Passover Recipes: Sephardic Mina – Meat or Spinach Pie

As a child of a Sephardic mother, one of my fondest Passover memories was eating delicious Meat and Spinach Mina. Yum!  My mother’s family originates from the former Yugoslavia. She was born in Sarajevo and her family escaped during WWII. My mom’s own special recipe follows.  I hope you enjoy it.

Lowering the Costs on the Ingredients

Now here are some savings tips for this recipe. This morning Mom reminded me that eggs are on sale at Walgreens for $1 per dozen. Of course we strategic shoppers can do even better by using a coupon and spend only $.72 per dozen. See the details here.

Matzohs have been free at Giant with coupon for weeks now.  My mom has a whole stack! See Giant hot deals here.

Buying Ground Beef is such a touchy subject these days with all of the news reports.  Until the supply of ‘lean, finely textured beef’ is depleted, I would only buy certified USDA organic, which contains no filler.

Also, Ground Turkey can be used in the Mina and works really well.  Giant has Shady Brooks Farm Ground Turkey at $2.50/lb when you buy a 3 lb package.

Mina Meat Pie Recipe

Ingredients

3 Tbl of vegetable oil or olive oil

5 onions chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 lb of ground beef  or turkey (Optional – substitute 2 lbs of ground white meat turkey for a lower fat and calorie version)

3 eggs beaten

6 sheets of matza

1 egg beaten for glaze

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook until transluscent.  Add salt, pepper and meat.  Cook and break up meat until lightly browned.  Stir in 1/2 cup of water.   Remove from heat. Cool uncovered in refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

2.  Add eggs to the meat mixture and mix well. Set aside.

3.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

4.  Fill a large wide bowl with cool water and add matzohs.  Soak until wet through but not falling apart.  Remove and lay on several layers of paper towels.  Place another several paper towels on top to soak up the extra water.  Line bottom and sides of 13 x 9 greased baking pan with some of the matzoh.  Cover with the meat mixture.  Top with remaining matzoh.  Brush with beaten egg.  Bake until golden brown – about 45 minutes.

Optional – Egg Whites can be substituted for the eggs, whole wheat matzoh and ground turkey white meat can be used  to lower calories and fat.