Palestinian · snack

Fatayer Sabanekh (Spinach and Sumac Triangles)

Name: Fatayer Sabanekh (Spinach and Sumac Triangles)
Prep time: 1 h 1 min
Total time: 2 h 21 min
Cuisine: Palestinian
Ingredients: all-purpose flour — 400 g; yeast — 7 g; caster sugar — 4 g; salt — 7 g; water — 240 g; olive oil — 55 g; spinach — 600 g; salt — 10 g; onion — 120 g; sumac — 44 g; lemon juice — 44 g; olive oil — 54 g; pine nuts — 50 g; freshly ground black pepper — 3 g

Fatayer Sabanekh (Spinach and Sumac Triangles) reads citrus 5.5, sourness 5.5 and richness 5.0 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Palestinian snack, about 2 hr 21 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 5.2 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 4.5 / 10
Sour & Bright — 7.2 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 2.1 / 10
Rich & Fat — 6.3 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 3.4 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Citrus 5.5 · Sourness 5.5 · Richness 5.0 · Salinity 4.7 · Nutty 4.3 · Sweetness 4.1 · Funk & Ferment 3.1 · Allium 3.1 · Umami 1.9 · Bitterness 1.9 · Herbaceous 1.7 · Earthy 1.6 · Warm Spice 1.3 · Fruity 1.3 · Floral 1.1 · Heat 0.5

What's in it (14)

all-purpose flour — 400 g
yeast — 7 g
caster sugar — 4 g
salt — 7 g
water — 240 g
olive oil — 55 g
spinach — 600 g
salt — 10 g
onion — 120 g
sumac — 44 g
lemon juice — 44 g
olive oil — 54 g
pine nuts — 50 g
freshly ground black pepper — 3 g

Time & effort: about 2 hr 21 min (1 hr 1 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 124.2 kcal, 4.4 g protein, 2.6 g fat, 21.9 g carbs

Dietary: Vegan — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and dough salt, add the warm water and the dough olive oil, and knead 10 minutes to a soft, elastic dough. Cover and prove 1 hour until doubled.
Meanwhile, toss the chopped spinach with the filling salt in a colander and leave 20 minutes. Then squeeze it hard, a fistful at a time, until almost no water comes out. This is the step that decides whether the triangles seal or burst — wet filling steams them open in the oven.
Rub the chopped onion with the sumac and lemon juice for a minute so it slackens and stains purple.
Combine the squeezed spinach, the sumac onion, the pine nuts, the filling olive oil and the black pepper. Taste: it should be aggressively sour and well salted, because it will be wrapped in plain bread dough.
Heat the oven to 220°C. Divide the dough into 16 pieces and roll each into a 12 cm round about 3 mm thick.
Put a heaped tablespoon of filling in the centre of each round. Bring up three sides and pinch them together firmly from the centre outward to make a sealed triangle with a raised seam. Pinch harder than feels necessary.
Bake on lined trays for 15 to 18 minutes until the pastry is set and pale gold at the edges. Brush with a little more olive oil as they come out.
Eat warm or at room temperature. They are packed for school lunches and picnics all over the northern West Bank, and they keep two days.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Roasted Green Beans With Greek Dressing — Greek
Roasted Vegetable and Hummus Grain Bowl — Middle Eastern
Chicken Shawarma Meal Prep Bowls — Middle Eastern
Classic Chicken Souvlaki Skewers — Greek
Shawarma — Lebanese

Keep reading: what citrus, sourness, richness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.