If you love spanakopita, but don’t want to deal with phyllo dough, our Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites are for you.
For more ideas, check out all of our recipes.
I love spanakopita. The warm spinach, the tasty feta, the flaky pastry … it’s such a delicious combination. But making spanakopita is a lot of work. And if you’ve never worked with phyllo sheets, there’s a little bit of a learning curve.
If you want the flavors of spanakopita, but not the intimidation of sheets of phyllo dough, you need to make our Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites.
These warm, flaky bites of spanakopita are the perfect appetizer for a party or if you just want to have a light dinner. Serve it with a Greek salad and you have a great meal.
Also: Quick aside. Let’s chat about spanakopita for a minute because maybe you’re not fluent in Greek food. Spanakopita is a Greek savory pie, filled with feta cheese and spinach filling. Spanakopita is most commonly made with layers phyllo dough, but can also be made with puff pastry.
We’re channeling the latter in this recipe.
If you do want to make a classic Spanakopita instead, check out our Spanakopita recipe.
Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites Recipe
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Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites Ingredients:
- 10 oz. frozen spinach
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 sheets of puff pastry
How To Make Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
Defrost the frozen spinach. Squeeze out as much water as you can, then add the spinach to a large mixing bowl.
Add in the mayo, feta, parmesan cheese, chopped garlic, lemon pepper, and salt.
Stir until it’s combined.
Defrost the puff pastry sheets.
Do this according to the package, but generally, I let the puff pastry sheet sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before unfolding it.
When the puff pastry sheets are defrosted, use a pizza cutter to cut each one into 24 equal pieces.
If you don’t have a pizza cutter handy, a sharp knife will work.
Put a piece into each cavity of a non-stick mini muffin pan.
If you’re not using a non-stick mini muffin tins, you’ll want to add some cooking spray before you put the puff pastry pieces in.
Use a fork to poke three rows of holes in the bottom of the puff pastry.
Spoon the spinach and feta filling on top of the puff pastry. You’ll have enough of the filling for 48 cups if you use about a half teaspoon to a teaspoon of filling in each.
Bake for 25 minutes until the pastry is a golden brown color.
Let them cool for a couple of minutes before eating, however, these are better if you eat them when they’re warm. The flaky pastry is so delicious that way.
We eat them plain, but you could serve them with tzatziki sauce if you wanted something to dip them in.
Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites: Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe makes 48 spanakopita bites, which you can get from two pieces of puff pastry. Puff pastry comes two to a pack, so that’s perfect.
If you don’t need that many, you can use one sheet of puff pastry to make this recipe. The rest of the filling will be 8 ounces. You can put that in a ceramic ramekin and heat it up at 350 F for 20 minutes to make a spanakopita dip instead.
These easy spanakopita bites are best served right out of the oven, so I wouldn’t recommend making these ahead of time.
However, you could make the spanakopita filling ahead of time. Store the filling in an airtight container in the fridge until you’re ready to make the bites.
Thawed frozen spinach works best in this recipe because of its texture. It’s already wilted and, therefore, will combine with the other ingredients really easily.
If all you can find is fresh spinach, you’ll want to chop it really finely before adding it to the rest of the cheese mixture. If you don’t, you’ll end up with large chunks of spinach that aren’t really appealing.
Lemon pepper seasoning is a blend of seasoning (salt, garlic powder, pepper, and lemon oil or lemon zest, amongst other ingredients). It adds a citrus tang to your dishes (and honestly, it’s one of my favorite fun seasonings). If you don’t have any at home, you can use black pepper, especially since this feta and spinach mixture doesn’t call for too much of it.
But, I do recommend you buy it for this recipe then try it at home on recipes like grilled chicken or fish. It’ll become a staple in your home too.
If you like the flaky phyllo dough in traditional spanakopita, you might want to try phyllo in this recipe. We don’t recommend it because a sheet of phyllo dough is too thin to hold the amount of filling in this recipe.
You could purchase pre-made flaky phyllo cups from your local grocery store, but they’re usually pretty expensive. So making the base for these from puff pastry is more budget-friendly.
You could make your own pastry dough for this, if you wanted, but using store-bought puff pastry takes much less time and keeps this a really easy appetizer.
Store any leftover Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days.
You can eat the leftovers cold, however, they’re best if you heat them up in an air fryer or in a toaster oven before serving.
If you don’t want to make these in bite-sized form, you could make them as full-sized muffins. Cut the puff pastry into one dozen pieces instead of two dozen and follow the rest of the recipe as is.
I haven’t done this, so I’m not sure if your cooking time will need to change since these are larger. So you’ll have to let me know.
More Spinach Recipes:
If you found this post because you were looking for a new recipe using spinach, we have a long list of Budget Friendly Spinach Recipes that you should check out too.
Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites
If you love spanakopita, but don’t want to deal with phyllo dough, our Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites are for you.
Ingredients
- 10 oz. frozen spinach
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 sheets of puff pastry
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
- Defrost the frozen spinach. Squeeze out as much water as you can, then add the spinach to a large mixing bowl.
- Add in the mayo, feta, parmesan cheese, chopped garlic, lemon pepper, and salt. Stir until it’s combined.
- Defrost the puff pastry sheets.
- When the puff pastry sheets are defrosted, use a pizza cutter to cut each one into 24 equal pieces.
- Put a piece into each cavity of a non-stick mini muffin pan.
- Use a fork to poke three rows of holes in the bottom of the puff pastry.
- Spoon the spinach and feta filling on top of the puff pastry. You’ll have enough of the filling for 48 cups if you use about a half teaspoon to a teaspoon of filling in each.
- Bake for 25 minutes until the pastry is a golden brown color.
Notes
If you’re not using a non-stick mini muffin tins, you’ll want to use cooking spray.
Nutrition Information
Yield
48Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 42Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 4mgSodium 93mgCarbohydrates 1gFiber 0gSugar 0gProtein 1g
Have you made this Spanakopita Puff Pastry Bites recipe? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Paula Short
Friday 26th of January 2024
This sounds amazing! Pinned 📌. Thanks bunches for sharing this recipe with Sweet Tea & Friends this month dear friend.
Carol
Thursday 18th of January 2024
I love Spanakopita but working with phyllo dough, not so much so these are a MUST try!
EsmeSalon
Saturday 13th of January 2024
I have previously made the standard spanakopita (although vegan) so must try your pastry bites.
EsmeSalon
Monday 8th of January 2024
Amazing, love spanakopita, and these treats do look awesome.
Jennifer Wise
Monday 8th of January 2024
I love spanikopita (and Greek food in general)! What a great idea to make individual bites. I'll have to try this.