Spinach Pinwheels

I had a serious debate with myself about what to call these. There aren't a lot of circle words that we use to describe food that are all that appetizing. Wheels? Nah, too transport oriented. Twirls? That's not food, that's movement. Rounds? Discs? Rings? None of these sound terribly appetizing. I really wanted something that sounded as tasty and light and crunchy as these lovely things. Ultimately, (as you can see above), I landed on pinwheels, but I'm not totally satisfied with that. Do you, my lovely readers, have any suggestions?


Anyway...this dish is, in the most basic description, spanakopita in a hurry. I posted a recipe a while back on here for spanakopita, the traditional way. It's a spinach pie with feta cheese and it's deliciously flaky and lovely. But, the fact of the matter is, working with phyllo dough is really time consuming. So, this recipe is a way to enjoy the wonderful spinachy-flavor of spanakopita, without having to worry about all that finicky phyllo. You make the filling in exactly the same way, but then you spread it on some puff pastry, roll it all up and they are in the oven in less than an hour. Gotta love a good shortcut!


So now, on to the recipe.


Ingredients

• 16 oz. frozen spinach, thawed (you can use fresh too)
• 3 tbsp. garlic, chopped
• 1 large white onion, chopped finely
• 6-8 oz. walnuts, toasted (you can also use whole pine nuts or other chopped nuts)
• 8 oz. (approximately) feta cheese
• 1-2 eggs
• 4-5 tbsp. olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp. of nutmeg
• 1 tsp. lemon juice (optional, if you think it needs more acidity)
• 1 package of puff pastry, thawed (or 2 sheets)

Directions

• Take thawed spinach, and squeeze out as much water as possible with your hands. It's necessary to try and get as much water out as possible. If you are using fresh spinach, saute it with a bit of olive oil until all of the leaves have wilted. Remove from the pan, allow it to cool. Again, squeeze out as much water as possible.
• In a skillet, heat olive oil. Fry onions until starting to brown around the edges. Add garlic and saute for another minute.
• Add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
• Remove mixture from heat, and allow it to cool to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Stir in lemon juice and eggs. Stir it well to make sure it is completely mixed.
• Unroll the thawed puff pastry. Spread spinach mixture over the sheets of puff pastry. Roll up the puff pastry from the long side, into a log (like making cinnamon rolls) and seal the edges.
• Cut each pastry roll into 10 rounds. Place on a baking sheet that is either greased or lined with parchment paper.
• Bake in the 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until browned all around the edges.

Enjoy!

Until our next dinner,

ceh.