Spring Spanakopita Triangles with Lemon Yoghurt

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Makes 12 triangles 

​Ingredients 

​Spanakopita triangles 

• 500 grams silverbeet washed and finely sliced or 8 packed cups once sliced 

• 1 cup silverbeet stems, finely sliced (and diced if very wide) 

• 1 tablespoon butter 

• 3 large cloves garlic, minced 

• 1 packed cup fresh mint, finely chopped 

• 1 large or 2 medium/small spring onions 

• 200 grams feta 

• 1 cup Greek yoghurt 

• 100 grams butter 

• 300 grams / 12 sheets filo pastry 

• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds 

Lemon yoghurt 

• ½ cup Greek unsweetened yoghurt 

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped lemon thyme 

• Zest from 1 lemon 

Method 

1. Wash the silverbeet well and remove the leaves from the stems – if the silverbeet is freshly picked you can do this by holding the stem with one hand and tearing the leaves off in one swift upward motion with your other hand. 

2. Slice the leaves very thinly and measure out 8 packed cups. Finely slice (and dice if very wide) enough silverbeet stems to measure 1 cup. 

3. Heat the butter in a large frying pan and add the stems. Season with salt and black pepper then gently sauté until the stems are cooked, adding a bit of water every now and then so they don’t burn and to help them become nice and soft. 

4. Turn the heat up to high and add all the silverbeet with the water still clinging to it. Cook it fast, using tongs to turn, until all the liquid is absorbed and the silverbeet is completely cooked down. This step is important, as if there is too much liquid in the silverbeet at this stage your filos could become soggy on the bottom once cooked. Remove the cooked silverbeet from the heat. 

5. Add the garlic, fresh mint, spring onions, feta, and Greek yoghurt, crumbling the feta in as it is added. 

6. Combine well - I like to use my fingers here to help all the flavours get properly mixed through the silverbeet. 

7. Get set up to make your triangles, by ensuring you have a clean dry bench surface, and a clean hardly damp teatowel on standby to cover the filo pastry with. Covering it while you are working on the triangles will prevent it from drying out. I usually get a teatowel and lightly run it under a cold tap in places, then squeeze it out really well. 

8. The other thing I like to do at this point is to roughly divide the filling up into four even quantities in the pan. That way when it comes to assembling the filos, I know I have to get three filos from each quarter of filling. The time spent doing this now will help a lot later – believe me! 

9. Preheat oven to 180C  

10. Melt the butter in a small pan. Using a pastry brush grease a large oven tray. 

11. Remove the filo pastry from its packet, unfold it out and place it on the bench, covering with the teatowel until you are ready to assemble the filos.  

12. Take one piece of filo pastry and place it vertically in front of you. Using a pastry brush butter one half lengthways and fold it in half. You will now be left with a long skinny piece of pastry. Place a few spoons of filling into the bottom left-hand corner of the pastry, keeping in mind you will get three filos triangles to each quarter of filling. 

13. Butter all the exposed filo pastry, edges included. Fold the pastry and filling over to the right, creating a triangle shape. Now fold up, following the line of the pastry. Next fold over to the left, then finally fold up and across to the right one last time. You should be left with a triangle shape. 

14. Place the spanakopita triangle onto the greased oven tray, then brush butter over the top and sprinkle sesame seeds over. 

15. Continue assembling the rest of your spanakopita triangles until all the filling is used up and you have 12 spanakopita triangles in total. 

16. Bake for 35 – 45 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. If you have fan bake they may not take as long, so check them after 30 minutes. 

17. To make the lemon yogurt, combine the yoghurt, lemon thyme and lemon zest and mix well. Pour into a jug and serve on the side of the spanakopita triangles.