Gluten-Free Spinach and Cheese Pie (Balkan Zeljanica)
Craving Balkan zeljanica but skipping gluten? This Balkan spinach & feta pie uses oat flour for all the flavor, none of the wheat.
Recipe Summary
- ✅ Recipe Name: Gluten-free spinach and cheese pie
- 🕒 Prep Time: 1 hr 20 minutes
- 🧑🧒🧒 Serves: 6
- 🍽️ Calories: 350 kcal per serving
- 🥣 Ingredients: oat flour, eggs, spinach, cornstarch, salt.
- 👏 Why You'll Love It: Balkan classic, but without gluten; no fancy ingredients, great for meal prep.
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Gibanica, or its spinach-filled cousin, zeljanica, is a staple in every Balkan kitchen. It's the dish I grew up smelling on Sunday mornings, made from scratch by my baba, who never once measured an ingredient in her life. I ate both gibanica and zeljanica constantly as a kid, and now I get to pass that same love down to my own kids.
These days, though, I feel noticeably better eating gluten-free. To be clear, I'm not gluten sensitive and I don't have celiac disease. I just feel lighter and less bloated when I skip regular wheat flour. So lately I've been having fun taking the recipes I grew up with and giving them a gentler, gluten-free twist, starting with this one, made with oat flour instead of traditional phyllo.
If you don't have any issues with gluten, don't worry, I've got you covered too 😉. My classic gibanica recipe is one of the most popular recipes on the blog and on social media, with a full step-by-step guide.
Nena's Quick Note
Spinach vs. Zelje
in Serbia, "zelje" traditionally refers to a leafy green closer to chard or wild greens, not actually spinach. It's a staple ingredient back home, but it can be tough to find outside the Balkans, so I use spinach here instead. It's more widely available and gives a similar flavor and texture, while keeping the dish easy to make wherever you are.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- All the flavor of a Balkan classic, none of the gluten: same cozy, savory layers you remember, made with a simple oat flour dough instead of phyllo.
- Simple ingredients: nothing processed, nothing hard to pronounce 😉
- Loaf-pan format: easy to slice, easy to pack for lunch, and it looks beautiful cut into thick slices.
- Great make-ahead dish: tastes even better the next day once it's had time to set.
Ingredients
- Oat flour: the gluten-free base for the dough; make sure to use certified gluten-free oat flour if cross-contamination is a concern for you
- Eggs: help bind the dough and give it structure since there's no gluten to rely on
- Olive oil: adds richness to the dough and keeps the layers from drying out
- Corn starch (or tapioka starch): improves the pliability of the dough so it rolls without cracking
- Fresh spinach:the star of the filling
- Low-fat cottage cheese: gives the filling a creamy texture with less fat than a traditional all-cheese filling
- Feta cheese: for that classic salty, Balkan flavor
How to Make Gluten-Free Zeljanica
- Make the dough. In a bowl, whisk eggs, olive oil, and salt with water, plus more as needed. Gradually mix in certified gluten-free oat flour and tapioca starch or cornstarch until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms. Add a touch more water if too dry. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.
- Make the filling. Heat olive oil and add fresh spinach, roughly chopped in batches until wilted, about 4-5 minutes. Let cool slightly, then squeeze out excess liquid.
- Combine the filling. Mix the cooked spinach with the cottage cheese, feta, egg, salt in a bowl.
- Roll the dough. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Divide the rested dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each between two sheets of parchment paper into thin rounds, about the size of your baking dish.
- Layer the pie. Lightly oil a baking dish. Place one dough round on the bottom, brush with a little 1tablespoons olive oil, for sautéing and brushing. Spread a layer of the spinach-cheese filling on top. Repeat layering dough and filling, finishing with a dough round on top.
- Bake. Brush the top layer with remaining 1 tablespoons olive oil, for sautéing and brushing. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 40 minutes, then remove foil and bake another 15-20 minutes until golden on top.
- Cool and slice. Let the pie rest for 10 minutes before slicing into squares or wedges to serve.
Nena's Pro tip
Where to Bake Zeljanica
I baked this one in a standard bread loaf pan instead of a traditional baking dish. It makes for clean, sliceable pieces and honestly looks beautiful once you cut into it and see the layers. If you don't have a loaf pan, a regular baking dish works fine too; just reduce the covered bake time slightly since the layers won't be stacked as deep.
How to Store Zeljanica
- This keeps well in the fridge for a few days in an airtight container. In fact, I think the flavor and texture are even better the next day once everything has had time to set.
- I haven't tried freezing this one myself, and given the egg-and-cheese filling, I'd be a little cautious about how it holds up texture-wise. If you do try freezing it, I'd love to hear how it turns out!
Balkan Cheese and Pie FAQs
No. Traditional zeljanica is made with wheat-based phyllo. This version swaps that for an oat flour dough to make it gluten-free.
You can blend rolled oats into a fine flour yourself, but be sure they're labeled gluten-free, since regular oats are often cross-contaminated with wheat during processing.
Yes. This recipe also works well in a standard baking dish; just reduce the covered bake time slightly since the layers won't be as deep.
Looking for other tasty Balkan & Mediterranean recipes like this? Try these:
⭐ Have you tried this Balkan Cheese and Spinach? Let me know in the comments, and don't forget to tag your creations so I can see them! Find me on YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram or TikTok.
📖 Recipe
Gluten-free spinach and cheese pie (Balkan zeljanica)
Ingredients
- 2 cups oat flour certified gluten-free
- 2 eggs large, for dough
- 1 egg large, for filling
- 2 tablespoons olive oil for dough
- 1 tablespoons olive oil for sautéing and brushing
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch or tapioca starch
- 5 tablespoons water plus more as needed
- 0.5 teaspoons salt for dough
- 500 grams spinach fresh, roughly chopped
- 1 cups low-fat cottage cheese
- 0.5 cups feta crumbled
Instructions
- Make the dough. In a bowl, whisk eggs, olive oil, and salt with water, plus more as needed. Gradually mix in certified gluten-free oat flour and tapioca starch or cornstarch until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms. Add a touch more water if too dry. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.
- Make the filling. Heat olive oil and add fresh spinach, roughly chopped in batches until wilted, about 4-5 minutes. Let cool slightly, then squeeze out excess liquid.
- Combine the filling. Mix the cooked spinach with the cottage cheese, feta, egg, salt in a bowl.
- Roll the dough. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Divide the rested dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each between two sheets of parchment paper into thin rounds, about the size of your baking dish.
- Layer the pie. Lightly oil a baking dish. Place one dough round on the bottom, brush with a little 1tablespoons olive oil, for sautéing and brushing. Spread a layer of the spinach-cheese filling on top. Repeat layering dough and filling, finishing with a dough round on top.
- Bake. Brush the top layer with remaining 1 tablespoons olive oil, for sautéing and brushing. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 40 minutes, then remove foil and bake another 15-20 minutes until golden on top.
- Cool and slice. Let the pie rest for 10 minutes before slicing into squares or wedges to serve.
Notes
- Nena's Pro tip: I baked this one in a standard bread loaf pan instead of a traditional baking dish. It makes for clean, sliceable pieces and honestly looks beautiful once you cut into it and see the layers. If you don't have a loaf pan, a regular baking dish works fine too; just reduce the covered bake time slightly since the layers won't be stacked as deep.
- This pie keeps well in the fridge for a few days in an airtight container. In fact, I think the flavor and texture are even better the next day once everything has had time to set.
- I haven't tried freezing this one myself, and given the egg-and-cheese filling, I'd be a little cautious about how it holds up texture-wise. If you do try freezing it, I'd love to hear how it turns out!
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