Air fryer Spanakopita Spring Rolls

The Inspiration…

In my family, we eat a lot of Greek-inspired foods. We have chicken souvlaki at least once a month, and if I’m being completely honest, I went through a phase where I ate souvlaki multiple times per week. (Special thanks to my husband for tolerating that!) We frequent the Greek diners in the area, but I also enjoy recreating those dishes at home. One of our favorite dishes to order is spanakopita. Flaky, buttery layers of pastry, filled with spinach and creamy feta, seasoned with fresh herbs. While I enjoy eating a big slab of it, it is very hard to make a small quantity, and it is time consuming to layer all of those pastry sheets. I got to thinking, how can I make this easier to make, and easier to eat? While I was making some pot stickers one night, the idea came to me. Spanakopita SPRING ROLLS! The perfect hand-held package to transport all that flavor. I paired it with my Creamy homemade Tzatziki, and I was sold. Let me teach you how to make it!

Let’s start by making our filling! The best part! You’ll need two bags of cooking spinach. This type of spinach is a little curlier, and very dark. It does not cook down as much as baby spinach, and also does not create as much moisture in the mix as it cooks down. If you can’t find cooking spinach, you can use the baby spinach and just make sure you press as much of the moisture out as possible before we fill our spring rolls.

Start by sautéing your minced shallots and garlic with a little salt and olive oil. Once those turn translucent, you can add in your spinach. It always amazes me how much raw spinach you start with and how little you end up with! It’s magic! Once all your spinach is wilted down, you can take it off the heat to cool. Once it is cooled, push all the spinach to one half of your pan, tilt the pan with the spinach side up, and press on the spinach with a spoon. Drain the liquid that comes out. If you are using baby spinach, you may need to squeeze the spinach mixture by hand or let sit in a sieve for a bit to drain the excess liquid. We don’t want a soupy mixture, or our spring rolls will not get crispy.

Take your cooled and drained spinach mixture and add it to a food processor, along with your feta, parmesan, dill, parsley, egg and remaining salt. I like to use the feta cheese in brine. I think it has a better flavor and is creamier than the non-brined variety. Pulse until everything is well combined. Now I transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover tightly with cling wrap, and pop it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I find it is easier to work with the filling if it is chilled as it sticks to my fingers less when trying to stuff the spring rolls.

Now the fun part, making the spring rolls! There is a little bit of a trick to rolling these up. You want to take one of your spring rolls wrappers (thawed) and lay it on your workspace so that it looks like a diamond. Slightly fold the bottom corner up, about an inch or so, to create a flat line on the bottom. Now you will take about a TBSP of the filling and form it into a log along the line you just created. Fold in each of the side corners, one at a time, so that the sides are parallel with each other and line up with the bottom edges. Now roll from the bottom, tucking the filling in with your fingers as you go. Seal the top corner with a little water. Set aside and repeat with the remainder of your filling and wrappers.

Place a single layer of spring rolls into your air fryer basket. Cook at 400 degrees for 6 minutes on each side, or until they are golden brown and crispy. Let cool slightly. Serve alongside my Creamy Homemade Tzatziki for a real crowd pleaser!!

Air Fryer Spanakopita Spring Rolls

Yield: 10

Author: Julia Goodrich

These crispy spring rolls will be your new favorite party appetizer! Salty herbed-spinach filling wrapped in a crispy air-fried wrapper. Dip it into my creamy tzatziki and your tastebuds just might explode!

Ingredients

2 TBSP olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
18 oz cooking spinach*
1 tsp kosher salt, divided
1 1/2 cups feta cheese**
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh dill
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley
1 egg
1 lb spring roll wrappers (about 20), thawed
cooking spray

Instructions

Start by sautéing your minced shallots and garlic with 1/2 tsp salt and olive oil in a large skillet over medium low heat. Once those turn translucent, you can add in your spinach.
Once all your spinach is wilted down, you can take it off the heat to cool. Let the mixture cool, then push all the spinach to one half of your pan, tilt the pan with the spinach side up, and press on the spinach with a spoon. Drain the liquid that comes out. If you are using baby spinach, you may need to squeeze the spinach mixture by hand or let sit in a sieve for a bit to drain the excess liquid. We don’t want a soupy mixture, or our spring rolls will not get crispy.
Take your cooled and drained spinach mixture and add it to a food processor, along with your feta, parmesan, dill, parsley, egg and remaining salt. Pulse until everything is well combined. Now I transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover tightly with cling wrap, and pop it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Take one of your spring rolls wrappers (thawed) and lay it on your workspace so that it looks like a diamond. Slightly fold the bottom corner up, about an inch or so, to create a flat line on the bottom. Now you will take about a TBSP of the filling and form it into a log along the line you just created. Fold in each of the side corners, one at a time, so that the sides are parallel with each other and line up with the bottom edges. Now roll from the bottom, tucking the filling in with your fingers as you go. Seal the top corner with a little water. Set aside and repeat with the remainder of your filling and wrappers.
Place a single layer of spring rolls into your air fryer basket and coat lightly with cooking spray. Cook at 400 degrees for 6 minutes on each side, or until they are golden brown and crispy. Let cool slightly. Serve alongside my Tzatziki for a real crowd pleaser!!

Notes

*This type of spinach is a little curlier, and very dark. It does not cook down as much as baby spinach, and also does not create as much moisture in the mix as it cooks down. If you can’t find cooking spinach, you can use the baby spinach and just make sure you press as much of the moisture out as possible before we fill our spring rolls.

**I like to use fresh feta in brine as it is creamier than other varieties of feta. You can use what you have available to you.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

257.82

Fat

10.26

Sat. Fat

4.49

Carbs

29.97

Fiber

2.1

Net carbs

27.88

Sugar

0.49

Protein

11.63

Sodium

877.2

Cholesterol

43.87

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.

joyfulforkfull.com/blog/spanakopita-spring-rolls

Spring Roll, Spinach, feta, dill, parsley, tzatziki, garlic, shallot, greek

Appetizer

Greek