Vegan Turkish Rolled Pastry with Spinach (Cigarette Borek)

When it comes to Turkish specialties, we've already shown you one or two recipes – our vegan pide with minced meat or a Turkish pizza with herb yogurt sauce, for example. Today, we're showing you another classic that's perfect for your next party buffet or makes a delicious snack between meals.

Turkish "sigara böreği" are filled, and usually deep-fried dough rolls that can be bought in many Turkish shops. The filling usually consists of minced meat, spinach and cheese or potatoes. So, it's not necessarily vegan, although the triangular yufka pastry sheets do manage without any animal ingredients; cool!

In theory, you can fill the yufka dough sheets with whatever you have on hand. However, for a quick and easy version that you can bring to your next party, we'll show you a classic spinach filling that doesn't require many ingredients. We also simply put them in the oven after filling – this makes them super crispy. You can buy yufka dough sheets in many Turkish, but also in many regular supermarkets. The only difference is usually the shape, which is no longer triangular but square. Depending on the size of the square sheets, it makes sense to cut the sheets in half lengthways. Otherwise, you will end up with a very long cigar börek that is difficult to eat later. The optimum length is around 10–15 centimeters. But don't worry, because the shape of the leaves doesn't affect this delicious snack at all. Speaking of shape: We also have a recipe for vegan börek roll with spinach and artichoke cream if you'd like a slightly more unusual shape.

R343 Turkish Rolled Pastry with Spinach (Cigarette Borek)
R343 Turkish Rolled Pastry with Spinach (Cigarette Borek)
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Turkish Rolled Pastry with Spinach (Cigarette Borek)

approx. 20 cigarette börek
40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 400 g (14 oz) fresh baby spinach (or spinach leaves)
  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 4 tbsp plant-based yogurt
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
  • 10-12 yufka leaves (min. 1 pack)
  • 4 tbsp plant-based milk
  • salt
  • pepper

Instructions

  1. Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Remove any thick stems from the spinach and wash thoroughly.

  2. Heat a high pan with vegetable oil and sauté the onion and garlic in it. Add the spinach, cover with a lid and leave to collapse for 3-4 minutes, then season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add the plant-based yogurt, season to taste and remove from the heat.

  3. Halve the yufka leaves if necessary, spread 1–2 tbsp of the filling on the short side of the leaf, and roll it up. Continue with all the yufka sheets until the filling is used up. Place all the rolls on a lined baking sheet. Brush with a bit of plant-based milk.

  4. Bake them for 15 minutes at 180 °C / 355 °F (convection heat) until crispy brown.

R343 Turkish Rolled Pastry with Spinach (Cigarette Borek)
R343 Turkish Rolled Pastry with Spinach (Cigarette Borek)
R343 Turkish Rolled Pastry with Spinach (Cigarette Borek)

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