As a kid, I really didn’t appreciate the fact that we almost never ever had take-outs or went out for lunch (the main meal of the day in the Arab world). I am now so grateful for all the hot meals and love my mom brought to our family, but also for growing up to know what real food tastes, smells and feels like. We always gathered around the table and had food together, and the best memories are the ones that revolve around food and gatherings.
Now pastries are without a doubt my mom’s specialty and when we were kids, she baked them quite often. They’re so versatile, taste amazing, everyone likes them, and she is a pastries’ master; she could make them with her eyes closed. Mom has a nickname “em al ajeen”, mother of dough, because by looking at the ingredients she can tell you if the dough is going to be good or not and how the texture is going to be like. For a very long time she used to make dough without measurements and only relying on her sense of touch, until we started insisting on wanting a recipe. She can rescue any failed dough and her pastries taste like heaven and lots and lots of love.
Middle eastern pastries in general have different dough types, shapes and fillings. They can be filled, or topped with literally anything, but traditionally, at least in my family, the fillings/toppings are, za’atar, white cheese, chili tomato paste, ground meat, labneh and spinach.
In later posts, I will introduce you to all my mom’s dough secrets and to other recipes, but today I am sharing the spinach recipe. When we were kids, more often than not, mama made those spinach pastries for lunch; these were some of the very few times she could get me to eat my veggies and I just loved them!
In my family, the spinach pastries are served with a parsley tahini dip. I have no idea why and I don’t see people serving it this way, but this is how we do it. I must say though, I really like it this way and I think they go really well together, plus tahini makes almost everything taste better. However, a person who might not be used to this might think of this as an unusual combination.
Let’s get cooking!
There are two components to the spinach pastries, dough and filling. The dough recipe is very traditional and one of the few dough recipes where mom uses olive oil. The filling ingredients are traditional, but the way mom prepares it is not. Yet, I personally think this is the reason why hers taste superior to other spinach fatayer.
We never squeeze the liquids out of the spinach like most people do and we do add a generous amount of lemon juice and olive oil to the filling. People usually avoid liquids to make sure the dough doesn’t become soggy. However, having had endless spinach pastries in my life in my mom’s kitchen, I can reassure you that this filling is so tasty and would not impact the dough.
Spinach Pastries
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tbsp instant dry yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Water as needed (¾ – 1 cup)
Filling
- 400 g fresh spinach (leaves and stems) roughly chopped
- ½ cup olive oil
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
- 1 tbsp sumac
- ½ tbsp spicy pepper paste (optional or to taste)
- 1 onion finely chopped and liquids squeezed out by hand
- 1 ½ tsp salt.
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar and yeast and stir to combine. Add the oil and water and kneed until dough comes together. Knead by hand on a lightly greased surface until smooth and elastic for about 10 minutes.
- Transfer to a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rest for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
- Meanwhile start preparing the filling, add all ingredients under filling to a large bowl and mix to combine. Taste and adjust salt if needed.
- Preheat oven to 220 °C and lightly grease 2 baking sheets with olive oil.
- Divide dough into small balls, (18 – 21) and cover with a kitchen towel so that dough doesn’t dry out. Flatten each ball with your hand into a large circle, almost ½ cm thick. Add filling to the center of the dough. It is very important to leave the edges of the dough dry, otherwise you won’t be able to close the dough. Fold 3 edge of the dough over the filling and pinch to close the 3 sides together to form a triangular shape.
- Bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Serve warm with a tahini parsley dip.
Notes
- Add salt to taste. Salt tastes very differently depending on the type you’re using.
- The weight of the spinach is the weight after it being washed and dried completely.
- When adding the filling to the dough, use your hand to avoid adding liquids.
- The pastries freeze really well up to 3 months.
11 thoughts on “Fatayer Sabanekh (spinach pastries)”
I love making little portable snacks and these would be great for lunches, make ahead appetizers and many other events. I think they are so good maybe we can get our kids to eat spinach! Going to pin this one!
This is exactly how mum got us to eat spinach! Enjoy!
I’m Lebanese so fatayer for me where a staple diet growing up but my mom rarely ever made them at home. My teta on the other hand made them as often as possible… but we mostly bought fatayer from a local bakery. I left Beirut 18 years ago for Europe and now the US but never in a million years would I have thought to make these. Even though I absolutely love fatayer! I binge on them when in Beirut which isn’t often at all anymore. Your recipe is great and even my British husband was impressed. Thank you so much for this, I will be making fatayer more often now.
Hi Rana,
I am very thrilled you enjoyed the recipe. This was exactly the point behind the blog, connecting us all to our roots and reviving our childhood memories 🙂 Thank you so much for stopping by, your comment truly made my day!
Excellent. Very easy to make.
I have been looking for a meat pie do recipe that my X husband’s family from Syria would use and I never could find one that tasted just like that dough that they used. When they made their pies with whatever feeling it was thin light with a beautiful taste. I’m going to try this one very very soon and I will leave a comment after I do so. but I thank you for having it available for me to try . Do you have any suggestions about what meat I can use. Just to know that my ex-husband’s family used to make ground beef with pine nuts which was very very delicious again thank you very much and I come across this and I’m going to give it a try. I thank you
Hi Jeanne,
Thank you so much for passing by. Were the pies shaped the same as these fatayer? If you can describe how exactly they looked like, I would probably be able to help you more with the meat recipe. Also, at home, we use this dough recipe for fillings that have olive oil, such as spinach, labaneh, etc., but for other fillings such as meat, we tend to use this dough recipe:
https://thebitterolive.com/the-perfect-fatayer-dough/
So, do check it out!
Ayah
Fresh spinach has a lot of water in it. Would using cooked spinach (from frozen) with the water squeezed out work better?
Hi Jasmine,
You’re absolutely right, fresh spinach does indeed have a lot of water. Many people use frozen spinach but I think the taste of fresh spinach is 100 times better. Working with fresh spinach is a little tricky though, so it’s entirely your choice to make, but we have always only used fresh spinach. If you decide to use fresh spinach it is important you don’t overstuff the dough.
Let me know if you need anything else and hopefully you will give it a try 🙂
I made the pastries using the fresh spinach. I found the rough chop spinach hard to fit in the pastries so I put the mixture into my food processor and pulsed a few times. Perfect. I only got about half fully sealed on the top but only a couple really opened up. I did brush with oil and a smidge of garlic salt as the pastry needed a little boost. It was a little tricky with all the liquid but they came out crisp and delicious. Everyone loved them
They are a little tricky indeed, but I am so glad you they turned out good. Also garlic salt seems like a great addition!