Spinach Borek - Ispanaklı Börek

Spinach Borek, or Ispanaklı Börek, is a Turkish pastry made with yufka, spinach and onions. It is crisp outside and soft inside. I like it cold the next day just as much as warm from the oven.

It works for breakfast, for a lunchbox, or on the table when people come over. You can shape it the day before and bake it when you need it, or freeze a batch unbaked. If you would rather bake it in one tray and cut it into squares, the tray bake method is further down.

Jump to:

• What is Borek?
• Most Popular Turkish Borek Variations
• Why This Recipe Works?
• Ingredients You'll Need
• How to Make Spinach Borek - Ispanaklı Börek
• How to Make Spinach Borek as a Tray Bake
• Recipe Tips From the Chef
• Serving Suggestions
• Storage and Make Ahead Instructions
• Recipe FAQs
• Related Recipes
• Spinach Borek - Ispanakli Borek

There is a meat version of this too, if you want one: Phyllo Meat and Spinach Pie.

In the old days, our grandmothers used to make yufka sheets at home to make borek, but luckily you can easily find yufka sheets in food stores or online. In Turkey, there are still some small yufka shops that only make fresh yufka sheets.

What is Borek?

Borek is a savory Turkish pastry made with yufka, the thin sheets you buy fresh from Turkish shops. You brush the sheets with a milk and egg sauce, stack them up with a filling in between, and bake it. Cheese, spinach, potato and meat are the fillings you see most. Spinach is the one I make most often.

Most boreks use the same sheets and the same few fillings. It is the shape that changes, and every shape has its own name. Some are baked, some are fried, and one is boiled first.

In Turkey you do not have to make it yourself. Every neighborhood has a börekçi, and you can buy it there from early morning along with Pogaca (Turkish Buns).

Most Popular Turkish Borek Variations

Tepsi boregi (Tray borek) is the everyday one. It is also called anne boregi, mother's borek, because it is the one people make at home. Sheets and filling go into a tray in layers, then it is baked and cut into squares. My Kiymali Borek (Turkish Meat Burek) is made this way, and there is a tray method for this spinach one further down.

Su boregi (Water borek) is the one that gets boiled first. That is what makes it soft instead of crisp. It has a reputation for being the best one, and the hardest to make.

Kol boregi (Arm borek) is more about the dough than the shape. The sheets are pulled thin by hand and brushed with a lot of oil, so it bakes very flaky. It is rolled into a long arm and sliced after baking.

Gul boregi (Rose borek) is the one in this recipe. You roll the filled yufka into a long strip and wind it round itself, and it opens out like a rose in the oven. The name is about the shape and not the filling, so you will find cheese and potato ones too. What I like is that each one is already a portion, so there is nothing to cut.

Muska boregi (Amulet borek) is folded into small triangles, one fold over the next. It is named after the triangular amulets people used to wear. This one goes either way, baked or fried.

Turkish Cheese Rolls (Sigara boregi) are rolled thin and tight, which is where the cigarette name comes from. Cheese is the usual filling, sometimes minced meat. These are fried rather than baked and served as a meze.

Why This Recipe Works?

• You can make Spinach Borek (Ispanakli Borek) up to 3 days ahead and bake it when you need it.

• You can freeze them before or after baking and keep them for up to 3 months. No need to defrost before baking or reheating!

• They look harder than they are. If you can roll a strip of pastry you can make these.

• It is the easiest way I know to get children to eat spinach. Swap the filling and my Cheese Borek and Potato Borek both work in this shape.

Ingredients You'll Need

Please scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredients list with measurements, complete recipe method, recipe notes, and nutritional information.

• Yufka - Thin round sheets of dough, sold fresh in Turkish and Middle Eastern shops and online. Filo is the usual substitute and most supermarkets carry it, fresh or frozen. It is thinner than yufka and comes in rectangles rather than rounds.

• Spinach - I use baby spinach leaves. You can also use frozen spinach, just make sure you squeeze the water out of it before using it.

• Onions - You can use yellow or brown onions. They add umami flavor and sweetness to the spinach filling.

• Butter - Use good quality butter and apply it with a pastry brush on top of the pastries before baking them. Butter makes the boreks extra crispy and delicious!

• Eggs - They give color as well as flavor to the borek. You can substitute it with yogurt.

• Vegetable oil - you can substitute it with melted butter, olive oil, sunflower oil, or rapeseed oil. It adds an extra crispness to the borek.

• Milk - I use semi-skimmed or full-fat milk. You can substitute it with yogurt.

• Garlic - Fresh garlic is a great flavoring that adds sweetness and nuttiness to dishes. You can use garlic powder or granules instead although I strongly suggest using fresh ones.

• Sesame or nigella seeds - They provide extra crunch to borek or pastries. They are commonly used in sweet or savory Turkish bakeries.

How to Make Spinach Borek - Ispanaklı Börek

Prepare the Spinach Filling

Put a large heavy-based pan on medium heat and add olive oil then sauté the onions and garlic until translucent.

Add chili, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and paprika, and sauté for another minute, stirring continuously. Add the spinach and cook until the water from the spinach totally evaporates.

