This is a riff on my already versatile cream cheese and almond… what? Filling, spread, topping, snack?  I mean really, what can’t it do? Anyhow, I discovered this option recently when I was defrosting my freezer and had to use up some puff pastry AND THEN realised it could also be used as a pastry filling and omg. So fast, so simple, so good. The first time I just used the basic stuff that I seem to always have in the fridge now. A dollop of it on a square of puff pastry, fold it over, crimp it and… wow. I showed a photo of them to my friend Paul and he said “if you stuck spinach in it would almost be healthy”. So yes, next time I made them I added chopped wilted baby spinach and hey – Paul was right. Crispy cheesy crunchy deliciousness with virtuous green stuff inside. In fact the spinach works really well.

Then over the Christmas holidays, probably the only time I have smoked salmon at home, you guessed it. I tried a version with all of it all together. Garlicky cream cheese with toasted almonds, baby spinach and smoked salmon. Fabulous. Still working on getting my triangles to actually look like triangles but they’re so good nobody actually cares what they look like.

Ingredients and instructions below…

• 200 gr cream cheese
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground chilli pepper (optional)
• 3-4 tablespoons chopped toasted marcona almonds
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• package of butter puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten (to brush on top of pastries)

Optional fillings

• chopped wilted baby spinach
• smoked salmon
• 

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Beat the egg and set aside. Unroll the puff pastry on a cutting board and cut it into equal sized squares. Then put a spoonful of filling onto each square, fold it over making a triangle and crimp the edges with a fork. Brush with beaten egg.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200ºC (190ºC air fryer or fan oven) for 15 minutes.