Sephardic Spinach and Cheese Phyllo Spirals | Bulemas de Espinaca y Queso

Learn how to make Sephardic Spinach and Cheese Phyllo Spirals | Bulemas de Espinaca y Queso, made the way my grandmothers made them — with a few of my own modern twists! They’re a true Sephardic–Turkish delicacy!
In this version, I use store-bought phyllo dough and frozen spinach, to give you amazing results with half the work, and I use avocado oil to help make these yummy treats a whole lot healthier.

Ingredients:
•3 lbs (48 Ounces) Frozen Spinach, Thawed, With All The Water Squeezed Out of It
•One 16 Ounce Box Phyllo Sheets, Thawed
•4 1/2 Cups (18 Ounces) Shredded Parmesan Cheese
•1.25 lbs (20 Ounces) Feta Cheese
•A 16.9 Ounce Bottle of Avocado Oil, To Use As Needed For Brushing
•1 Large Egg, Beaten With a Touch of Water Added to It
•Grated Parmesan Cheese, As Needed For Sprinkling

Directions:
The night before you plan on making your bulemas, place your frozen spinach in the sink and your frozen phyllo dough into the refrigerator, to allow them to thaw overnight.
The following morning, squeeze out all of the water from the thawed spinach until completely dry, bunch by bunch, and add to a large bowl. Use your hands to loosen the leaves and break up all the clumps. Add 4 1/2 Cups (18 Ounces) of shredded Parmesan cheese, then break up a 1.25 lbs (20 Ounces) block of feta and add that in. Use a spoon, and then your hands, to mix the cheeses in well, making sure to get an even distribution of cheeses. Set aside.
Line 2 large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
To a small bowl, add some neutral oil, such as avocado oil. Bring over a pastry brush, two clean kitchen towels that you have wet and wrung out well, and some plastic wrap. Set aside.
Remove one of the rolls of phyllo dough from the refrigerator, open it, and spread it out on the included wax paper. Cover it well with plastic wrap, then lay one of the wrung out kitchen towels over that, making sure the towel does not come into direct contact with the dough. Leave the second roll of wrapped phyllo in the refrigerator until needed.
Preheat your oven to 350° making sure you have a rack placed in the center.
Remove two sheets of phyllo from the stack, always remembering to cover the remaining dough. Place a sheet of dough onto a clean working area, and using the tip of a pastry brush, lightly dab it with some oil. Add a second sheet over the first, and once again lightly oil it.
Using a spoon, add a row of the spinach and cheese mixture horizontally, to the bottom third of the dough, leaving some space of plain phyllo dough below the row of filling, and also on both sides You can either fold both ends in and then roll the dough into a log, or leave the ends unfolded.
Add a touch of oil to the dough as you roll. Then, gently coil the log into a spiral. If you chose to leave the ends unfolded, after you roll it into a log, pinch one end together, gently roll it into a spiral, then pinch the other end of dough together, and gently tuck that tail under the spiral.
Place the prepared spinach and cheese bulema onto the prepared tray, and cover with plastic wrap and the second wrung out towel. Continue to shape your phyllo spirals one by one, remembering to always keep both the phyllo sheets and the finished bulemas covered as you work, to prevent them from drying out. Once you fill one tray with about nine bulemas, in a small bowl, beat a large egg with a touch of water added to it. Use a clean pastry brush to give the spirals an egg wash, then sprinkle them with some grated Parmesan cheese. Place on a center rack in the oven for 30 minutes to allow them to bake. While they bake, continue making a second tray of spirals until you run out of dough.
I was able to make 17 bulemas, but that number can vary between 16 and 20, depending on the number of sheets in each roll. Any remaining filling can be baked in a small, sprayed baking dish, for about 35 minutes, as is, or with a beaten egg added to it.
Once the first bulemas are baked, remove them from the oven and place them onto a cooling rack.
Then, egg wash and sprinkle your second tray, bake those for 30 minutes, and place them onto a cooling rack.