Let the filling cool down completely before you use it. Make the sauce while it cools.

Put 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites in a bowl and whisk lightly, keeping the 2 yolks back for the egg wash. Pour in the milk and vegetable oil and whisk to combine.

Set aside to use when required

Assemble the Borek

Preheat the oven to 180° C - 360° F (fan oven). Line a rectangular baking tray size of 35cm x 25cm (14" x 10") or a 28cm (11") dia baking pan with a baking sheet.

Lay a piece of yufka on a work surface and scatter 2-3 tablespoon of the sauce on it. Spread the sauce evenly using a pastry brush.

Divide the filling into 3 and scatter ⅓ of it on yufka evenly.

Cut the yufka into quarters. You will have 4 large triangles. Take one of the triangles and roll it starting from the large side into a long sausage shape. Roll it neither tight nor loose. Rolled too tight it will not cook through properly. Rolled too loose it unwinds in the oven.

Swirl the long sausage into a rose shape.

And tuck the loose end piece underneath the rose. That is what keeps it from unrolling in the oven, so do not skip it. Repeat with the rest of the yufka pieces.

Place the boreks on a baking tray and brush with melted butter and egg yolk. Sprinkle on sesame seeds or nigella seeds.

Place the tray in the oven and cook the boreks for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

How to Make Spinach Borek as a Tray Bake

The tray version uses the same filling and the same sauce. You need a rectangular tray around 35cm x 25cm (14" x 10") and about 5 sheets of yufka.

Lay two sheets on the base so they hang over the sides, and brush them with sauce. Two on the bottom instead of one is what keeps the base from going soggy. Add another sheet, scrunch it a little as you lay it down, and brush it again.

Spread all of the filling over that. Finish with the last two sheets, brush sauce between them, and fold the overhanging edges back over the top.

Brush the top with egg yolk and sprinkle on sesame and nigella seeds. Cut it into squares now, before it goes in the oven. Baked yufka breaks up under the knife and you will not get neat pieces.

Bake at 180° C - 360° F for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden. Use the middle shelf. Any higher and the top browns before the base is done, any lower and the bottom catches.

If you want a cheese filling instead, use the one from my Spinach and Feta Pie.

Recipe Tips From the Chef

• Get the oven up to 180° C - 360° F (fan) before the borek goes in. In a cold oven it dries out instead of crisping.

• There are two ways to do the spinach. I cook mine and I would again, because it gives the filling more flavor and gets the water out. The other way is to chop it raw, salt it, leave it a while and squeeze it dry by hand. Both make good borek.

• Take the pan off just before the spinach starts to release its water, not after. If the filling still looks wet once it has cooled, drain it. If it is still wet after that, stir a spoonful of breadcrumbs through it.

• Keep the yufka you are not using under a slightly damp tea towel. Damp, not wet, or the sheets go sticky. If it has come out of the fridge, leave it on the counter for a while first. Cold yufka is much harder to work with.

• Roll the sausage neither tight nor loose. Too tight and the middle does not cook through. Too loose and it unwinds in the oven. Do not put too much filling in either, that is the other thing that makes them burst.

• Sit the roses close together on the tray rather than spaced apart. That is how they are done in Turkey and they hold their shape better for it.

• Do not cover them when they come out of the oven. A cloth over the top traps the steam and softens the pastry, which is what you want with a soft borek and not with these. Cool them on a wire rack so air gets underneath and the bases stay crisp.

• Leave a tray bake 15 minutes before you cut it.

Serving Suggestions

The most common way to serve borek is with a cup of Turkish Tea or a glass of Ayran (Turkish Yogurt Drink).

You can also serve these crispy Turkish pastries with a bowl of soup such as Ezogelin Corbasi (Ezogelin Soup) or Turkish Lentil Soup (Mercimek Corbasi).

Or what about some healthy salad such as Gavurdagi Salatasi (Tomato and Walnut Salad), Beetroot and Feta Salad, Russian Salad (Olivier Salad), or colorful Indian Chickpea Salad (Chana salad)?

Storage and Make Ahead Instructions

You can make the filling a day before and keep it covered in the fridge. You can also go all the way and shape the roses, brush them with the sauce, cover the tray and leave them in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Bake them straight from cold and give them an extra 5 minutes. Borek made up the day before tastes better for the wait, not just quicker on the day.

Unbaked roses freeze well too. Sit them on a lined tray until they are solid, then move them into a bag or a box. Bake them from frozen, with the egg wash brushed on just before they go in the oven.

Once they are baked, let them cool completely before you put them away or the trapped steam softens the pastry.

They keep for 5 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer, and you do not need to defrost them. Reheat them for 5 minutes at 200° C - 400° F, a few minutes longer from frozen.

Recipe FAQs

Related Recipes

For other delicious Turkish pastry recipes, why not try:

Did you make this recipe? Please let me know how it turned out! Leave a comment below and tag @cookingorgeous on Instagram and hashtag it #cookingorgeous.

I hope you enjoy the process of making this Spinach Borek - Ispanaklı Börek as much as you enjoy eating it! 🙂