Croatian Soparnik

Sara is traveling in Croatia, and posted a picture of soparnik. I decided to find a recipe to try it out.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 300 grams sourdough starter (or 150 gr all purpose flour, 150 gram water, and 1/2 teaspoon yeast)
  
• 150 g whole wheat flour
• 1.5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Filling:

• 1 bunch kale (250 grams), diced while dough is resting
• 1 onion, finely diced while dough is resting
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 teaspoon ppowdered)
• 4 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (or 1 tablespoon dried parsley)
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 2 to 3 Tbsp Romano cheese, optional (or a large handful shredded cheese)


• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, diced and crushed

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 500°F.
2. Add the sourdough starter, oil, flour, salt, and pepper to a stand mixer bowl.
3. Knead the mixture until it comes together into a smooth sturdy dough.
4. Continue to knead for a few more minutes, until the dough is fairly elastic. 
5. Le the dough rest ~15 minutes while making the filling.
6. While the dough is resting, prepare the filling.
7. Remove any tough stems from the kale, and chop the leaves.
8. Saute onions for a few minutes in the tablespoon of olive oil, then add garlic and kale and cook for a few minutes to wilt.
9. Stir in the parsley,, and a touch more salt and pepper. Mix well,
10. After the dough has rested, divide the dough in two, and roll the first piece out - the thinner the better. (Maybe 12 to 13 inches)
11. Roll out the second dough to same diameter.
12. Evenly top one dough round with the filling, spreading out to within 1/2 inch of the edges of the dough. Sprinkle with a little Romano cheese. (I used a large handful of shredded  Mexican blend cheese)
    
13. Place the second dough circle over the kale filling.
14. Roll up bottom edge crust over the top, and press to seal.
15. Poke a several sets of small holes in the top dough with a fork.
16. Optionally, also press out as much air as possible before tightly sealing the edges.
17. Bake at 500°F for around 10 minutes, until lightly browned. (You might switch to broil for the last 2 minutes to get a bit more color.)
    
18. Brush with extra virgin olive oil mixed with the minced garlic.
19. Slice into wedges or diamonds.
    

 

Carole's Notes:

We liked this! 

 The dough was easy to roll out. I've updated the recope to suggest sauting the onions, and heating the kale a bit before baking.

The recipe is lightly adapted from https://thekitchengent.com/croatia-tick-tock-soparnik/ and https://www.rosacooking.com/en/soparnik-2/ and https://www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/croatian-soparnik-kale-pie/