Cheese Börek with Spinach

A slice of a coiled Turkish Börek on a baking sheet, scattered with sesame and nigella seeds.

5 from 1 vote

Cheese Börek with Spinach

Crisp, paper-thin pastry and a tangy, salty and earth filling make for a taste and texture marvel from this amazing and much loved Turkish Cheese Börek Pie with spinach. Packed full of authentic Turkish flavours.

Prep Time20

Cook Time35

Total Time55

Course: Main Course, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine: Turkish

Servings:

Calories: 614kcal

Author: Lee

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion finely diced
300 g Piknik Peynir or feta
200 g Erzican Tulum Peyniri or feta
240 g spinach cooked and squeezed of excess moisture
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 Sheets of Yufka Pastry
50 g butter melted
1 tbsp plain yoghurt
2 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp salt.
1 egg beaten
2 tsp sesame seeds
2 tsp nigella seeds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200ºC/400ºF
Heat olive oil and fry onion until translucent. Add the spinach and wilt. Cool, tip onto a clean tea towel, then squeeze out excess water. Set aside to cool.
Mix the cooled spinach with the cheeses and pepper. Set aside.
Melt the butter then whisk in the yoghurt and milk. Season lightly with salt.
Spread out one sheet of yufka pastry and splash all over with the yoghurt mixture and brush to coat the sheet.
Using the cheese mix, make a long thin sausage (about 2” wide) along the bottom edge of the pastry and then roll upwards to make a long sausage.
Coil the sausage from the centre of a round baking tray (a pizza tray).
Make another sausage from a sheet of yufka and cheese. Begin coiling again from where you left off to create a larger circle. Continue to add more pastry sausages to the pie until the cheese mix runs out. Tuck the final end under the coil a little.
Brush generously with the beaten egg then sprinkle the börek with sesame and nigella seeds and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
Rest for 10 minutes before serving. You can also serve at room temperature.

Notes

Reheat börek slices for 5-10 minutes in a 200ºC/400ºF oven.
Freeze uncooked (without the egg wash or seeds added). When ready, brush with the egg wash and seeds and cook in a 200ºC/400ºF oven for 45-50 minutes.
Freeze cooked - Reheat in a 200ºC/400ºF oven lightly covered with foil.

Leftover börek will stay fresh in the fridge for 5-6 days, covered in foil or plastic wrap. You can eat it cold, but it will lose the crunchiness. A quick reheat in the oven will bring the börek back to life.

Alternative fillings are varied. The key as with any pie is to keep an eye on the moisture content. The wetter the ingredients, the more you run the risk of a soggy börek. I make börek with a varied array of ingredients. Try:

Cooked lentils with olives and cheese and herbs
Ground lamb or beef or chopped chicken cooked with cumin, cinnamon, pine nuts and spinach or cavolo nero cabbage
Flaked salmon with feta/peynir dill and pine nuts or chopped walnuts.

There are so many options and there's no wrong combination. Have fun and experiment, just remember to keep the filling fairly dry.

Nutrition