Who doesn't love a crispy parcel filled with cheese and delicious veggies? Layers of crunchy fillo pastry, juicy greens and all the creamy, salty feta. Yum!
These baked fillo triangles make for a fantastic appetiser, dinner, or party food. And they are so easy to prepare! You could literally stuff them with anything, and this time I chose mixed chards, kale and feta cheese.
The greens are chopped finely, seasoned and mixed - raw - in a bowl. You then start massaging them with your hand until they start to wilt. You could obviously choose to sauté them, but I prefer to add them raw to the fillo pastry, as they will cook in the oven and there's no need to cook them twice. Just make sure to squeeze out any excess moisture before, or it'll leak out of your parcels while in the oven and make them soggy.
You may be thinking ‘fillo dough? that’s so difficult to work with!’ but it’s really not. It’s actually quite forgiving so long as you don’t let it dry out. So get yourself some spray oil, or a brush - makes it very easy to moisten your fillo sheets without making them too oily.
Ingredients (for 4 large triangles)
4 sheets of fillo dough
200g rainbow chards, chopped finely
100g tuscan kale (cavolo nero), big stems removed, leaves finely chopped
1 small onion, chopped finely
1/2 block of feta, crumbled
1 tbsp olive oil to season + spray olive oil to moisten the fillo sheets
2 tbsp sesame seeds
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Add the chopped chards, kale to a bowl and massage with your hands until they start to wilt and release moisture. Discard as much liquid as you can.
Add the crumbled feta, onion, and season with 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper set aside.
Place one sheet of fillo on your work table and stray with olive oil. Top with a second sheet and spray the second sheet with olive oil again.
Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut the 2 layers of fillo in two strips lengthwise. Repeat the same with the third sheet - place it on the counter, spray with oil, top with the fourth sheet, spray, then cut into two strips lengthwise.
You should now have 4 strips, each of two layers of fillo - ready to be stuffed.
Take one strip and turn it 90 degrees towards you. Place 1 tablespoon of filling in one corner of pastry, leaving a 1cm border. Don’t overfill triangles or they will split.
Gently lift pastry corner with filling and fold tightly diagonally to create a triangle (take care not to tear pastry). Continue folding, retaining triangle shape. Repeat with the second strip. Then the third, and fourth.
Brush the triangle with more spray oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden and crispy.
Buon appetito!