Gözleme with Feta and Spinach

I'm really excited to share the recipe for the winner of this week's Idea Post vote, Rick Stein's gözleme with feta and spinach, because these Turkish flatbreads are incredibly delicious.

Gözleme comes from the Turkish word Goz, for cubby or compartment. These little compartments of bready, cheesy goodness are the number-one street food in Turkey according to Rick Stein, and after making them, it's not difficult to see why. Gözleme are a little like Indian roti, except they might be better (and I'm a huge fan of roti). This is seared quickly on each side, and then you're ready to eat! It takes a little time to make these because the dough needs to rise, however these don't require much hands-on time and only take about 1 to 1.5 hours from start to eating. Rick's gözleme with spinach and feta recipe strikes me as a little odd, because it calls for only ⅔ a batch of his flatbread. Since these freeze so well, it doesn't make much sense to me to make a ⅔ batch of flatbread, so I scaled up the filling amounts to use all the flatbread dough. To make these a meal rather than a bread-based snack, I recommend simply increasing the amount of filling used per flatbread, as it's a pretty minimal filling as written. I like a little more filling in my gözleme than what's called for, so I fully support making 150% the amount of filling or adding some sauteed ground lamb/leftover slices of cold lamb. I made these as I went, filling one while the previous one cooked. I did this in part because it seemed most efficient, and also because I don't have a huge workspace for keeping the filled, uncooked gözleme. However, I didn't add enough filling to go all the way out to the edges of one of my gözleme, whereas I had quite a bit left for the last one. That will teach me not to weigh out and evenly distribute the filling. I liked both, but the less filled one was definitely more like a bread and the stuffed one was very similar to a stuffed naan or parantha. I also tried lightly rolling the stuffed gözleme, which was not part of the instructions. Rolling out the stuffed gözleme gave me a much thinner dough with a more circular structure, rather than the semi-circles of somewhat thicker dough that didn't fit into my pan quite as well.This recipe is a definite keeper, and I'm planning to make it again using the alternative filling. I've found the finished gözleme freeze really well when separated with parchment paper, they're delicious at any meal, and they're a breeze to reheat using a panini press, griddle, toaster oven, or regular oven (or even a microwave, if it's the only option).

Another great discovery with this recipe is that it's possible to use a regular pizza dough, and it's even acceptable to be lazy and not chop the spinach. Not that I'm advocating laziness in cooking, but if you're in a hurry, these gözleme will taste great even if you have to cut a few corners.

Gözleme with Feta and Spinach

A quick and delicious Turkish street food. These gözleme freeze and reheat quite well. Also, the recipe is easily scale-able, depending on your needs.

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings: 6

Course: Street Food

Cuisine: Turkish

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

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Flatbread*

• 500 g 4 cups and 2 tablespoons bread flour
• 7 g 2 ¼ teaspoon instant or fast-acting yeast
• pinch of sugar
• 10 g 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• 275 ml 1 ⅓ cup lukewarm water
• 60 ml ¼ cup olive oil

Filling

• 375 g 15 oz baby spinach**, washed
• 300 g feta cheese crumbled
• 6 spring onions*** finely sliced
• ¾ teaspoon chili flakes

Assembly

• Plain flour for dusting (when rolling)
• Olive oil for brushing and greasing (when cooking)
• Butter for serving

Alternative Filling 1

• 1 red pepper deseeded and roughly chopped
• 1 green chili roughly chopped
• 1 medium onion roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic crushed or grated
• 600 g ground lamb
• small handful flat-leaf parlsey finely chopped
• 1 ½ teaspoon chili flakes
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 200 g just under ½ can chickpeas, cooked and drained
• salt
• half a lemon

Alternative Filling 2

• 2 tablespoons tahini
• drizzle of honey

Method

 

Flatbread (makes 6 gözleme or 4 large, 8 small, or 60 mini flatbreads/pizzas*)

1. Add the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt to a large bowl.
2. Make a well in the center and add the water and olive oil.
3. Bring together to form a rough, shaggy dough.
4. Knead the dough on a floured work surface (or using a dough hook with a stand/handheld mixer, or bread machine) for about 10 minutes. Dough will be soft, supple, and elastic.
5. Place dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a clean linen towel or Saran wrap. Leave to rise 30-60 minutes, until doubled in size. (Mine took only 30 minutes.)

Filling

1. Chop the baby spinach, then add to a medium bowl together with the feta, spring onions, and chili flakes.

Assembly

1. Once it's doubled in size, punch down the dough, knead until smooth, and divide into 6 equal pieces. One at a time, roll each piece out on a floured work surface, until the dough is very thin. Aim for a thickness of 0.1 inches (2 mm) and a diameter of about 9.8 inches (25 cm).
2. Evenly distribute one-sixth of the filling onto one half of each dough sheet, getting almost to the very edges. Fold the dough over into a semi-circle, and lightly press on the edges to seal.
3. Heat a 12-inch cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat (4/10 on my stove).
4. Cook gozleme one at a time, by first brushing one side with olive oil, placing the oiled side down in the hot pan, and cooking for 2-3 minutes. Brush with olive oil, flip over, and cook the other side for 2-3 minutes more.
5. Serve immediately, with melted butter.

Alternate Filling 1

1. Place the red pepper, green chili, onion, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, but do not pulverize.
2. Put the mixture into a sieve to drain out any excess liquid.
3. In a medium bowl, add the ground lamb, red pepper mixture, parsley, chili flakes, tomato paste, chickpeas, and a little salt.
4. Mix well, using your hands and taking care not to crush the chickpeas. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the top. Proceed with directions.
   

Alternate Filling 2

1. Simply stir together the tahini and honey and smear on the rolled-out flat breads.
   

Notes

*To bake this dough as a flatbread or pizza, bake at 450 C for 7-10 minutes.
**Other greens would also work, including de-ribbed and finely chopped chard, collard greens, or kale.
***Substitute 2-3 caramelized onions for the spring onions.

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