Sweet Potato and Feta Pastries

These sweet potato and feta pastries have very few ingredients, are quick to make, and make a tasty snack or lunch. They taste best fresh from the oven but can be stored in the fridge for a few days and reheated.

Sweet potato and feta pastries: Nutrition

Sweet potatoes have many nutritional benefits. They are high in polyphenols, antioxidants and fibre. This boosts both your gut and brain health. Spinach, meanwhile, is rich in vitamin K along with minerals including magnesium and calcium. Furthermore, the addition of mixed seeds on top not only adds extra texture to your pastries but it also increases their plant diversity. This is also beneficial for gut health.

Speedy sweet potato and feta pastries

There are a couple of things which make these pastries super quick and easy to make. Firstly, I microwaved my sweet potato. It can take almost an hour to roast a sweet potato in the oven. However, it only takes around 5 minutes to completely cook a sweet potato in the microwave! This not only saves time but energy as well.

However, if you don’t have a microwave you can simply bake it in the oven for around 40-50 minutes at 200°C/180°C fan (400°F/350°F) until soft. Since the potatoes can be cooked and mashed ahead of time you could even bake them beforehand, perhaps when the oven is already being used, and store the mash in the fridge. This is a much more efficient way of using your oven.

Secondly, using shop bought pastry will you save hours of prep time. If you would like to try making your own why not try Joshua Weissman’s puff pastry recipe. He is one of my favourite YouTube chefs and I trust all his recipes!

Vegan pastries

My favourite puff pastry is Jus-rol all butter pastry. A lot of shop bought pastry, however, is also vegan. By substituting the feta for vegan feta and omitting the egg wash these pastries are easily veganised. Violife vegan feta is one of my favourite vegan cheeses – it is extremely creamy.

Substitutes and additions

This is a very simple recipe so you can feel free to add in some extra ingredients. Roasted red peppers taste delicious with feta, sweet potato and spinach. Try roughly chopping a few and adding them into the potato mix. If you do not have any feta then goat’s cheese is a very good alternative. It has a similar flavour to feta with a smoother, less tangy taste which would pair amazingly with the other ingredients.

If you have some extra onions you could thinly slice and fry these in butter at a low temperature for a while until they caramelise. This will add some extra sweetness to the pastries.

Pro-tips

Puff pastry cooks best when it is still cool and goes straight into a hot oven. If the pastry becomes warm it will not puff up like it is supposed to. I recommend placing the pastry in the freezer for 15 minutes before using. Furthermore, ensure the oven has fully preheated before you prepare your pastries.

Similar recipes

If you liked this recipe you might also like:

• Couscous sweet potato salad
• Pea and potato curry puffs
• Vegan mushroom pies
• Garlic and cheese crescent rolls
• Vegan sausage rolls with caramelised onions

Or take a look at my vegetarian and vegan picnic recipes!

Feta and sweet potato parcels

5 from 1 vote

Sweet potato, feta and spinach puff pastry parcels

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Servings: 3

Course: Appetizer, Main Course, Snack

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Calories: 685

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 2 tsp olive oil
• ½ a medium brown onion finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove finely chopped
• 75g/2½cups spinach
• 120g/4¼oz feta cut into 1cm cubes
• 375g/13¼oz ready-rolled puff pastry
• 1 beaten egg
• Mixed seeds

Method

 

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan (400°F/350°F).
2. Prick the sweet potato several times with a fork and cook in the microwave until soft – around 5-6 minutes, depending on size.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large pan on a medium heat and add in the onion. Cook until soft, stirring regularly. Add in the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
4. Add in the spinach and stir until it has just wilted.
5. Once the potato has cooled, peel it and place in a large mixing bowl. Mash the potato with a fork until smooth.
6. Add the spinach mixture into the mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper. Mix with a fork.
7. Fold the feta cubes into the potato mix.
8. Slice a the ready-rolled puff pastry into thirds width ways. Place a third of the mixture onto one half of each strip.
9. Fold over the pastry and crimp the edges using a fork. Use a knife to slice some small steam holes into the pastries.
10. Brush each pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle over some mixed seeds.
11. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.