You've seriously got to try these homemade spanakopita triangles!
This is another one of those recipes that looks looks super impressive, but in reality is not difficult to make at all. I promise!
I LOVE Greek food, so these yummy things make for a delicious appetizer stuffed with feta cheese and spinach.
I don't know about you, but I'm obsessed with feta cheese – anything and everything feta related is completely irresistible!
The filling is made by cooking some garlic and tiny chopped onion pieces for a few minutes until they're fragrant.
Then, BOOM!
Throw that spinach in the pan with the garlic and onions, cook them until they're soft and drink in all that yummyness. 😀
Once they're finished doing their thing in the pan, combine this with the rest of the filling ingredients in a mixing bowl. Then all you have to do is wrap the filling up in the phyllo pastry. I've created a little diagram on how to do this – basically you wrap it up just like a flag.
Bake the spanakopita parcels in the oven and once they come out, you've got an amazing appetizer!
You can serve these warm from the oven or cool.
Personally, I like to have mine at a cool temperature sine I find that this gives the feta and other ingredients some time to sort of get to know each other. 🙂
The feta will firm up a little more as the triangles cool, which makes for a really nice texture when combined with the crunch of the flaky outside of the pastry!
Homemade Spanakopita
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 10 Spanakopita Trianges 1x
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 cup onion, finely chopped
- 2 spring onions, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 10 oz spinach, stems trimmed and well washed
- 12 oz feta cheese, crumbled
- 1 tsp dried dill (if you you have fresh use more)
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- 1 package (16 oz) Phyllo pastry
- 1/4 cup butter, melted and set aside
Special Items Needed: - Pastry brush
- 2 damp dish towels
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a frying pan, heat the oil on medium heat.
- Add the garlic and onions and cook until softened and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
- Add salt.
- Add the spinach to the pan and combine. Cook the spinach until softened and they have soaked up the juices from the onions and garlic.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool down for a few minutes.
- In a medium mixing bowl combine the contents of the pan with the feta cheese, dill, nutmeg and egg. Combine well.
- Lay out your damp (not super wet) dish towels on the counter top. You need these to keep your pastry sheets from drying out while you create the layers. Lay the phyllo pasty out – flat between the two damp towels. As you work with the pastry in the next steps, make sure you re-cover the pasty with the top towel, so it doesn't dry out. They can dry out quick! Don't worry though, you got this!
- Take 3 layers of pastry (together) and lay them flat on the counter. Using a very sharp knife, slice the pastry into 3 strips.
- Brush a little bit of butter on the top of each strip.
- Now, work with one strip at a time doing the following.
- At the end of the strip of pastry to the corner, place a large spoonful of the feta and spinach filling.
- Fold over the edge to form a triangle. Think of this as the same way you would fold a flag.
- Continue to fold the pastry until you reach the other end and it's in the shape of a triangle.
- See Notes for a diagram on how to fold the pastry.
- Place the triangle, seam side down on the parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Brush the top with butter.
- Continue to do this and make triangles until you have used all the filling.
- Place the triangles in the oven to bake for 30 minutes.
- Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.
- These can be served warm or cold.
Notes
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Category: Appetizer
- Cuisine: Greek
