Keto Tikvara (Kolokithopita) – A pie that tells fairytales

Keto Tikvara is a magical ketonisation of a medieval recipe from Bosnia and Herzegovina. You will not believe how great is the land, mountains, rivers, lakes, history, resources, people and food in this country!

Long before the Ottoman Empire conquered the medieval kingdom of Bosnia, people were using buckwheat and ground flaxseed based dough to make all sorts of pies baked on the open fire under the die-cast bell-alike lid. Throughout history, various new recipes were born out of this tradition!

Before the Keto days

Years before we went Keto, when I first brought my Greek husband here, he fell in love with a type of zucchini pie they call Tikvenjača in Sarajevo. Here in Mostar, we call it Tikvara because we always talk differently in the south! 😉 😉 😉

I believe in every country the southern people sound different from those living in the north

However, I would suggest you not to try pronouncing the word Tikvenjača because you’ll get bewitched and will not be able to speak any foreign language after that! 😮 Haha – just joking! It’s just too difficult for non-native speakers to pronounce our words. But regardless of the name, this pie might be the tastiest pie we ever enjoyed and it was about the time to ketonise it to the full potential – and by doing so – making it healthier!

In Greece, this would be called Kolokithopita and it would include many more herbs because Greeks just love adding aromatic herbs to their pies! I will give you an example: add fennel, thyme, oregano, dill and rosemary for a Greek version of Tikvara, pardon me – Kolokithopita 🙂

We already worked on Keto phyllo dough

I believe our Keto tiropita recipe is the best Keto version of phyllo dough you can try! We worked on it even more and created the Keto Bougatsa which requires skills and dedication. But, we received several photos from Ketonians who succeeded! You can see how we made it in this video:

For this reason, we will use almost the same dough for the ketonised version of the glorious Tikvara. This zucchini, eggs, cheese, and butter-filled pie has the magical and seductive powers, so make sure you make enough for all the family or friends that might visit! 😉

Two versions: for Ketonians and Low-Carbers

In this article, I will give you two versions because we simply couldn’t resist and we had to try a low-carb dough. This includes a small amount of Zea flour (Emmer) which we fell in love with. As we already wrote on so many occasions, Zea is the ancient flour that Greeks, Egyptians and Mesopotamians used and it’s not as unhealthy as regular modern wheat.

It’s not quite Keto but it’s very safe if you are doing Low-Carb diet and occasionally want to treat yourself with the taste of the ancient pastry. Also, only the small amount of it has the power that allows the dough to be as thin as real phyllo dough!

So let’s start first with the Keto Tikvara

Keto Tikvara (Kolokithopita) Pie

Recipe by Roberta Kapsalis

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Course: Main courseCuisine: Keto MediterraneanDifficulty: Medium

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Servings

4

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

300

kcal

Ingredients

Metric US

• Keto Phyllo dough

• 4 medium eggs free-range

• 2 medium egg whites

• 1 tsp sea salt

• 1/3 tsp nutmeg or mahlep

• 150 g (5.3 oz) melted butter (we used goat butter)

• 2 tbsp psyllium powder

• 5 tbsp sesame flour (alternatively use almond flour)

• 5 tbsp coconut flour

• Filling

• 300 g (10.5 oz) zucchini cut into cubes

• 3 medium eggs free-ranges

• 200g (7 oz)sour cream or goat/sheep yoghurt

• 100g (3.5 oz) crumbled feta cheese

• 1/3 tsp sea salt

• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black/red/white pepper

• Topping

• 1 tbsp goat or sheep butter

• 100 ml (1/2 cup) hot water

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• a pinch of dried rosemary

Directions

• First, prepare the Keto phyllo dough. Using an electric mixer, beat 4 eggs, 2 egg whites, sea salt, nutmeg or mahlep for 5 minutes. Start slowly adding melted butter. Keep mixing.
• Now add psyllium powder and mix until it’s unified. Replace the wire whip with a dough mixing hook. Start adding sesame (or almond) and coconut flour. Keep mixing for another 5 minutes. The dough will thicken. 
• Wrap the dough in plastic foil and place it in the refrigerator. Let it rest for 1 hour.
• After the dough was chilled for 1 hour, place it in between two parchment papers. Gently and slowly roll it and make it approximately 5mm thin. If you are feeling brave, try even thinner.
• Place the dough in a ceramic round pie pan (12″ or 30 cm φ) Leave enough of the dough hanging from all sides (as shown in the photo) for covering the pie.
• Mix eggs, sour cream (or yoghurt) with salt and pepper and pour it in the stretched dough.
• Cut the zucchini into medium cubes and place on top of the filling.
• Cover the pie by folding the dough. stub it a few times with a fork.
• Sprinkle with olive oil and dried rosemary.
• Bake for 25 minutes at 180ºC (355ºF)
• Place 1 tbsp of butter in a small saucepan, add water and bring it to a boil.
• As soon as you take the pie out of the oven, sprinkle it all over with this hot mixture of butter and water and serve when it’s halfway cooled.

Notes

• I also added some goat butter on top together with olive oil! This brought the pie to another level of deliciousness.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @greekgoesketo on Instagram and hashtag it with #greekgoesketo

Low-Carb version of phyllo dough with Zea flour

For a low carb version, you will use 150g of Zee (Triticum dicoccum or Emmer) flour and just skip the psyllium and coconut flour. This will give you a nice and elastic dough. You will not believe how workable will be this dough. However, have in mind that Zea is a cereal, after all, so if you are doing Keto for keeping your blood sugar low or for any other health issue, better stick to the Keto phyllo dough.