Crustless Keto Tiropita aka Cheese Pie

This Greek-inspired Crustless Keto Tiropita, aka Cheese Pie, will be a wonderful addition to your repertoire of easy keto recipes. Whip up this one-bowl wonder whenever you’ve got some surprise guests coming over — or just want to make a hearty snack for your family. Keep some slices of this savory pie in the freezer and pop in the microwave to heat a quick meal or breakfast. Serve this flavorful and hearty tiropita, for example, with green salad and vinaigrette. The pie also reheats well.

Want to make a version with crust anyway? No problem! Scroll down the page to find a recipe for cute triangle-shaped keto tiropitas at the end of the post!

How to make the Crustless Keto Tiropita aka Cheese Pie

Preparing this keto cheese pie is super-simple: mix the ingredients, transfer into a pie pan, and bake. That’s it!

However, I’ll give a couple of tips for you that you can reach the best result. No worries, it’s simple! Unlike the traditional tiropita versions with crust, this crustless recipe is extremely fool-proof — and in addition, beginner-proof. Since there is no hassle with preparing the crust, this pie is super simple to throw together.

Crumbled feta cheese is the main ingredient in this keto-friendly tiropita. Be sure to crumble the feta very well so that you’ll get a smooth texture in the pie. Big feta lumps are — at least in my opinion! — not that appetizing. Even you’ll mix the ingredients together with an electric mixer, feta has such a sturdy texture that the beaters don’t really break it well. That’s why it’s important to crumble the feta well.

Often feta and ricotta packages contain some fluid floating on top of the package when you open it. Be sure to drain the cheeses well and discard the excess fluid. This guarantees that your pie won’t become soggy. Well, you don’t have to drain the cheeses through a sieve or anything, pouring the excess fluid away should be enough to get rid of the non-wanted liquid.

Since feta is so salty, there is unlikely a need to add any salt to the pie. However, it’s good to taste the mixture and add some salt if you really think there is a need for some.

For extra-virgin olive oil, use as flavorful, preferably a bit peppery variety, as you can find. Personally, I prefer organic Cretan extra-virgin olive oil.

But let’s take a look at how to prepare this fabulously flavorful savory keto pie:

Take 14 oz (400 g) crumbled, preferably organic, feta cheese, and place it into a medium bowl.

Add 9 oz (250 g) ricotta…

…4 eggs (take organic and free-range eggs if you can — those have a bright orange yolk that is full of good-for-you stuff)…

…1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil…

…and 1/4 cup (60 ml) finely chopped fresh mint. There are different mint varieties. Be sure to use as strong-flavored variety as you can find.

Take an electric mixer and mix…

…until well combined. This takes hardly one minute.

Transfer the mixture into a 10-inch (25 cm) pie pan.

Level the surface with a spatula.

Here we go.

Bake at 350 °F (175 °C) for 35-45 minutes or until the center of the pie starts rising — not longer!

Remove from the oven.

Let cool until warm.

Serve with some chopped fresh mint sprinkled on top.

Yum!

How I came up with this savory keto pie recipe

I think I’ve told you before that I have a long to-do list about recipes that I would like to develop and publish here on my blog. Well, this keto tiropita wasn’t one of them. The idea for this recipe originates from a Greek podcast where some people were discussing over somebody’s tiropita — aka cheese pie that is a very typical Greek dish. One of the speakers had tried Roquefort cheese in tiropita and swore that it makes the taste better. ‘Νοστιμίζω’ as the Greeks say. (Νομίζω.)

I had a vague idea of what the traditional Greek tiropita was about. However, to get a better picture of the ingredients and the methods, I did some extensive googling. I guess there are as many tiropita recipes as there are people who are baking them — and my keto version was going to be yet another one.

The traditional Greek tiropita uses filo dough for the crust. Well, that was the first thing to go from my keto version, as filo dough is made of wheat and thus doesn’t belong to a gluten-free keto lifestyle. Moreover, I wanted to make a crustless pie because I’m all about simplicity.

As far as I have understood, tiropita can come in many shapes and sizes. The filling is often mostly feta and some fresh, non-salty cheese.

I chose feta and ricotta as the main ingredients to my keto tiropita. For the third ingredient, I was pondering whether to choose Roquefort or extra-virgin olive oil. I decided to try out both — first with Roquefort to see if it really makes the taste better. Though I didn’t want to add too much Roquefort, just a bit to lend some taste as Roquefort indeed has a strong and characteristic flavor.

In addition to feta, ricotta, and Roquefort, I needed to add eggs to bind the cheeses into a beautiful pie. As I now had four ingredients, there was still room for one. This one could be a seasoning — or rather a herb. Some fresh, finely chopped herb sounded like a perfect addition to the pie.

After some thinking, I was left with two options: mint or oregano. Oregano is my personal favorite herb, but since I use mint very seldom — for no apparent reason — I decided to add an ample amount of fresh mint to my cheese pie.

I grabbed my favorite pie pan of 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter and calculated the amounts of ingredients to fit them in the pan. For the first experiment, I took 14 oz (400 g) crumbled feta cheese, 9 oz (250 g) ricotta, 1 oz (30 g) Roquefort, 1/4 cup (60 ml) finely chopped fresh mint, and 3 eggs. I mixed everything together with an electric mixer and poured the mixture into the pie pan. After baking the pie at 350 °F (175 °C) for 30 minutes, I thought it’s ready. Later, I realized that the pie would have benefited from a longer baking time: now, it was still too moist and wobbly from the middle.