Serve and enjoy!

Be sure to also check out my other delicious bulema videos:

Spinach, Feta, and Parmesan Bulemas Made With Homemade Dough:

Bulemas de Papa y Queso – Sephardic Potato and Cheese Phyllo Spirals:

Spiraled Phyllo Meat Pie | Large Beef Bulema | Borreca | Boureka:

[Music] gorgeous sphartic spinach and cheese filo spirals blemaka eeso the way my grandmothers made them with just a few of my own modern twists Sally that girl in the [Music] kitchen Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Sally That Girl in the Kitchen In today’s episode I’m going to teach you how to make a sphartic spinach and cheese filo spiral Yes what I call a spinach and cheese blema It’s absolutely delicious And in my family it’s called blemma because I am Sephardic Turkish So the Sphartic Turkish call these yummy spirals that are made with filo dough They call that a boulema And a bora we call one that is made with a homemade dough And it looks a little bit more like what you would know as an empanada but to us that is a bora And I know it’s confusing because to some people what I’m making today is a spinach borka So call it whatever you want to call it Spell it however you want to spell it because I found that I spell it the way my Cuban Jewish Sphartic parents and community spells Bora and other people spell it very differently than I do But it doesn’t matter how you spell it or what you call it To me this bullema is absolutely delicious It’s one of my favorites It’s filled with spinach and a delicious combination of cheeses and I know you’re going to love it And as a side note I’ve also made a bullema with homemade dough There’s already a video out using a spinach and cheese filling And that dough is homemade but this is storebought filo dough that we’re going to be using today So it makes the job a little bit quicker and a little bit easier And I’ve also put out a version where I use the filo dough and I use a classic potato and cheese filling That one’s also delicious So make sure to check those all out So I am super excited to teach you how to make it So let’s not wait another second and let’s get started For today’s recipe you will need 3 lb in other words 48 oz of frozen spinach thawed with all the water squeezed out of it One 16oz box of felo sheets thawed 4 and 1/2 cups or 18 oz of shredded Parmesan cheese One and a quarter pounds or 20 ounces of feta cheese which I prefer buying in block form A 16.9 ounce bottle of avocado oil which you will use as needed for brushing the filo One large egg which you will be beating and adding a touch of water to and some grated Parmesan cheese as needed for sprinkling over these beautiful bulimas You will also need two large trays with sides two clean kitchen towels some parchment paper some plastic wrap I’m going to be using a tool to help me squeeze out my spinach but of course you can always use your hands instead You’ll need a large bowl a small bowl and a pastry brush a spoon and a fork another small bowl with another pastry brush and some oven mitts And finally you will also need a couple of cooling racks and a spatula So now that we have all of our ingredients and tools together let’s get started So what I like to do is the night before I’m going to prepare my delicious spinach and cheese blem I like to pull my spinach out of the freezer and put it into the sink to thaw So I have four bags but I’m really only going to be using three bags and 3 oz from that fourth bag But I’ll definitely find another use for the remaining spinach And then of course I also need to pull out the filo dough which is frozen But that I’m going to place in my refrigerator to thaw overnight So they’ll both thaw overnight But the spinach I leave in my sink and the filo dough I leave in the fridge So now it’s the next day My spinach is thawed and I’m going to just bunch by bunch add it to my tool to squeeze out the liquid And as I said if you don’t have a tool that’s okay You can just use your hands But I find that this really helps me get out a lot of that liquid and that way it’s a lot less work using my hands But regardless I always after I squeeze I still grab them in my hands and give them another good squeeze cuz I want to make sure that I get all of that liquid out I want it nice and dry And then once I squeeze out the liquid from each bunch then I’m going to add that bunch into a large bowl See this is what it should look like Nice and dry So I’m just adding it into the large bowl And then bunch by bunch I’m going to squeeze it all So once I’ve squeezed all the water out from my spinach I’m going to use my hands and I’m going to loosen up the leaves I don’t want clumps I want my leaves nice and loose And then right on top of that I’m going to add 4 and 1/2 cups of pre-shredded parm And then I’m going to use a spoon and just give that all a bit of a mix So I’m