Middle Eastern region with its uses of herbs, spices, vegetables and meats has given us many a wonderful dishes. It is definitely a paradise for food lovers with preparations such as Shawarma, Kebab’s, Hummus, Kibbeh, Fatayer and many more. It is common to see the use of meats such as Beef, Goat and Camel while Spinach, Mint, Parsley and Thyme leaves are used in many vegetarian dishes. Use of Olive, Dates, Pomegranate is common through the middle eastern countries. For today’s recipe I picked up one from the Middle Eastern region, Fatayer is a commonly served recipe as a starter called Meze. It is easy to find this recipe in most countries of the region specifically in Syria, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt etc. These can be filled in with vegetable leaves or meat to make different varieties and baked before being served in hot Meze. I used Spinach and Feta Cheese in my preparation while cinnamon and lemon juice brought out a lovely combination in the taste. The Spinach And Feta Fatayer turned out just delicious and I loved this Arabic recipe. You also can enjoy this traditional perfect taste by making it yourself and include it with a personal selection of Meze. Here is Spinach And Feta Fatayer Recipe.
Ingredients (serves 4)
For the dough
- All purpose flour – 1 & 1/2 cup
- Salt – 1/2 tsp
- Yogurt – 2 tbsp
- Warm milk – 1/4 cup
- Sugar – 1/2 tsp
- Active dry yeast – 3/4 tsp
For the filling
- Spinach – 2 cups (finely chopped)
- Salt – 1/2 tsp
- Onion – 1/4 cup (finely chopped)
- Feta cheese – 2 tbsp (crumbled)
- Black pepper powder – 1/2 tsp
- Cinnamon powder – 1/4 tsp
- Lemon juice – 1 tsp
How to Make Spinach And Feta Fatayer
For the dough
- Mix active dry yeast, sugar with warm milk and keep for 10 minutes.
- Mix all purpose flour, salt with yeast mixture and keep for about 2 hours to rise one and half times.
For the filling
- Wash spinach, mix with salt and keep for about 10 minutes.
- Tightly squeeze to remove any excess water and mix with onion, salt, feta cheese, black pepper powder, cinnamon powder and lemon juice.
For fatayer
- Roll the dough into a large circle about 5 mm thick, cut out 4 to 5 inch circles from the dough.
- Place 1 tbsp filling in each and close to form a triangular Fatayer.
- Pre heat the oven to 180 C.
- Bake the Fatayers for about 20 minutes.
- Serve hot.