Croatian Soparnik Recipe
Origin of this Recipe
This delicious recipe originated from Croatia- specifically, the Poljica/Dalmatia region of Croatia. Therefore this recipe is sometimes referred to as Poljički Soparnik.
What is Soparnik?
This is a simple and humble recipe that uses only a few ingredients. It is a bit like a covered flatbread, savory pie, or thin calzone. It reminds me of Greek spanikopita although this recipe uses a standard dough rather than phyllo dough.
How to make Soparnik
It’s really quite easy to make.
- Make the dough: this dough only uses water, oil, flour, and salt. It requires some kneading but no need for yeast or waiting for a long time to let it rise.
- Meanwhile, you prepare the filling by mixing together the greens, parley, green onions, garlic, and salt/pepper.
- Next, you assemble the pie by rolling out half the dough into a circle, putting the filling inside, and then closing with the other half of the dough.
- Then you cover with a simple egg wash with olive oil and bake. Nothing fancy!
Tips for making this Recipe
This dish traditionally uses chard. However, our grocery store didn’t have this in stock so we used collard greens instead. You could also use other leafy greens like kale. Up to you!
Depending on the region you visit, you will probably encounter different variations of soparnik, with some using cheese in the filling (like spanikopita) and others including minced meat (like Bosnian Borek).
Of note, I had forgotten to poke a few holes in the top to let some heat out. It turned out fine but was just slightly puffy when it came out of the oven.
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Croatian Soparnik
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup water
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
Filling
- Leafy greens can be chard, collard greens, or kale, chopped
- 1 bunch green onions thinly sliced
- 1 bunch parsley minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- Pinch salt and pepper
Other
- 1 egg
- olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Mix together the ingredients for the dough and knead for 5-10 minutes. You can add more flour as needed- the dough should be slightly sticky but spring back to the touch. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the leafy greens, parsley, green onions, garlic, and salt pepper.
- When dough is ready, split it into two and use a rolling pin to shape each dough ball into a thin circle (just like making thin crust pizza. Add the vegetable mixture on top. Then roll out the other dough ball to the same size and place it over the other dough with vegetables. Use your hands to pinch together and roll the edges of the dough to make a thin crust.
- mix together the egg wash with some olive oil and lightly brush over the top of the dough and the crust.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, when the crust starts turning golden/brown. Once finished, remove from oven, let cool on a cooling rack, and then cut into diagonal pieces.
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