Freezer Friendly Food – Spinach, Feta and Filo Parcels
The key to freezer-friendly meals is knowing what works. Some things are great fresh but a bit lifeless when they resurface from their frosty depths. I have a few go-to meals that I know freeze well. My Salmon Nuggets are a win in our house but so are these parcels of summer joy. I am so excited to bring you Spanakopita!
Equipment
- pastry brush
Ingredients
- 400 g fresh spinach
- 2 small onion finely chopped
- 3 clove garlic finely chopped
- 40 g feta cheese
- 250 g pack of filo pastry
- small ramekin filled with extra virgin olive oil – you may need to refill as you go
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
Instructions
Making your filling
- If you want to cook some of these straight away, which I sometimes do, preheat the oven 200˚C/392˚F/ gas mark 6.
- Finely chop the onions and garlic and fry on a medium heat with a good drizzle of olive oil.
- Shred the spinach thoroughly. Once the onions and garlic have softened and started to brown add the spinach and the cumin.
- Cook the mix until the water from the spinach has evaporated, keep stirring to ensure the spinach doesn’t stick and burn. Scrambled Chefs say 7-8 minutes but I would always go off your own judgment. This mix should be thick and not watery when it’s ready.
- Remove the spinach, onion and garlic from the pan and spread it out on a big plate. I stick it in the fridge for 15 mins as I don’t have time for it to cool on the side.
Assembling your Spanakpitas
- You must ensure your mix is fully cooled before you start to assemble your Spanakopitas.
- Take your spinach mix out of the fridge and transfer to a mixing bowl.
- Crumble the feta cheese in to the spinach mixture and mix thoroughly.
- On a clear surface cut your filo in half lengthways.
- Lay a filo sheet in front of you horizontally. Brush with olive oil. Then place a second sheet on top of it. The oil will make them stick together.
- Spoon a heaped tablespoon of the spinach mix on to your preferred end of the filo. I use the left-hand side.
- Take the top corner of the filo sheet (above the spinach mix) and fold it over the spinach mix to form a triangle.
- Then use the triangle and continue to fold until you reach the other end of the pastry. This bit is tricky to explain so check out my video above.
- I don’t have time to be a perfectionist over these so you will see my method is a little rough but I like that.
- Brush the finished parcel with olive oil and place on a tray.
- The first one is always a fiddly thing! But you will soon get in the flow and knock them out in seconds.
- If baking fresh sprinkle with ground cumin and pepper to taste and bake at 200˚C/392˚F/ gas mark 6. for 10 minutes.
Freeze now, bake later
- To save some yummy Spanakpitas for another day you can freeze them. I freeze mine individually before they are cooked in take away tubs. I cook for 20 minutes from frozen at 180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4.
Video
Notes
Honestly this is such a great way to get your family eating spinach, I guarantee they will ask for more! They are just as yummy hot or cold and you get a real sense of achievement seeing them all stacked up.