Feta Cheese

Turkish Spinach or Cheese Pie (Borek)

Turkish Spinach or Cheese Pie (Borek)

Turkish Spinach Pie (Ispanakli Borek)

One of my favorite categories of dishes in the amazing Turkish cuisine is the borek category. Borek (börek) is a savory pie. There are tons of  borek recipes across Turkey. The regional varieties come in all sizes and shapes—small and big rolls, spirals, bundles, envelopes—differing in the fillings used. Albeit their differences, one thing that unites them all is their foundation, yufka, a paper thin flatbread baked from a simple dough made from water, flour, and salt. The yufka encases savory fillings made with meat, spinach, cheese, zucchini, mushrooms, potato, and other ingredients.

This recipe for the layered spinach borek made with yufka comes from my mother-in-law’s recipe collection. You can use the same recipe to make borek with a cheese filling (variation at the end), ground meat filling, or any other filling you fancy as well. Look for Turkish yufka in the freezer section of most Turkish/Middle Eastern markets and even in online Turkish stores. Bring the flatbreads to room temperature before using. Enjoy!

Turkish Spinach Pie (Ispanakli Borek)

Ingredients

yufka flatbreads, about 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter, or 2 large ones, one cut in half to obtain 3 pieces total

Ingredients

Spinach Filling: *
4 tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 pound fresh spinach
1/2 cup coarsely crumbled feta cheese (or any other white cheese)
Salt (if cheese is not salted) and ground black pepper

Milk Wash:
1 cup milk
2 eggs (reserve 1 egg yolk for the top)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (optional – but is said to give the layers a nice “lift”)
1/3 cup olive oil

Glaze:
1 reserved egg yolk, plus a few tablespoons milk or plain yogurt
Sesame seeds or Nigella sativa seeds

Directions

Prepare the filling: Heat the oil or butter in a medium frying pan. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until  light golden. Remove from the heat and set aside. Meanwhile, cut the spinach coarsely and place in a large bowl. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoon water and a generous few pinches of salt on top. Rub the spinach with your hands until it is well wilted. Taking a handful at a time, squeeze the spinach to remove all the moisture (discard the released juices), until the spinach is dry. In a bowl, combine the onion, spinach, and cheese. If using unsalted cheese, season the filling with salt. Season with black pepper to taste (sometimes, crushed red pepper is added too, to taste, but it is optional). Set aside.

Prepare the milk wash to moisten the layers: In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the milk wash. Whisk gently to blend. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 380ºF (190ºC).

Steps 1-4

Assemble the borek: Lightly grease a 13-by-9-by-2-inch (33-by-23-by-5-cm) baking dish (I use a Pyrex dish). Layer the first yufka in the pan so that the sides are overhanging (best is one side is overhanging more than the other, so that later it covers the top completely). Evenly drizzle 1/3 of the milk wash on top of this layer. Arrange the second yufka by ruffling it so that it fits the pan without overhanging. Drizzle half of the remaining wash on top. Spread the filling evenly over this layer. Cover the filling with another “ruffled” yufka, and moisten the layer with the remaining wash. Bring the overhanging yufka to the top and cover the top completely.

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