Chard and Feta Filo Parcels
My lovely father in law has a beautiful little garden, which he likes to tend to every day. He grows beans, eggplants and chard among other things and loves to give me a parcel of veggies whenever I go over. It’s a bit like getting a farmers market delivery every month and I immediately get to work thinking about what new recipe I can make that will do his produce justice.
This is a play on spanakopita, but it much simpler than that and uses chard instead of spinach! I served it with a side salad and we had it as a main, but you could easily serve it as an appetizer.
Mr. B has started a nodding rating system to indicate how much he likes a dish (bobble head to come) and this one gets 4/5, missing one star purely as it is a savoury rather than sweet dish!
Ingredients
- 1 head of chard
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 150g sheep cheese feta
- 1 pack of filo pastry
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1 tbsp. sesame seeds
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Put a pan of salted water on to boil
- Preheat the oven to 350f
- Heat 1tbsp. coconut oil and cook the onion gently for 10 minutes till translucent
- In the mean time wash the chard and strip the leaves away from the stalks
- Chop the stalks into small pieces and add them to the onions, add salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes
- Add the chard leaves to the hot water and cook for 1 minute, drain and cool immediately under cold running water. Drain and squeeze as much excess water out as you can. Roughly chop the leaves.
- In a bowl crumble the cheese together with the onions, chard stalks and chopped leaves. Set aside to cool.
- Remove the filo from the packet and lay it out
- Take out one layer and brush with coconut oil, add a second layer on top and repeat
- Place two heaped tablespoons in the middle of the sheet and fold inwards to create a square parcel. Brush with coconut oil, flip and brush the back
- Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and bake for c. 30 minutes or until golden brown
- Once out of the oven, let cool for a few minutes and serve whole or cut into half on the diagonal to create two triangle halves
- Serving suggestion – accompany with a side salad of rocket, extra virgin olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and a dusting of lemon zest (the acid in this salad will help cut through the richness of the feta)
