Turkish Borek Recipe (Vegan Spinach Rolls) (2024)

Published on 26. December 2018 16 Comments

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Crispy baked Turkish Borek (Vegan Spinach Rolls) are quick & easy to prepare and make a great finger food! You can fill them with different fillings, such as spinach and feta or cashew and tomato. They’re perfect to serve at a party or just as a simple and delicious snack or side dish for dinner or lunch.

Are you familiar with Turkish Borek? They’re crispy stuffed pastries that are often served in Turkish cuisine and called “Sigara Böreği”. This oriental finger food is perfect for grabbing and dipping, and you can stuff them with different kinds of vegetable fillings. Anyways, one of the most popular fillings is spinach and feta (next to the classic onion and potato filling). Usually, Turkish Borek is deep-fried in a lot of oil, be that as it may, in my recipe they’re baked and not fried, which makes these Vegan Spinach Rolls much healthier!

The perfect Party Snack!

To be honest, Turkish Borek Cigars have always been one of our family’s all-time favorite snacks. My mom used to make them very often for the guests during our New Years celebrations. Of course, she always prepared a lot of these Spinach Rolls, because they are eaten much faster than you would expect! We prefer to serve different fillings because not everyone is a fan of Spinach and Feta.

Spinach & Feta or Cashew & Tomato Filling?

Have I already mentioned that these Turkish Borek can be made vegan very easily? Instead of regular Feta, you can either use store-bought non-dairy Feta (“Feto“) or prepare your own cashew ricotta with the following recipe -> Homemade Cashew Ricotta. Anyways, in my opinion, the Spinach and Feta Filling is the best for Vegan Borek, but I also like the cashew tomato filling, which is made of tomato puree, sunflower seeds, and cashews. Both fillings are creamy, savory and spicy and taste absolutely delicious. However, you can stuff these Rolls with basically anything you like. Furthermore, a Mexican Filling with beans or my Pierogi Filling with mushrooms, a simple Pesto or Cashew Cheese are also great options.

How to make Turkish Borek

Turkish Borek (Vegan Spinach Rolls) are made with Yufka pastry sheets that are very thin pastries made of only water and flour. You can buy it in almost every supermarket (especially Turkish supermarkets) or order it online. There are also triangular dough sheets available, which are perfect for making Borek Cigars. Of course, you can also cut regular Yufka dough into a triangle shape yourself. However, I think it’s easier to buy the ready-cut Pastry sheets so you’re done faster!

To make these Vegan Spinach Rolls, prepare the filling first (you can also make it ahead). Once the stuffing is ready, place approx. 1-2 tablespoons of the filling at the widest part of each pastry sheet. Then roll it tight to the top, also fold in the corners on the right and left to seal as you go, so the filling stays inside the wrap. You can either shape these Vegan Spinach Rolls into Cigars as I did or fold them into triangles like Samosas.

I hope you’ll love these Vegan Spinach Rolls as much as I do. They’re:

Vegan (dairy-free, egg-free)
Quick & easy to make
Healthy
Hearty
Delicious
Crispy & Crunchy
Can be made with different fillings
Can be served warm & cold
A great finger food!
The perfect snack for a party!

A healthy Snack for any situations!

These Turkish Borek Cigars don’t have to only be served as a snack during the day for lunch or dinner, but also for breakfast. When I was a child I loved taking the leftovers to school the next day, so believe me, they’re also perfect as a snack to-go. You don’t need anything special to serve them with, but, we usually serve them with Cashew Dip or Vegan Aioli and Ketchup.
Have fun trying this easy recipe and please let me know if you liked it!

Turkish Borek (Vegan Spinach Rolls)

Author: Bianca Zapatka

Crispy baked Turkish Borek (Vegan Spinach Rolls) is quick & easy to prepare and make great finger food! Serve to a party or just as a simple snack or side dish for dinner or lunch.

4.64 von 11 Bewertungen

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Ingredients

Turkish Borek:

1 package of Yufka pastry sheets (360g) *see recipe notes
¾ cup non-dairy milk + 2 tbsp oil to brush
sesame seeds to garnish

Spinach Filling (for about 17 rolls):

1 onion diced
2 garlic cloves chopped
10.5 oz baby spinach (300g) fresh or frozen
8.8 oz non-dairy feta cheese (250g) *see recipe notes
salt and pepper to taste

Tomato Filling (for about 7 rolls):

½ cup cashews (75 g) or non-dairy feta cheese
2 tbsp sunflower seeds optional
½ cup tomato puree (120 ml)
2 tbsp tomato paste or paprika paste
1-2 garlic cloves pressed
1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast optional
salt and pepper to taste
Italian herbs optional

Instructions

*Note: I recommend watching the recipe video for visual instruction!

Spinach Filling:

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onion 1-2 minutes. Add the garlic and spinach and sauté 1-2 minutes longer until wilted. Let cool slightly and squeeze to remove excess liquid. (Optionally, use frozen spinach. Just thaw, squeeze and combine with roasted onions & garlic).
Chop the spinach mixture coarsely, mix with crumbled feta (or blend all of the ingredients in a food processor).Season with salt and pepper to taste

Tomato Filling:

Soak cashews and sunflower seeds in hot water for about 15 minutes, then rinse and drain.
Put the soaked cashews and sunflower seeds along with the remaining ingredients for the tomato filling to a food processor and process into a coarse mixture. Season with salt, pepper, (nutritional yeast and Italian herbs) to taste.

Roll Borek Cigars:

Place one triangle of yufka dough on a work surface with the longer edge facing you, and brush with the milk-oil mixture generously.
Place 1-2 tablespoons of the filling near the wide end of the triangle, leaving about 1-inch (2cm) border on each side. Fold the long sides of the dough slightly over the filling. Fold in the sides to seal and roll up tight. Then place on a baking tray and repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.
Brush the spinach rolls with the milk-oil mixture and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in a preheated oven at 360°F (180°C) for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. (Optionally, you can also go the traditional way and fry them crispy in a deep-fryer or in a pan with much oil).
Enjoy!

Notes

I prefer using triangular Yufka pastry sheets but you can also use regular Yufka dough (Filo dough) and cut into triangles using a pizza cutter.
Make sure to cover the Yufka pastry with a damp dish towel during the preparation, so they won't dry out.
I used this vegan feta, but you can also make Homemade Cashew Ricotta or Cashew Cheese, or use firm Tofu + 2 tbsp cashew butter or puréed pine nuts.
You can freeze the filled rolls in a single layer on a platter, so they don’t stick together and won’t break when you want to remove them individually. What’s great is you can fry them straight from the freezer.

Nutrition is calculated automatically and should be used as estimate.

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