I almost want to tell you not to make these. This is largely because these salty feta puffs (feta loukoumades) are so incredibly delicious, and the recipe makes so many, that you will likely stuff your face full of them and then suffer instant regret upon realising how many you have eaten. You may also find yourself thinking of them often and regularly which then sees you making them again and again in a cycle of delicious sublimity and constant over eating. Or maybe that’s just me. Either way I’m starting this post with a warning.
These salty feta puffs are essentially a savoury version of a Greek loukoumades (A loukoumades is a yeasted doughnut served with honey and nuts). My salty feta loukoumades are made in exactly the same way as a sweet loukoumades, the only difference is that it has a block of feta blended with the milk before the dough is made and proved. Once proved, the dough is fried and puffs up into delicious morsels that are then tossed in oregano salt for added flavour. The result is – as indicated above – completely irresistible.
I’ve shallow fried my puffs in about 1cm of oil with a flip over half way through (if I had deep fried them, I would have called them balls). There are some days I just don’t feel like the stress that comes with deep frying and so its good to know that the loukoumades still work perfectly if you shallow fry.
I find myself sitting here and wondering what else there is to say. So, I’ll just say this: if you love salty and savoury… just make them.
Feta Loukoumades | Salty Feta Puffs
Ingredients
Feta Loukoumades
- 200g Greek feta
- 1 cup long-life milk
- 1 cup water
- 400g plain flour
- 7g active dry yeast (1 packet)
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Grapeseed oil, for frying
Oregano Salt
- 1 tablespoon high quality dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon flaked sea salt
Directions
Place the milk and water in a food processor, and crumble in the feta. Blend the milk,water and feta until it forms a smooth consistency. Transfer to a large microwave safe bowl and then warm in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Combine the yeast and olive oil in a small bowl and mix well to combine, then add to the feta mixture in large bowl along with the flour and salt. Whisk until the batter is thick but does not have any lumps.
Cover the bowl with glad wrap and wrap in a tea towel, then set aside in a warm spot until it has doubled in size (this should take about an hour). The dough will also look aerated with bubbles.
Pour 1cm of grapeseed oil in the base of a large heavy bottom frypan, and heat over medium high heat until very hot. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the base of the frypan in batches of 5-6 (or as many as your frypan can handle allowing for expansion) and fry for 30 seconds before flipping them over and cooking for another 30 seconds, or until golden.
Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain the excess oil. Once all the puffs have been cooked in batches, combine the sea salt flakes and oregano in a small bowl and crush the salt together with the oregano using your hands. Toss the cooked puffs in the sea salt and oregano and serve immediately.
Huge fan of feta! I have to try these
If you like feta Safira, you will definitely like these!!
every part of this post is mouthwatering me. I’m pinning in my MUST DO ASAP board 🙂
Haha! I hope you like them as much as we did!
These look amazing! We just got back from a Greek island hopping trip and we ate so much feta/
OMG! I’m so jealous of your Greek island trip and all the amazing food you would have eaten!!
Learned a new dish today. Great pics.
Thanks Aish.
OMG I can’t wait to try these! I’ve got an International grocery store down the street that sells all kinds of feta from different countries, what a fabulous way to try them out!
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I want a grocery store like that down the street! Sounds AMAZING Sue!!
Can you let me know why the long-life milk and not simply regular milk Amanda?
Hi Tracey, thanks for your note. I’ve used long life milk as I translated a lot of greek sweet loukoumades recipes in the creation of this savoury version and they all used long-life. I suspect it is because their normal milk is unpasteurised so its likely if you are in Australia or US, you can use fresh milk. Because the results were so good when I made these with long-life, I decided to keep long-life milk in the ingredients.
These are seriously calling to me. I LOVE feta and I never would have thought about making savory loukoumades. I cannot wait to make these this weekend! Although I have the same question as Tracey — what is the significance of long-life milk? I think where I am ( USA ) that all organic milk is treated ( high temp ) the same way as long-life milk is, but I want to make sure I’m getting the right thing!
Hi Mariane, you should be fine using organic milk as it is treated. I read a number of greek sweet loukoumades recipes which I translated from Greek and they all used long-life, but given US and AUS (where I’m from) have treated organic milk, you should be completely fine using fresh.
These look amazing! Love salty stuff, and who can resist anything fried? Great dish — thanks so much.
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Thanks John, agreed re not being able to resist fried foods!
I can see why these can be dangerous. Tiny size and irresistable – they sure would get hoovered up in no time. I love feta, but I’m already thinking of gorgonzola ones, as well!
OMG John, so dangerous!! Ooooo gorgonzola would be delicious. Maybe beetroot and gorgonzola a la our dinner on Saturday!
Omg, I had to come see what these were all about! They look and sounds as addicting as you said! I’d be stuffing my face too! Haha. Love these photos a lot!
Haha Thanks Steph. They are truly delicious!
You have sure made my lunch break with the last 3 posts. All just outstanding and I want to figure out why Feedly has not shown me you latest. Hence I came to your site, I knew you had to have been busy. I was not disappointed. These, well I could eat the entire batch and Dave would have to fend for himself. 🙂
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I have to confess that I had to change feed services recently and the redirect won’t work… which means I’ve lost all the RSS subscribers. 🙁 I can’t be bother trying to figure it out, so I’m just going with the flow at this stage. Feel free to sign up to the new feed! xxx
Hi Amanda,
these look soooo delicious!!! I want to make them this weekend, but would like to only make half the amount. Have you ever halved the recipe?
Thanks so much,
Julia
Hi Julia, I haven’t tried to halve the recipe (largely because I can’t get enough of them and so always make a full batch!) but you shouldn’t have a problem with halving the recipe if you would like to.
Thanks Amanda! I will give it a try and post back how it turned out.
I would love to bring these to a church picnic. Can they be served at room temperature or must they be kept warm?
Can these be served at room temperature? They look delicious and love to try them, but will not be able to serve right out of the oven