If you’ve ever worked with phyllo dough, you know how nerve wracking it can be. Between sheets tearing or drying out, it is not a pleasant experience. Because of this, making things like Spanakopita might seem out of the question. However, we have the solution, puff pastry sheets. They work wonders here, are easy to use, widely available and most are vegan. As for the filling, our Sorta Feta is the perfect replacement for the feta found in most spanakopita recipes, (you can also buy vegan feta in many grocery stores). While we use fresh spinach in our recipe and wilt it down, you can use frozen chopped spinach too. But as you will already be sauteeing onions and garlic, you may as well use fresh spinach since it all gets cooked together. After the spinach is all wilted down, you will need to let it drain in a collander over a bowl for a little while and use your hands to squeeze out as much water as possible.
Tip: You can prepare these for baking ahead of time, just don’t slice them until you are ready to cook.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 24
Ingredients:
1 TBL ground flax seeds
3 TBL warm water
1 TBL extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup of yellow onion, diced
1 lb fresh spinach, washed
½ cup vegan feta,crumbled (store bought or homemade)
2 TBL fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 TBL nutritional yeast
salt and pepper
2 sheets puff pastry dough (one box of frozen puff pastry dough), thawed about 40 minutes at room temp
2 TBL Melted vegan butter
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375F. Lightly spray the cups of a muffin pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the flax seeds and warm water. Mix well and set aside to thicken.
3. In saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the oil. Add the onion and sauté until soft, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté 30 seconds.
4. Add spinach and sauté until it’s all wilted and cooked-through – allow liquid to boil for a few minutes stirring occasionally.
Spinach, onions and garlic all sauteed.
5. Pour spinach into colander in sink and allow to drain- pushing through excess water. Pat spinach with paper towels to make sure it’s fairly dry. The end result will be about 1/4 of the volume you started with. Transfer to a large bowl.
After a good squeezing and draining to get all the liquid out.
5. Add the flax mixture to the spinach and mix well to thoroughly combine. Add sorta feta, parsley, and nutritional yeast. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
6. Lightly flour a counter top and unfold the puff pastry squares. Brush the pastries with melted butter.
7. Divide spinach mixture evenly between both puff pastry squares. Spread the spinach around evenly leaving a 1 inch border all around.
8. Roll each sheet up. Cut the unfilled edges off the rolls. Slice each roll into 12 equal parts, about 1 inch thick.
9. Please rolls into prepared muffin cups so the spiral is facing up.
10. Bake about 30-35 minutes, or until golden.
11. Allow to cool slightly before serving.
