Spicy Goat Cheese and Butternut Squash Triangles

One of my favorite meals is butternut squash ravioli with melted goat cheese and a dab of chili garlic sauce. I know it sounds random and weird and kind of terrible, but it’s actually incredibly delicious. Something about the creamy salty tanginess of the goat cheese combined with the sweetness of the squash and the kick of the chili creates a very pleasant and comforting taste. So when I was brainstorming about what fingerfood to make for the superbowl last weekend, I decided to use the dexterity of my nimble Greek fingers to create the same flavor combination, but wrapped up in buttered filo dough. Filo dough is a very thin sheet of dough that is about as thick as a piece of paper. It can be bought in the frozen dessert area of your grocery store, usually located by the frozen pie crusts. Make sure you get the flat sheets for this recipe, not the shells or shredded filo. It can be tricky to work with because it is fairly fragile, and you need to assemble whatever you’re making quickly because about 30 minutes after you break the seal of the package the filo will start to dry out and become brittle. But when you do filo right, the taste and texture more than rewards you for your efforts. I also love this recipe because the triangles came out at the perfect single-serving size, making them a great appetizer for parties and sporting events.

As an aside, last week I made a chocolate blackout cake and hosted a very chocolatey giveaway. The last day to enter was the 9th, and on the 10th I picked the winner using a random number generator. And the winner of the giveaway was……

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Spicy Goat Cheese & Butternut Squash Triangles

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Cooling Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Author Eva Kosmas Flores

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/4 Cup Butternut Squash Puree
• 5 Ounces Goat Cheese
• 3/4 Cup Butter melted
• 1/4 Cup Instant Mashed Potato Flakes
• 1 16 Ounce Package Filo Dough, thawed
• 1 Tablespoon Siracha or your preferred hot sauce
• 1 Clove Garlic minced

Instructions

1. Mix together the butternut squash puree, garlic, and mashed potato flakes in a small bowl until well blended. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Take one sheet of the filo dough and lay it out on a clean flat surface. Brush it very lightly and quickly with the melted butter, then fold the sheet in half length-wise and brush the exposed surface very lightly with the melted butter. Then fold it in half length-wise again and brush the exposed surface again very lightly with the melted butter. The filo should be very long and narrow like in the pictures later on.
3. Now take a slightly heaping 1/2 teaspoon of the butternut squash and slightly heaping 1/2 teaspoon of the goat cheese and place them on top of each other at one end of the filo dough. Place a drop of the chili sauce on top and fold the corner of the filo up and over the filling to the opposite side. Continue folding as you would fold a flag, which you can see in the photos on the original blog post.
4. Once you get to the last turn, brush the outside of the triangle with melted butter and brush the last fold of the filo dough with the butter to help it stick. Place the triangle on the baking sheet, seam side down. Repeat this process until all of the filo has been used.
5. Place the tray in the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until the outside of the triangles are golden brown. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving, as the filling will still be very hot.