Spinach Mushroom Strudel

What do you do with a pile of spinach in your fridge when you don’t really want a spinach salad? I looked & looked on the internet & nothing really got me too excited!  So I decided to try to make a Spinach Mushroom Strudel. A Spanakopita would have been good but I did not want this side dish to have dairy in it so I could not make Spanakopita.

 I had a  large plastic container of spinach from Costco,  a can of sliced mushrooms, one onion & one square of frozen puffed pastry in the house. I combined it all & ended up with a nice side dish to go with some roast chicken. The Spinach Mushroom Strudel is a perfect side dish for any meal! This would also be a delicious lunch with a salad.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

2 cups cooked spinach *** I had a large container of fresh spinach  You could use a bag of frozen spinach as well, cook according to the pkg

1 tbsp oil

1 small onion, finely diced

1 can sliced mushrooms, drained *** you can use fresh if you would prefer.. clean & chop them… use about 1 1/2 cups fresh mushrooms

1 half pkg of puff pastry *** I had Tender Flake pastry & used 1 square… if you have sheets of pastry one is good  *** defrost according to package instructions

salt & pepper to taste

1 egg beaten to brush on the pastry before baking

*** OPTIONAL…sesame seeds foe sprinkling on top of the strudel before baking… you could use poppy seeds if you want or nothing as well

Method

Preheat oven to 425f  or use the temperature on the package of puff pastry….

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

1. Drain the spinach really well . I put it into a clean dish towel & squeezed , I twisted  the liquid out of the spinach over a bowl
2. Chop the drained spinach & set it aside
3. Put the oil into a skillet & add the onions. Sauté until they start to get translucent
4. Add the drained mushrooms & continue to cook until they start to brown & the onions are cooked through.
5. Add the drained spinach to the skillet & mix everything together well. Cook until the contents of the skillet are dry… we don’t want any water from the mushrooms or spinach. This will make the pastry soggy. Turn off the heat & season with salt & pepper to taste. Mix well. Set aside
6. Let this spinach/mushroom mixture cool slightly while you roll out the puff pastry
7. On a slightly floured work surface, roll out the puff pastry until it is a rectangle & fairly thin
8. Put the cooled spinach/mushroom mixture evenly over the rolled puff pastry leaving a 1 inch boarder around the edges
9. Roll up fairly tightly from the long side tucking the edges in as you go along
10. Using a pastry brush & the beaten egg … Brush some egg wash on the inside of the end of the rolled up portion & press gently to seal it
11. Place the roll on the prepared baking sheet
12. Brush some egg wash on the top & sides of the roll, sprinkle with sesame seeds if using & take a sharp knife & cut a few small slits in the top
13. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 35 minutes… but check on it. Baking time depends on how hot your oven is, how thickly you rolled the dough etc. You want this to be nicely browned & you can tell that the dough is cooked through
14. Let cool & cut to serve

Enjoy!