You know when you have a craving for “Borek”, and there is no organic or vegan pastry out there that doesn’t contain any preservatives or additives you need to make your own, and that’s what I did my friends…
My Sunday afternoon was spent creating this delicious baked beauty using organic ingredients only.
The “Borek” is a traditional Turkish pastry filled with spinach or silver-beet/chard, onion, fresh herbs and cheese if you like. Now I made 2 versions on the weekend with the recipe I am about to share with you all, so if you are wanting to only make one borek then I suggest you half the ingredients list, otherwise you can make extra and freeze for a rainy day!
This was my very first attempt at making the borek and to me and my family it was a success. So the first one pictured here is filled with silver-beet/chard, spinach, onion and herbs (no cheese) lots of olive oil and the other (not pictured) was filled with haloumi cheese (or helim as we call it in Turkish) and fresh mint for the kids.
Ingredients you will need to make the dough:
7 cups of plain organic flour – my favorite is Kialla Pure Foods (and a little extra for dusting)
1 tbsp salt
3 1/4 cup warm filtered water (lukewarm)
1/4 cup organic olive oil
Ingredients for the filling:
Vegan Version
1 bunch organic silver-beet/chard
2 bunches organic spinach
1 large onion (organic)
8 fresh organic spring onions (chopped)
handful of organic dill herb
handful of organic mint
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp garlic paste (homemade – will share recipe next time)
1 tsp salt
black sesame seeds to decorate
1/2- 1 cup organic olive oil as needed
NOTE: {if you want you can also add cheese (fetta or hallloumi, or vegan to the greens if you like}
Non-Vegan Version for kids
1 whole halloumi cheese (grated)
1/4 cup organic fresh mint chopped
1 tsp cracked black pepper
Directions:
To make dough/pastry, combine flour, salt and lukewarm water in a bowl until a soft dough that isn’t sticky; add extra flour or water if necessary, then add the olive oil. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes or until smooth. Divide into 4 even balls. Essentially 2 balls will make up 1 whole Borek. As mentioned above this made 2 whole boreks as pictured.
Working with one ball of dough at a time, roll out dough with a floured rolling pin on a well-floured work surface to a 2 mm-thick round or oval shape. Stretch out the dough to be as thin as possible and then drizzle olive oil to the base, before you add the fillings. As it’s a vegan version we don’t want it to be dry and tasteless. If you prefer you can use a vegan butter, but I didn’t as I’m not a fan of it. Meanwhile sautee your onion, garlic, silver-beet, and spinach on low heat and then add all the salt, pepper, fresh dill, mint and spring onions at the end.
Next step is to scatter the mixture around the entire dough and then roll it up (I will try and share some short videos I took while making this to give you an idea of it). Place some baking paper on your baking tin and then begin to curve the dough into your tray. Repeat the process with the second dough.
Once it’s all in ensure you cover the dough with another good drizzle of olive oil to help it brown and become crispy when baking and sprinkle with black sesame seeds for that finishing touch.
Bake in a pre-heated oven on 220 degrees for 1 hour.
Enjoy, we served it with salad and dips and yogurt. Hope you enjoy my vegan version of this delicious borek pastry dish. I must say it was an effort so it will be awhile before I make another batch, but so worth the taste and smell of it baking…
Happy Tuesday beautiful people xox
