Excellent börek “rolls” with Turkish yufka dough. Incredibly useful to have as a snack or on a picnic. Fill it with what you like – here I give recipes for two different fillings – let your imagination run wild! One is vegetarian with feta cheese and herbs; the other is a meat filling. I have also done it with fajitas filling with equally good results.
Yufka dough comes from Turkey and is also used in other countries in the Middle East. The dough is available for purchase in well-stocked immigrant shops. Has a long shelf life, so buy a few pieces and keep in the fridge. The dough is slightly thicker than phyllo dough and, therefore, more comfortable to handle. If you do not have the opportunity to buy yufka dough, you can instead use phyllo dough – in which case, cut it to the appropriate size.
Anyway, we were going to have a graduation picnic on August 14th, and since our student Moa loves food from the Middle East, I chose to make such a mini buffet. As you can see in the video, we had: Salad Olivier, vine leaf dolmens, two kinds of Börek or “rolls” as I call them, hummus, tzatziki, baguettes, and green salad with dressing – we were 8 people, and the food was more than enough.
Recipes for salad Olivier – I will write this recipe shortly
Recipes for Wine leave dolmens can be found here
Tzatziki can be found here
Hummus recipes can be found at the end of the blog.
You can either take one or two yufka sheets for each roll. The amount below is enough for one package of yufka dough that looks like a triangle (see picture).
| Vegetarian Börek | Börek with meat filling |
| One package of yufka dough | 500 – 600-gram minced meat (1,10 pound) |
| 390 grams of feta cheese (13,75 ounces) | 75-gram well-chopped spring onion (2,65 ounces) |
| 40 grams of chopped parsley (1,41 ounces) | 40-gram well-chopped parsley (1,41 ounces) |
| 60 grams of well-chopped spring onions (2,12 ounces) | 140-gram yellow onion (4,93 ounces) |
| 0.5 teaspoon black pepper | 2 cloves of garlic |
| 120 gram (4,23 ounces) well chopped red bell pepper or the pepper of your choice. | |
| Spices: | |
| 2,5 teaspoons salt | |
| 3 ml (0,5 tsp) black pepper | |
| 1 tbsp turmeric | |
| 1 tsp ground cumin | |
| 1 tsp ground sumac | |
| 1 tsp ground dried Persian lemon (Garde limo) | |
| 1 – 2 tbsp pepper puree | |
| 1 – 2 tbsp tomato puree | |
| 1 dl water (a little less than 1/2 a cup) | |
| 1 – 2 tsp lemon juice |
Then it’s a matter of taste if you want to add other herbs, such as chopped mint, etc for the vegetarian börek. You only need a tablespoon in that case – or mix in what you like.
Method vegetarian börek:
- Remove the dough from the fridge and let it come to room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Rinse the vegetables thoroughly, clean, and chop – set aside.
- Crumble the feta cheese in a bowl and mix in the spices and herbs. Knead a little so that everything mixes well.
- Pour some water into a bowl and have it ready to roll the “Börek.”
- Put some plastic wrap on a tray and have it ready to put ready-made rolls on.
- Lay one or two sheets of yufka dough on a clean surface and place two tablespoons of filling, fold in the sides first, and then roll the dough. Towards the end, brush a little water on the dough before proceeding it towards the end. The water makes the dough stick and does not rise when you store or fry it. Place the rollers on the tray, having plastic wrap between each layer so that the rollers do not get stuck in each other.
- You can do this well in advance and let it rest in the fridge.
- Heat oil in a frying pan to at least 13̊0̊ – 140̊ degrees (Celsius) (266̊ – 284̊ degrees Fahrenheit). Add a few rolls and fry until they get a nice golden color; it takes about 2 – 3 minutes.
Method meat filling:
- Fry the onion in a mixture of oil and butter for 5 minutes
- Add crushed garlic and fry for an additional one minute.
- Add the meat and fry until it has changed color, distribute with fork
- Now you can add finely chopped peppers and spring onions – mix well.
- Distribute the spice mixture and mix well.
- Mix tomato puree and paprika puree with a little water (a little less than 1/2 a cup)and add it to the meat mixture
- Add the chopped parsley and mix well.
- Taste and correct the seasoning; I added a little squeezed lemon.
- Let it simmer on low heat until all the liquid has been absorbed.
- Let it cool before rolling the börek.
- Roll in yufka dough as the vegetarian börek.
- Fry in oil for a few minutes or until the rolls get a golden color.
Börek can be served warm or cold.
Hummus
The most important thing is to peel the chickpeas before you mix it, then you get an incredibly excellent and smooth hummus, worth putting some work into it. You can double the amount because hummus lasts quite a long time in the fridge,
| Ingredients for Hummus |
| 400 grams of cooked chickpeas in a jar (14,10 ounces) |
| 3 tbsp tahini |
| 1 tablespoon squeezed lemon (1/2 lemon) |
| 1 clove of garlic that is pressed (can be excluded) |
| 0.5 dl water (1,70 ounces) |
| 1/4 of teaspoon cumin (ground) |
| 3/4 of a teaspoon salt (add a little at a time) |
- Put the chickpeas in a colander and rinse thoroughly. Peel the chickpeas.
- Put it in a blender.
- Add the other ingredients and process for 2-3 minutes or until you get a smooth mixture.
- Taste – mix in a little water or olive oil if the “mixture” is too thick.
Enjoy!
