Crispy & Flavorful Vegan Spanakopita Triangles
One of the first foods that comes to mind when you think about Greek cuisine is spanakopita. Greeks produce a wide variety of delectable pies, but spanakopita is renowned across the world for a reason: its golden dough is flaky and crispy, and its filling is made of spinach and feta cheese, seasoned with herbs and nutmeg. It is the stuff of dreams when it is created with love and care.
Crispy & Flavorful Vegan Spanakopita Triangles Recipe
I thought the recipe could be useful in the lead-up to the holidays because these adorable vegan spanakopita triangles are a best appetizer and a great addition to dinner parties and potlucks.
Crispy & Flavorful Vegan Spanakopita Triangles
Course: AppetizerCuisine: GreekDifficulty: Medium24 triangles
servings1
hour20
minutes50
kcalVegan Spanakopita Triangles that are Crispy & full of Flavor! Filled with healthy spinach and fragrant herbs, these tasty, flaky pastries are sure to impress a crowd. Great for gatherings or as a delicious treat.
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil + more for brushing
300 g fresh spinach
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
3 tbsp (loosely packed) dill
½ cup my vegan ricotta cheese
1 tsp dried mint
¾ tsp fine sea salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
¼ cup fine breadcrumbs
zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
10 sheets vegan (a lot of them are!) phyllo pastry, defrosted
2 tbsp reduced aquafaba
black and white sesame seeds, for decorating
Directions
- Blanch clean spinach in a pot of water that is boiling. To maintain the lovely green color, immediately submerge in ice-cold water (optional).
- In a big pan, heat up two tablespoons of olive oil. Sliced spring onions should be added and cooked gently until tender. Add the chopped garlic and cook over low to medium heat until fragrant and transparent.
- By using your hands, firmly squeeze the water out of the blanched spinach. To get the spinach as dry as possible, go over it two or even three times. Add it to the pan after chopping it.
- Add pepper, dried mint, dill, lemon zest and juice, nutmeg, and nutritional yeast (if using). Before adding the vegan cheese, let the mixture cool fully.
- Stir the mixture thoroughly after adding the vegan cheese. Depending on whether you used tofu or ricotta, add salt to taste. In mine, I added ¾ tsp of salt.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F/175° C.
- Assemble a small bowl with sesame seeds, aquafaba, breadcrumbs, olive oil, and a pastry brush each.
- Measure the length of the roll before you begin rolling out the pastry. Cut off the ends, which are often dry and brittle, then split the roll into as many 6.5 cm by 2.5 in sections as you can. Make the necessary markings with a pencil on the paper used to wrap the pastry. Since phyllo dough dries up and splits rapidly, cut off the initial segments (you don’t need to take the paper off before cutting) and keep the remaining portions covered with a moist dish towel.
- Remove the first segment’s wrapping and lay the first strip on a table in front of you, keeping the remaining strips beneath the moist towel. In order to prevent the pastry layers from sticking to one another and to keep the pie crunchy, lightly spray it with olive oil (you don’t want the pastry to be oily), sprinkle it with a little salt (optional), and sprinkle it with a little breadcrumb. Next, lay a second strip over the first and lightly oil it once more.
- Place a large spoonful (avoid overfilling) of filling at the end of each strip and proceed to wrap the pastry around the filling following the step as shown in video.
- Close the triangle by applying a small amount of olive oil. Put on a baking sheet (no need to add oil) and cover with a moist kitchen cloth. Keep going until you finish all of the filling or pastry sheets.
- Coat the triangles’ tops with thinned aquafaba and garnish with sesame seeds. Cook in the oven for 20-22 minutes, until a golden color is achieved.
Recipe Video
Notes
- You can substitute firm tofu for my vegan ricotta cheese if you don’t want to make it for the filling. To make the tofu more crumbly, the ideal method is to drain 200 g of it, freeze it for a day, and then defrost it first. In a bowl, crumble the tofu and add a generous amount of lemon juice, soy sauce, white miso, and pepper. Although the texture will be less creamy, it tastes good and takes a little less work.
Reduced aquafaba is just aquafaba that has been cooked, without a lid, until the excess water has evaporated and the aquafaba has the consistency of an egg white. Before using it as an egg wash, please let it cool fully.
