Fatayer bi sabanekh is a Lebanese spinach pie featuring a delectable sour spinach filling encased in a soft pastry shaped into a triangle.
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My gosh, I want you to smell the amazing waft of bakery when you bake fatayer.
I just love it, it reminds me of Beirut & Tripoli bakeries and how they fill the streets with heavenly aromas (you can of course find these at any Lebanese bakery around the globe).
Fatayer (فطائر) is the Arabic word for pie. It is pronounced as fah-tayh-yerr. Bi sabanekh are the Arabic words for ‘with spinach’.
Fatayer bi sabanekh = spinach pie.
Lebanon has many delicious baked goods, however, I find the Lebanese spinach pies to have the most distinctive flavour.
The mix of spinach, onion in sumac and pomegranate molasses is exquisite and when encased in a soft, yet crispy pastry, the exquisiteness is tenfold.
As a child, I would watch my Mum prepare fatayer, and I would sneak in a spoonful of the spinach filling mixture or lick a spoon with leftover pomegranate molasses. As an adult, I still do this, haha.
😋Why you’ll love this recipe
- The flavour is unrivalled with any other spinach pie
- Pies can be frozen and used at a later stage
- These vegan spinach pies can be eaten on the go
✔️What You’ll Need
🥘Ingredient Notes
Spinach - baby spinach leaves, English spinach or frozen spinach can be used. If using English spinach, be sure to chop up the stems small
Onion - white or brown onions are good options
Sumac* - a widely used red spice (from the sumac berries) across the Middle East. Sumac has a wonderful sour taste and is a key flavour in this recipe. Sumac can be found in your local supermarket or online*. Skipping this ingredient is not recommended.
Pomegranate Molasses* - another key flavour of fatayer bi sabanekh which again has a sweet-sour taste. Available at your local supermarket or purchased online - my go-to brand is Cortas*. Skipping this ingredient is not recommended.
Flour - use an even combination of plain (all-purpose) and self-raising (self-rising) flour. Opt for organic flour where possible. The combination of these two flours when baked results in a soft pastry with crispy seams (where the triangle has been closed)
Almond milk - I like to use this as it’s light, you can also substitute this for water or another plant milk that you like.
🔪How to make Fatayer
Prepare fatayer dough
Step 1 - In a large mixing bowl, add all the dry dough ingredients. Once combined add all the wet ingredients and mix through.
Step 2 - Once the dough starts to stick, use your hands and knead the dough until it no longer sticks. Knead the dough for approx. 4-5 minutes.
Step 3 - Oil proofing bowl and place the dough ball into it. Cover with cling wrap and a tea towel, allow it to rise for an hour in a warm place.
Prepare fatayer bi sabanekh filling
Step 4 - In a large bowl add a teaspoon of salt to the spinach and massage the salt into the leaves. Allow spinach to sit for at least 10-15 minutes. Squeeze out as much moisture from the spinach with your hands, discard juice and place it into a dry bowl.
Step 5 - add all other filling ingredients to the spinach and combine thoroughly. Place the spinach mixture into a colander and set it propped up into a bowl to allow any excess juice to flow out.
Fatayer assembly
Step 6 - Measure out as many 35g dough balls. Approx. 26 balls. Keep these covered with a tea towel whilst working with the dough. An alternative to handling dough is in the video.
Step 7 - Dust clean flat surface with flour, pat down one dough ball at a time with fingers into a circle, then use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a larger circle. The dough should have a thickness of approx. 3mm (0.1” inches)
Step 8 - Place filling in the centre of the dough, without touching the edge. Fold and seal into a triangle. See video and notes.
Step 9 - Place each triangle on a lined baking tray and brush with olive oil.
Step 10 - Bake in a pre-heated oven of 220C (430F) until golden brown or (approx. 12-13 minutes). Enjoy warm.
✔️Variations
Switch out spinach with silverbeet greens. Do not use the stalk. This is something I do quite a lot, the taste is equally amazing.
Switch out the spinach with purslane, similar to this purslane pocket recipe.
💭Pro Tips
Filling - Ensure spinach filling is as dry as possible. A soggy filling will result in the pies opening up during baking.
Filling - Once the filling has been mixed together, place it into a colander with a bowl underneath it, this will help release any juice.
Filling - Keep the filling in the colander whilst using it to make the pies. Chop up the contents of the filling small.
Filling - A chunky filling will be harder to handle when trying to seal the dough. Adding salt to taste - I recommend tasting your filling.
Moisture - Keep all moisture to a minimum. Do not allow any moisture on the dough whilst handling. Moisture will result in the pies not closing at the seams.
Dough - Whilst working with the dough, keep it covered under a tea towel or cling wrap to ensure it doesn’t dry out. I prefer to measure out individual dough balls rather than cutting out the dough with a dough cutter 10cm (approx. 4 inches) wide. See video.
Rolling - use fingers to initially pat out dough into a circle, then roll out into a larger circle. The dough should be approx. 3mm thick (approx. 1 inch)
Salting spinach - allowing the spinach to sit in salt for 10 minutes helps to expel moisture. Squeeze out as much juice as possible out of the spinach.