trying to just incorporate it a little because I still have to add my feta So now I’m using block feta and I’m going to crumble it up I have 1 and a/4 lb of feta 20 oz I’m going to crumble it by hand because I find I get a better quality cheese when I buy it in block form and I can control the size of those crumbles I just want them nice and uniform No really big pieces just a nice crumble of cheese And then once I have that in I’m going to come back in with my spoon I’m going to start to mix that in But as I always say there’s no tool like your hands So I’m just going to clean off that spoon And with clean hands I’m going to go right into the bowl and make sure to incorporate those cheeses well What I’m looking is to distribute the feta and the parmesan cheese so that we have both of the cheeses all the way mixed throughout the spinach That way every bite is going to have both that feta cheese and that parmesan cheese It’s a perfect combination And using a glass bowl helps visualize that So now is a good time to prepare two large baking sheets and line them with parchment I also suggest your baking sheets have sides because we are using oil and that way you don’t run the risk of the oil spilling over in the oven while your bullets are baking So now I’ve added some avocado oil into a small bowl And as I said earlier I’m adding a few modern twists So what do I mean by that well my grandmothers taught me how to make this using vegetable oil or even corn oil because back then that’s what they used to use But now we know better And so we can use avocado oil And it tastes perfect because it’s super neutral It’s perfect So now I’m also going to pull out some plastic wrap And remember those two clean kitchen towels I got to wet them and squeeze them well So I ran them under the faucet squeezed out all the water so they’re just moist Then I’m going to grab my now thawed filo dough which I pulled out of the fridge And I’m going to start with just one roll because there’s two rolls in this particular pack So this one’s going back in the fridge I’m going to work on roll number one Now is also a good time to preheat the oven to 350° making sure you have a rack placed in the center Then you’re going to open up your roll of felo And you’ll notice it comes rolled in a wax paper or some type of a plastic paper So you’re just going to gently open that roll and just lay the sheets out right on top of that same paper Then you’re going to come in with plastic wrap Super important And then the moist towel You don’t want to put the towel right on the filow dough but this keeps it nice and moist Keeps it from drying out while we are working And every time you’re going to work you’re going to pull out two sheets put the plastic and the towel right back on to keep those sheets moist So now I’m just dipping the tip of my pastry brush into that oil And I’m just going to add a little bit on the first sheet and I’m going to add a little bit on the second sheet I like to use two sheets for each boulema Some people use one sheet and they fold it in half Some people just use one sheet spread open This is the way that I like to make it so that they’re extra crispy and golden and gorgeous So notice I’m just using a regular kitchen spoon I’m making a nice row of my spinach filling But there’s two ways to fold these So the first way is to bring in the sides You’re going to fold those in And then you’re going to start rolling this into a log And every so often you’re just going to put a little touch of oil on that filo It helps keep it from cracking It just makes it easier to roll Just a little bit either with your fingertips or the pastry brush And then you’re just going to roll it into a log So now this was way number one where I folded in the felo on the ends And then very gently you’re just going to come around coil it and then I just kind of give it a little squeeze in my hand And that’s it I’m going to put it right on the parchment paper Easy peasy Now I’m going to show you the second way So I’m going to do the same exact thing I’m going to just gently dab some oil onto my first sheet of filo Then again onto the second sheet Notice it’s torn but it doesn’t matter We’re going to roll it up You’re not even going to notice if there’s a little tear here and there So don’t stress Just a little bit of oil on each sheet Once again a nice row of that spinach and cheese mixture But notice both now and before I left some space at the bottom of the sheet and on the sides I don’t start right at the very edge and I don’t go to the end So this time we’re not folding in the ends and we’re just going to fold into a roll without folding over those ends And you can do either They look practically identical I kind of think I prefer this one I’ll show you in a minute why Because what I do with this one is I just tuck those ends and it kind