I love when a recipe is a pleasant surprise, and this one was. I wasn’t expecting much. Being pregnant I have very little interest in food. My best friend had flown up from Melbourne and was heading over for lunch, and deciding what to make is usually fun – but deciding what to make when you have no interest in food is a little bit harder. After flipping through a few cook books, this was the winner. It was so good that I’ve made it again since then {and it’s only been a week}.
It’s a 15 minute meal. It is quick, and if you put your mind to it you could most probably do it in that time frame. I had a little time on my hands, so I flaffed about and probably took more like 25. Rebel.
And let me just say, don’t make the parcels and team it with a different salad. This salad is killer. I actually don’t like cucumbers. I always pull them off salad sandwiches and push them aside in salads. But I am now in love with them, thanks to this salad. They’re fresh, crisp and perfect. Why didn’t anyone tell me about them before?
Ingredients
Parcels
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
100g feta cheese
100g baby spinach
1 lemon
1/2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
4 large sheets of filo pastry
Salad
1 cucumber
1 small red onion
A handful of mint, roughly chopped
A handful of coriander, roughly chopped
20g slivered almonds
650g mixed ripe tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
To serve
fat-free natural yoghurt
lemon juice
Method
♥ Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celcius.
♥ Get out your food processor, or use your stick blender. Drain the chickpeas and add to the processor {or bowl if you’re using the stick blender}. Add the feta, spinach, lemon zest and paprika and blitz until combined.
♥ To make the parcels, fold a single sheet of filo pastry in half, spoon a quarter of the feta mix into the middle and then bring the sides up to make the parcel. They seem like they’re going to fall apart, but just pinch the tops together so they stay gathered. Make the 3 other parcels.
♥ Place in the oven to cook until golden and crisp. {Jamie does suggest frying the bottoms in a frying pan of oil. I tried doing this, and much prepared no frying. Up to you}.
♥ To make the salad, slice the cucumber thinly, as well as the red onion. Place it into your serving bowl. Slice the tomatoes as you please. I buy a punnet of different sized tomatoes – some I slice, some I quarter and the smaller ones I leave whole. Place into the serving bowl.
♥ Drizzle the olive oil over the salad. Sprinkle with salt. Gently toss. Scatter with the herbs and the almonds.
♥ Serve the parcels with the salad, and a dollop of the yoghurt mixed with lemon juice.
Notes:
♥ In Jamie’s recipe he adds lettuce to the salad. You can do this too. I liked the combination without it.
♥ I’ve also skipped another step in the salad, where Jamie adds a handful of black olives. He also adds the lemon juice to the salad instead of the yoghurt. I like the yoghurt sauce to have a tang, but it’s really up to you. Adapt yours to suit your tastes.
♥ The second time I made this I doubled the quantity of the parcels so we’d have more {i.e. two for Hubby and some for lunch the next day}.
I’ve been the opposite. During pregnancy, I went off salad. Always been a huge salad eater and was devastated when a big bowl of veg suddenly made me want to hurl. Stupidly, I could eat all the component parts (except cucumber!) chopped up and placed separately on my plate but mix it up and dress it and I was retching. Now, my boy is one and I’m still on good terms with cucumber. It’s such a ‘meh’ salad veg.
I have to agree on the ‘meh’ factor. I was definitely in that party – a watery, green salad thing… but for some reason they worked the last couple of times they ate them. Let’s hope the love affair continues!
That was meant to read “not on good terms”
I always disliked mushrooms, now I love them and eat them several times a week. I also refused to cook with onion now I know just how much flavour it adds to meals. As I’ve grown older my palate has also grown and I eat, or at least try, so many foods I previously would have turned my nose up at.
I love me some mushrooms. Like you, I retry foods I once hated. I know I’ll eventually like olives and anchovies… but it might take a few more years.
Love cucumbers!
I have the opposite. I loved Steak and Kidney casserole as a kid until I found out its proper name and the fact I was eating kidney and then I couldn’t even stand the smell of it 🙁
I’ve been lured into that old trap as well. I used to love going to my Nan’s house for pie. And since I’ve learned I was eating kidney.
My gag reflex is working overdrive as I type. Ugh.
Real greek recipe does not have chick peas.
I NEED those parcels delivered to my door. Or anything made with pastry for that matter. My dinner is a boring carb-free wonder tonight :-s
As for foods I detested, coriander is one. I accidentally bought it one week for a recipe in Home-Ec which required parsley. When I ate a sprig I was disgusted, to say the least. Couldn’t stand the smell or taste of it for about 10 years and then one day, I began using it in just about everything. I can’t get enough of the stuff.
http://www.annasavanna.blogspot.com
Maybe I’ll start a feta parcel delivery service. 😛
Mustard for me. I could not stand the stuff but when I was expecting my daughter I could keep nothing down and when making a sandwich I tasted the mustard and from that point on I could not get enough of it. I was eating mustard right out of the jar with a spoon! I still like it but not to that extreme.
With a spoon! Get out… I like it with steak, but sometimes it’s got a bit too much heat.
I am a card carrying member of the cucumber haters society – I wish I knew why they repulse me so much! I came around to olives in a big way though.