It doesn’t matter how little you have to make a meal, if you’ve got a sheet of puff pastry in the freezer, you’ll always be able to make a little go a bit further. Everything tastes better with puff pastry and this Spinach, Bacon & Feta Plait came together so easy when ingredients were low.

I had a little bit of spinach (silverbeet), a couple slices of bacon, half a capsicum and the tiniest bit of feta cheese. I could’ve probably found a bit of pasta to go with it but knowing I always have puff pastry in the freezer, I decided to create a pastry plait. It’s so, so easy for either sweet or savoury dishes.

All you need to do is blanch the spinach and squeeze out any excess moisture. Chop the other ingredients and add half a cup of dried breadcrumbs. This will help to absorb any excess moisture while baking so the pastry stays crisp.

To make the plait, make cuts in the pastry on both sides as above, leaving a space in the middle to pile your filling.

I also add a sprinkling of dried breadcrumbs on the pastry, just to be sure all that excess moisture is absorbed. Put the cut pastry on a piece of baking paper on a baking tray.

Pile on the filling.

Starting from the back, start folding the pastry over the piece from the opposite side until you get to the front and tuck the ends in.

Brush with a beaten egg and bake for about 25 minutes in a 180 deg C oven.

A lovely, golden, crisp pastry shell filled with all those delicious flavours of spinach, bacon and feta cheese.

Serve sliced with whatever you like. All I had to go with this was potatoes and a box of long life cream in the pantry so I made dauphinoise potatoes (potato bake) and it was delicious.

Making this dish reminded me of the time I made this Plum & Macadamia Plait. It was made with a basic sweet dough but you could quite easily just use frozen, ready made puff pastry for a quick dessert. It’s a great way to use up fruit that might be starting to turn. You could add just about anything to one of these plaits, sweet or savoury.

Puff pastry is also excellent to use when unexpected company arrives. You can make so many little bite sized snacks and I have 10 different recipes here. It pays to keep puff pastry in the freezer for a quick meal or fast snack.

Recipe

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Spinach, Bacon & Feta Plait

For a quick meal when you don't have much left in the pantry, use what you have got left and fold it into this easy puff pastry plait.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 4

Author Anne

Ingredients

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
• 1 cup cooked spinach or silverbeet excess moisture removed
• 2 rashers bacon chopped
• capscim onion or other vegetables, diced
• feta cheese crumbled
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• salt & pepper
• 1 egg beaten

Instructions

1. Cook spinach and remove any excess liquid.
2. Combine spinach, bacon and feta with 1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs and salt and pepper.
3. Prepare sheet of puff pastry by making diagonal cuts about 1/3 from the centre of the pastry sheet.
4. Repeat on the other side.
5. Sprinkle some extra dried breadcrumbs on the pastry sheet to help absorb any excess moisture from the filling.
6. Spoon filling onto the middle of the pastry sheet and starting from the back, fold over cut pastry slices over the top of the filling, tucking the ends in at the front.
7. Brush pastry with 1 beaten egg and bake in a 180 deg C oven for approximately 25 minutes.
8. Slice and serve.