Spanakopita Strudels

Spanakopita is a Greek dish consisting of spinach and feta filling wrapped or layered with fillo dough brushed with butter. This recipe is in strudel form, with the spinach filling wrapped into little individual pastries. They were so cute I had to make them.



You learn something new every day. For example, when I made these strudels, I learned that you should always, always squeeze the liquid out of spinach after washing it. Otherwise something like this can happen:

You see that green liquid around the strudels? Yup. My fault. Don't make my mistakes, people.

Thankfully, these were salvageable after baking. Once the spinach juice was scraped away, the strudels were delicious. The fillo dough is wonderfully flaky and buttery, and the garlic in the filling just ties it all together so nicely.

The original recipe can be found here, at Alexandra's Kitchen. I altered it just a little bit, adding only half the amount of cottage cheese called for. I also added a clove of garlic and grated Parmesan since we had some left over from making Cheesy Pesto.

Spanakopita Strudels

adapted from Alexandra's Kitchen

makes approximately 9 strudels

Ingredients:

10 ounces baby spinach

four ounces cottage cheese

12 ounces feta cheese

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

1 clove garlic, minced

5 eggs, beaten

1 box fillo dough, thawed (preferably 9 x fourteen sheets)

1 1/2 sticks butter, melted (I ended up needing a little bit more than this, but I think I may have been overly generous with the butter)

1. In small batches, place spinach in food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Squeeze out all liquid thoroughly either with paper towels or a kitchen towel. Place in large bowl.

2. Add cottage cheese, feta cheese (broken into pieces), Parmesan cheese, garlic, and eggs. Use spatula to stir until combined.

3. Set up work station: A large cutting board can be helpful for assembly. Use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to measure filling.  A small spoon, like one you would eat with, is necessary to spoon butter onto the fillo dough and you need a pastry brush to brush butter onto assembled strudels. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.  

Four. Open a box of fillo. If it comes in bags, open one bag and unroll it. Place next to your cutting board. Fillo dries out very quickly, so I covered it with a kitchen towel while assembling. If you need to leave the assembly process, gently re-roll or fold the fillo and place in a ziplock back.

5. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place one sheet of fillo on your cutting board or work surface. Spoon three spoonfuls of melted butter over the layer of fillo. You don't have to make sure every inch of dough is covered. Top with another layer of fillo. Spoon three more spoonfuls of butter over the areas of this layer that were not covered in the previous. Top with one more layer of fillo and again spoon with three spoonfuls of butter.

Six. Using your 1/2 cup measuring cup, scoop out a level cupful of filling and place on fillo about 2 inches from bottom. Pull bottom of fillo over top of this filling. Fold sides in. Then, fold the bottom portion up and over itself and keep folding until you've made a little parcel. Place this parcel seam side down on parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush top with butter. Repeat with remaining fillo and filling.

7. Bake strudels for 30 to forty-five minutes or until golden brown on top. Cool briefly and serve.