Spinach phyllo roll ups

Spinach phyllo roll ups – use your phyllo dough for this simple appetizer (or party finger food). Eat your vegetables while having the option to customize to your favorite flavor combo!

Sometimes while grocery shopping (especially at Trader Joe’s) I buy things on a whim.

Like all the time.

I may not have a recipe in mind or even know how to cook a given ingredient, but it seems interesting in the moment and before I know it it’s in my cart.

Sometimes I don’t even realize it until I’m at the checkout counter. This is why I’m not allowed to talk on the phone/multitask while grocery shopping anymore.

Unfortunately some of these things end up in the freezer for months before I figure out what to do with them. One of these things recently was phyllo dough (or filo dough, depending on how you are used to spelling it).

It was getting to the point where I was going to throw some chocolate in it and call it a day (which is the solution to all problems), when this spinach phyllo roll ups recipe ended up in my inbox (thanks grandma).

This is the reason why I figured out how to substitute fresh spinach for frozen, because the original recipe called for a package of frozen spinach (which I did not have).

In an attempt to make it a bit healthier, I decided not to add the melted butter to the phyllo sheets, cut the amount of feta cheese in half, and used 2 sheets of phyllo dough instead of 3 per roll because the Kraft picture looked like it was way too much.

Roll it up like so:

A note about this recipe: most of the flavor comes from the kind of cream cheese you use. I tried it with both Spicy Jalapeno flavor and Garden Vegetable, but experiment with your favorite flavors!

If you want to use plain cream cheese, I would recommend adding some spices like cumin and/or red pepper since you won’t get much flavor from the spinach or phyllo dough.

A bit crumbly to cut, but so good! Great as appetizers or finger food for guests.