This is the experiment:

Eagerly, I tasted the pie. Well, I wasn’t too convinced if the Roquefort really made the pie taste better. Quite just the opposite! Maybe it was the combination of feta and Roquefort that felt too weird. There was nothing special in the flavor. My taste buds were not singing for joy — they were disheartened. And I was disappointed.

At least I learned that the Roquefort didn’t make my keto tiropita taste better. In fact, the Roquefort was making the taste dull. ‘Ανοσταίνω’, as the Greeks say. (Διορθώστε με αν κάνω λάθος!)

Well, but I still had my olive oil variation to try out. For my next experiment, I decided to use 1 tablespoon of good-quality Cretan extra-virgin olive oil. I took precisely the same amounts of ingredients but replaced the Roquefort with olive oil.

After baking the pie for 40 minutes, it looked just perfect. After tasting the pie, my joy was tangible: the pie had a completely different — much better — taste with olive oil than with Roquefort. It was unbelievable how changing 1 oz (30 g) Roquefort to 1 tablespoon olive oil produced a completely different result. Even Roquefort has such a powerful taste, it just didn’t work in this pie but made the taste dull — go figure!

I was also happy with the mint: it lent fresh and peppy flavor and lightened up the otherwise-so-hearty pie.

However, even the result was much more delicious than I had expected, I still wanted to perfect the recipe. Even with longer baking time, the consistency was slightly soggy. I was wondering what happens if I use 4 eggs instead of 3 eggs. Would the pie get too eggy, or would the consistency get better? That was to be tested.

I made yet another experiment, this time with 4 eggs. The result was now perfect: the taste was wonderful — not eggy at all — and now the consistency was sturdy and not soggy in the slightest. Moreover, the pie slice was really easy to remove from the pie pan. Mission accomplished! My new favorite keto dish had born!

Here’s the recipe for you to enjoy:

Nutrition information	In total	Per serving if 6 servings in total
Protein	119.6 g	19.9 g
Fat	147.7 g	24.6 g
Net carbs	11.2 g	1.9 g
kcal	1852 kcal	309 kcal

 

How to make tiny triangle keto tiropitas or pastries

For these cute and unbelievably delicious savory treats, you’ll need one batch of my 4-Ingredient Super-Tasty Keto Flatbread dough.

Prepare the dough according to the recipe — but don’t bake it yet! Cut the rolled-out dough into 3×3-inch (7.5×7.5 cm) squares. Prepare 1/4 batch of this Crustless Keto Tiropita aka Cheese Pie — just mix all ingredients together, again, don’t bake yet! For that 1/4 batch, you’ll need 3.5 oz (100 g) crumbled feta, 2 oz (60 g) ricotta, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, and 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint.

Place a grape-sized amount of the Crustless Keto Tiropita aka Cheese Pie mixture into the center of each dough square. Fold the squares into triangles. Press the edges firmly with a fork to seal them well. You should get about 16 tiropita triangles.

Place the triangles on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake at 300 °F (150 °C) for 15-20 minutes, or until the pastries are golden brown. Don’t overbake! Remove from the oven and serve warm.

 

How to get some variation to the cheese pie

You can easily get variation to the cheese pie with different cheeses and different herbs. Personally, I’m still going to try out fresh oregano and fresh thyme — I bet they are a perfect match with feta. To my knowledge, dill is also often used in tiropita.

I might also try out Boursin cheese instead of ricotta. Like feta, Boursin is also incredibly flavorful, so the combination should be really flavorful as well. Actually, those three types of cheeses, feta, ricotta, and Boursin, might work exceptionally well together. Mild ricotta would balance the other flavor-bursting cheeses.

Even this pie is very flavorful, I bet it would still become even better with some chopped dried olives. I’m planning to make a version with 1/3 cup (80 ml) chopped dried olives. Dried olives have much stronger and more concentrated flavor than regular olives preserved in brine or in oil. If I used chopped regular olives (actually Kalamata olives), I would add maybe even 1/2 cup (120 ml).

General prattling

This week, I was continuing my studies for the EFT tapping method. I think I haven’t even mentioned that I’m studying EFT tapping! It’s a great addition to nutrition therapy, as my clients are often very stressed and have problems with food addictions, body acceptation, relationships, etc. Like this, I can help my clients more holistically: both with nutrition therapy and also improve their mental well-being with the EFT tapping method that they can also learn themselves.

Actually, I could apply my EFT tapping skills later in the week for one nutrition therapy client. This elderly lady had been recently in a car accident and was extremely stressed. Luckily, she had got just a few bruises in the accident and no severe injuries. But I could see that she was still suffering mentally from the accident. I used the EFT tapping method to calm her down, and indeed it helped: the lady felt herself much calmer after my treatment. It always amazes me how that simple method really works! I also taught the technique to her so that she can apply it whenever she feels discomfort.

The quarantine is over here in Finland, and I brought my son to my parents to spend a couple of weeks of his summer holiday there. He hasn’t seen his grandparents for some months, so my parents were thrilled to see their grandchild again. I will utilize all this time now for work. Well, I’m drowning at work, so it’s good to have time to accomplish everything! Though I have to admit I miss my son very much.

To finish this post cheerfully, here’s yet another cat picture of our beautiful cat, Frieda, who loves to sleep on my son’s crafting table: