash in this recipe.

organic canned butternut squash

I like it better than fresh and the rice in the recipe gives the creamy squash a nice bit of texture.  It is just so much easier than peeling/grating a fresh butternut squash.

squash filling

If you are so inclined, feel free to substitute fresh grated squash. They both work perfectly well in the recipe, it’s usually just a matter of how much time you have to spend on prep.

After making these in pie form for years, my mom had the brilliant idea to use muffin pans for single serving pitas. Simply fill each muffin mold 1/2 to 2/3 with batter dough, add approximately 2 rounded teaspoons of filling and cover with more batter dough.

batter dough and filling

These bake up nice and high and golden. You can use cupcake liners/papers, just make sure to get the extra large ones. The regular size bake up bite size pitas! More often than not, I just pour the batter dough right into the pan without the liners. There is enough olive oil in the batter that I’ve never needed to grease a non stick pan.

It’s important to let the pitas cool in the pan once you take them out of the oven. If you try to remove them from the pan while still hot, they may break apart and though still very yummy, they won’t look half as nice.

squash pita

squash pita

Ingredients

  • 2 cups squash (canned or freshly grated)
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped onions
  • 3 tablespoons rice (uncooked)
  • 2 tablespoons bread crumbs
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons thyme
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (4 pods)
  • batter dough

Mix all ingredients together and let sit for 15 minutes to an hour. Fill each muffin cup 1/2 to 2/3 full with batter dough. Add 2 heaping teaspoons of filling. Cover with batter dough. Bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes until a light golden color. Cool in pan.

Double the amount of squash mixture if you’re going to use a 9″ round pan for one large pie.

perfect golden color

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5 Responses to Squash Pitas

  1. Dax November 8, 2013 at 12:21 am #

    Hi Kiki,

    Silly question. Is the rice precooked? Thanks!

    • Kiki November 8, 2013 at 4:48 pm #

      Hi Dax, Uncooked and thanks for the not-silly question – I’m going to add that note to the cooking instructions now. Let me know how you ,ike them? Kiki 🙂

  2. Dax November 8, 2013 at 5:42 pm #

    Thanks Kiki!

    We bought an extra pumpkin for Halloween that never became a grinning gargoyle. I don’t like to let things go to waste, so I used fresh grated pumpkin instead of butternut squash (my favorite squash). It turned out beautifully! I didn’t think it make much of a difference.

    Something strange happened, however. I followed the filling recipe above (using pumpkin) and the 4-cup dough recipe (though I actually used whole-wheat pastry flour, because that’s what I had, and added the salt and baking powder as you suggested). Somehow, I had enough dough and filling to make 12 regular-size muffins a small pie! Did I do something wrong? Either way, everyone in my house loved them!

    Ευχαριστώ και Καλή όρεξη!!

    Dax

  3. Thalia February 28, 2015 at 12:49 pm #

    OMG! YUM AND DOUBLE YUM. I can’t wait to try this! Thanks so much for your wonderful recipes, especially the Nistisma ones. As a vegetarian (and vegan daughter) I am desparate for ideas and you really hit the spot!
    Na ise kala, thanks so much

    • Kiki February 28, 2015 at 4:17 pm #

      efxaristo para poli Thalia! this is one of my favorites 🙂 filia, Kiki xx

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