of just gives it a nice finish to that beautiful spiral See I just kind of tucked it in folded it over gently And if it cracks as you go it’s okay But just the trick is to be really gentle as you twirl And then I pinch that and I tuck it right under the boulema And it just gives it a beautiful almost like endless look So either way works beautifully So then all you want to do is repeat this process over and over But as you are preparing your bullemas and adding them to your tray you also want to make sure to cover them with plastic wrap And you’re going to use that second moist towel And you’re going to add more oil into your little bowl as needed to continue to brush it on to your sheets of felo Remember you want two sheets for every blemma if you’re going to make them the way I do which I highly recommend And then you’re going to leave a little space at the bottom and the sides And you’re going to roll it up first into a log Brush it as needed with a little bit more oil It’s going to help it roll and it’s going to help it spiral when you go ahead and try to bend it into that spiral shape And then just pinch the edge And then again very gently just move it very gently so as to try not to crack it But it’s okay if it cracks Then tuck it under Give it all a little squeeze and put it on your tray So now we have nine boules ready I make my bullemas nice and full I want spinach and cheese in every bite Don’t get skimpy You want a lot of spinach and cheese in your blemma And then you’re going to grab a large egg You’re going to add a touch of water to that egg And you’re going to beat it And what we’re going to do is with this one single large egg it’ll be enough for all of the bullets I make today I’m using a clean pastry brush and I’m coming in and I’m giving all of my bullets a nice egg wash on the sides on the top all over And you want to make sure to do that to all of your boule And then once you’ve done that then what we’re going to do is we’re going to save this for our second tray of course of boule And you’re going to come in with some grated Parmesan cheese And you’re just going to give them each a sprinkle of palm Remember we’re developing flavor Everything needs to taste delicious The inside the crust all of it Absolutely yummy So now these are beautiful They’re spiraled and gorgeous and filled with spinach feta and parm Super delicious I think my grandmothers would be proud They used to make these for me and now I’m the one who makes them And of course I share my knowledge and the love with you guys So hopefully you’ll make them too So now you’re going to pop those into the oven on a center rack and set a 30 minute timer to allow them to bake And then we’re going to work on the other roll while the first batch is baking So once again you’re going to lay it out right on top of the plastic Cover it with plastic wrap use one of the moist towels to cover it And then you’re going to do the same thing we did before until of course you run out of your filling So just to reiterate you’re just going to use two sheets of the felo You’re going to brush them lightly with the oil Fill them well end to end Spiral them up Add them onto a tray And here is the first batch Look at how gorgeous these look And they smell incredible I wish you could smell them right now The kitchen is filled with the aroma of my childhood Yes This brings me back They’re flaky gorgeous and golden So now you just want to use a spatula and very carefully put them on a cooling rack And honestly are these not gorgeous they’re so beautiful We eat with our eyes first And look at that gorgeous golden spiral filled with spinach and cheese So crazy delicious So these are ready I got nine out of that first box Then from the second box I was able to get eight And that can vary So you’re going to get anywhere between 17 and 20 cuz there’s not always the same amount of felo sheets in the box I find And remember we eggwashed them sprinkled them put them back in the oven 30 minutes for this second batch and we will soon have some more bullets So now I had a touch of the filling left over If you wanted to you could buy two boxes of filo dough and you’d probably use half of that second box and you’d likely get another half a dozen or so blemas But I’m just going to bake this off I’m going to spray my pan with a little bit of non-stick spray I’m using avocado oil spray since I used avocado oil to make my boule today And then I’m just going to add this right in You could also beat an egg and add it in and it’ll become kind of like my frittada paka parmesano which is basically like a spinach and cheese casserole Super delicious but you can bake it just as is So now my second tray of bulmas is ready The star of the show And I got eight more bulletas from that second roll And they’re just as gorgeous and delicious as the first ones And I’m