I would have never even imagined attempting to make these pastries—my mom hadn’t either. But after years of buying these, I finally did it and I came to the conclusion that this was actually really easy. Yes, the shape is weird to get used to, but the filling and dough are so easy to make.
These turnovers are filled with a mixture of spinach, onion, and plenty of sumac. The addition of sumac makes for an extremely tangy filling that hits all the right spots.
*the dough recipe!*
Spinach Turnovers (fatayer)
Ingredients
spinach filling
- 1 pound spinach
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 tablespoons sumac
- 1/2 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (optional)
- 1 tablespoons pine nuts (optional)
savory pastry dough
- 3 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 cup karoun plain yogurt, labn (plain yogurt)
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Instructions
Filling:
- Roughly chop the spinach.
- Place olive oil and spinach in a skillet over medium heat.
- Stir the spinach until it is just wilted. Remove from heat.
- Place the spinach into a strainer over a bowl. Set aside while you work on the rest of the filling and the spinach releases the liquid.
- Dice the onions and place into a bowl.
- Add sumac, salt, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, and pine nuts to the onions. Mix until everything is combined.
- Remove the spinach from the strainer. It should be as dry as possible. (use paper towels to soak up excess liquid)
- Add spinach to the onion mixture and stir until everything is incorporated.
Dough:
- Preheat the oven to 325 F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Make the dough according to the "Savory Pastry Dough" recipe (linked above).
- Flour your surface and roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick.
- Using a 4 inch circle cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as possible.
- Remove the access dough.
- In the center of one circle, place 1 tablespoon of filling.
- Pinch together 2 edges of the circle over the center of the filling.
- Then bring the last edge to meet them at the center. Seal the sides so they form a pyramid.
- Brush the pastry with egg wash (optional).
- Place in oven for about 20 minutes or until golden.
Notes
*Make sure to remove all water from the spinach.
*Carefully seal the pastry so it does not open up in the oven.
To freeze:
Fully cook, place in airtight container or ziplock, and freeze. When reheating, place in oven at 325 F until hot, or thaw at room temperature.
