Turkish borek is a food you might be familiar with since there’s a version of it in most cultures. Dough with tasty things stuffed inside then cooked until the exterior is crispy and the insides soft. Creating borek is traditionally a time consuming task but switching from an oven to a stove top, you can prepare the dish within 15 minutes.
Once you’re ready, it’s only about an hour to cook this vegetarian Turkish dish. You can watch the entire process in this video (with my mom!) or read on.
What You’ll Need
There are some key ingredients like the phyllo dough, olive oil, and eggs (or egg substitute to make it a vegan Turkish recipe). In this recipe we’re using a classic spinach, onion, and tomato filling but you can get creative! Just keep the basic preparation steps in place and in proportion.
- 1 package 3-layer phyllo dough
- 7 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons black cumin seeds
- 1 onion
- 1 tomato
- 1 large bag of spinach
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 2 cups water
Preparing The Filling
Start by chopping your onion, spinach, and tomatoes into bite-size pieces (i.e. not too fine). Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pot, toss your chopped spinach, tomatoes, and onion in, and set it to a low to medium heat until it simmers. While that’s cooking, in a separate bowl crack an egg, pour 2 cups of water, and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Whisk until it’s thoroughly mixed and let it sit while you move on to the next step.
Getting The Dough Ready
Using a tablespoon of olive oil, coat the bottom of a large pan. Take a tablespoon of cumin seeds and sprinkle them across the bottom. Then take your phyllo dough and cover the bottom in a layer or two. It doesn’t have to be uniform, which saves you a lot of time, just make sure the bottom layer especially isn’t too thin.
After the first layer of dough, pour some of the egg mixture and add your (now lightly cooked) filling. Then start tearing more dough and put it on time. Then, another layer of egg mix and filling, then dough.
Cooking The Borek
The final step is to pour the remaining mixture on top of the entire borek; this helps keep the dough soft while it’s cooking. Once that’s done, sprinkle another tablespoon of cumin seeds on top. Now, you can place the borek on the stove at medium heat. Cook until it’s lightly brown (approximately 30 minutes) on the bottom, then flip it over. Once both sides are light brown, it’s time to let the borek cool to room temperature and eat!
To add to this meal you can make mercimek koftesi (spicy lentil balls) or some of these lesser known classic Turkish foods. Afiyet olsun!