Creating spinach triangles - fold two ends of the circle dough, and pinch off centre about a ⅓ of the way, then fold the next side. This will create an even triangle. See video.
Storing - whilst vegan Lebanese spinach pies are best eaten immediately, these can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for a day or two. The pastry may soften further, but they still taste amazing! Just ensure they are completely cooled down before storing ready fatayer.
Oven - should be really hot, you could bake these at 230C (440F) until golden (my oven atm is not reliable so I stuck to the 220C mark - it's important to note each oven varies)
💡What to serve with?
Fatayer bi sabanekh are fabulous on their own or with a side salad, such as fattoush or tabouli.
🥘Related recipes
Did you enjoy this fatayer bi sananekh from scratch? I would love to hear from you, leave me a comment below and give me a rating. This will help me sustain Plant Based Folk.
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Janelle x
📖 Recipe
Fatayer bi Sabanekh (Vegan Lebanese Spinach Pie)
Ingredients
Fatayer Dough
- 250 g Plain Flour + extra for dusting
- 250 g Self raising flour same as self rising
- 1 tablespoon Dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon Coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 110 ml Olive oil
- 290 ml Almond milk warm
Fatayer Filling
Additionals
Instructions
Prepare fatayer dough
- In a large mixing bowl, add all the dry dough ingredients. Once combined add all the wet ingredients and mix through.
- Once the dough starts to stick, use your hands and knead the dough until it no longer sticks. Knead the dough for approx. 4-5 minutes.
- Oil proofing bowl and place the dough ball into it. Cover with cling wrap and a tea towel, allow it to rise for an hour in a warm place.
Prepare fatayer bi sabanekh filling
- In a large bowl add a teaspoon of salt to the spinach and massage the salt into the leaves. Allow spinach to sit for at least 10-15 minutes. Squeeze out as much moisture from the spinach with your hands and place into a dry bowl.
- Add all other filling ingredients to the spinach and combine thoroughly. Place the spinach mixture into a colander and sit it propped up into a bowl to allow any excess juice to flow out.
Fatayer assembly
- Measure out as many 35g dough balls. Approx. 26 balls. Keep these covered with a tea towel whilst working with the dough.
- Dust clean flat surface with flour, pat down one dough ball at a time with fingers into a circle, then use a rolling pin to roll out dough into a larger circle. Dough should have a thickness of approx. 2 -3mm (0.1” inches)
- Place filling in the centre of the dough, without touching the edge. Fold and seal into a triangle. See video and notes.
- Place each triangle on a lined baking tray and brush with olive oil.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven of 220C (430F) until golden brown (approx. 12-13 minutes). Enjoy warm.
Video
Notes
- Switch out spinach with silverbeet greens. Do not use the stalk. This is something I do quite a lot, the taste is equally amazing.
- Switch out the spinach with purslane, similar to this purslane pocket recipe.
- Filling - Ensure spinach filling is as dry as possible. A soggy filling will result in the pies open up during baking. Once the filling has been mixed together, place it into a colander with a bowl underneath it, this will help release any juice. Keep the filling in the colander whilst using it to make the pies. Chop up the contents of the filling small. Chunky filling will be harder to handle when trying to seal the dough. Adding salt to taste - I recommend tasting your filling.
- Moisture - Keep all moisture to a minimum. Do not allow any moisture on the dough whilst handling. Moisture will result in the pies not closing at the seams.
- Dough - Whilst working with the dough, keep it covered under a tea towel or cling wrap to ensure it doesn’t dry out. I prefer to measure out individual dough balls rather than cutting out the dough with a dough cutter 10cm (approx. 4 inches) wide. See video.
- Rolling - use fingers to initially pat out dough into a circle, then roll out into a larger circle. Dough should be approx. 2.5mm thick (approx. 1 inch)
- Salting spinach - allowing spinach to sit in salt for 10 minutes helps to expel moisture. Squeeze out as much juice as possible out of the spinach.
- Creating spinach triangles - fold two ends of the circle dough, and pinch off centre about a ⅓ of the way, then fold the next side. This will create an even triangle. See video.
- Storing - whilst vegan Lebanese spinach pies are best eaten immediately, these can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for a day or two. The pastry may soften further, but they still taste amazing!
- Oven - should be really hot, you could bake these at 230C (440F) until golden (my oven atm is not reliable so I stuck to the 220C mark - it's important to note each oven varies)
Nancy
I simply adore these and have never made them, only bought them at Lebanese grocers in my area (Watertown, Mass) Can I use whole wheat flour for better healthfulness, with the realization that they won't be as tender, or course? Also, for those who are gluten free all together, have you ever tried one of the gluten free flours with these? If so, which do you recommend?
Janelle
hi Nancy,
You should be able to use whole wheat flour, with the view that it will be different (as you know)
As for gluten-free - I am still testing out the various flours before I can comment. Check back in a few weeks 🙂
Enjoy!
J 🙂
Yusra
Yislamli hal edan.
They came out just like mom’s used to. Mine weren’t as neat as yours, but the taste was perfect.