telling you the smell is so great And I also have that spinach baking in the oven That little tray that little side of extra spinach So the smell of cheese and spinach is just divine in the air And these are going to fly So you just want to remove them once again from the hot tray and place them onto your cooling rack to allow them to cool And of course don’t forget that delicious little side of spinach and cheese that we baked And look at how absolutely gorgeous these look They’re absolutely beautiful That egg wash and that sprinkle of parm on top made them beautifully golden And they’re just crispy crunchy just absolutely delicious with that amazing spinach and cheese filling that’s kind of popping out every so often Just absolutely gorgeous and inviting and enticing and just drawing you in They are beautiful to look at and believe me they are delicious to eat These are going to be a huge hit And by using the filo dough and just knowing how to handle the dough it makes the job really easy and it’s just as beautiful and delicious as when we make the dough ourselves So this is definitely worth giving a shot And then all you want to do is plate them on a beautiful platter once they’ve cooled down enough because of course you don’t want them to sweat because you want them to remain nice and crispy And they’re absolutely gorgeous I do recommend that if you’re going to reheat these you use a toaster oven or an air fryer or the oven itself because you don’t want to put them in the microwave because you don’t want that beautiful crispy golden filo dough to get soggy But you’re likely not going to have to worry about reheating these because they’re going to sell real quick The smell is going to bring everyone in and everyone is going to want to have one or two as soon as they come out of the oven They’re that good This is a true crowdleaser and a definite staple of the Sphartic Turkish kitchen And I am so blessed that I learned how to make these because my grandmothers were amazing cooks as is my mom And I’ve just been very very fortunate to pick up so many things from them So I’m picking this one because it’s just so absolutely beautiful You see how it even gets golden on the bottom It’s just complete perfection We dealt with that filo dough perfectly so it’s nice and crispy and it’s absolutely gorgeous and appetizing of course So I’m going to cut down the center of one because it looks so beautiful when you see that beautiful spiral with that spinach inside Wow Is that not gorgeous i’m telling you this is not only delicious it’s a work of art My grandmothers really knew what they were doing Look at how gorgeous that flaky filo dough looks And that spinach and cheese on the inside Wow It’s just so beautiful and crispy I can’t wait to take a bite So yummy Wow That filo dough is so flaky crispy and crunchy all in one And that delicious spinach filling is perfection It’s such a beautiful contrast That yummy flavorful delicious filling and that flaky golden crust It’s going to keep everyone coming back for more Rolling it like that creates these magnificent layers It’s just complete savory perfection Using some modern conveniences like store-bought filo dough frozen spinach and some avocado oil for health but still staying true to the delicious flavors of my grandmother’s kitchen Absolutely gorgeous and delicious And don’t forget that little bit of spinach and cheese that we baked off Look how gorgeous and golden that became Yeah I’m gonna get into that too Absolutely yummy as is I didn’t even add anything to it And it’s crazy good Super super yummy It’s a plus So didn’t I tell you these were going to be fabulous I wish you could smell them I wish you could taste them but the only way you’re going to do that is to try to make them yourself They are well worth it They’re not difficult to make As long as you know how to handle the felo so that it doesn’t dry out while you’re working It’s really quite simple You saw we brush it with oil And then we just fill it up spiral it up and put it on a tray and bake them They’re not difficult to make at all And the filling doesn’t need to be precooked You just have to thaw it squeeze it out and you’re good to go Modern conveniences Yes I know My grandmothers used to have to chop up the spinach fresh lay it out on towels let the spinach release its water overnight We don’t have to do any of that We can just pick up some store-bought frozen spinach squeeze it out and we are ready And it’s super convenient but still just as tasty So if you’ve enjoyed today’s recipe I ask you to give it a little like share it 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again I just want to take a moment to thank you so so much for watching Thank you for engaging Thank you for sharing Thank you for being here And I’ll see you next time Sally that girl in the kitchen [Music]