Have you ever tried phyllo pie, in other words – burek? It’s a delicious food made with phyllo dough and filling. Classic potato phyllo pie (burek) is a great healthy snack that fills you up and is almost guilt-free.

Where I come from, burek is a way to go. It can be your snack, or your lunch, or dinner, or breakfast. It’s something that always comes to mind. The fun part is that it’s not even a Slovenian dish.

History of classic potato phyllo pie in a nutshell

Turkey is the central figure in this show. Burek spread from Turkey during the time of the Ottoman Empire. It’s insanely popular in the Balkan area. Bosnians really know their way around burek.

Turkish and Bosnians spread burek all around Europe. I know you can get versions of burek in Scandinavia, Germany, Slavic countries, and probably somewhere else, too. You can absolutely get it in every grocery store and every bakery in Slovenia. Some people especially obsess over classic potato phyllo pie or shortly, potato burek. Some people prefer cheese phyllo pie (burek – it’s easier that way, right?).

Variations of burek

The most classical and traditional of them all is the cheese burek. At least in Slovenia. In Bosnia, they only say “burek” when it’s made with meat. Otherwise, it’s called a pie. But for us, it’s all burek.

The cheese burek is made with cottage cheese. If prepared well, it is food sent from heaven. But that one ain’t vegan, right? Correct. But vegans know how to solve those kinds of problems. 😉 If you don’t believe me, check my recipe for vegan spinach burek.

There are other variations, too. The potato filling is one of the classics, just like spinach. Spinach burek is usually prepared with cottage cheese (which is why my spinach burek has tofu filling). Some people try making pizza burek or stuff it with sausage and sauerkraut to make it more Slovenian (I guess).

Any-hoo, I created this recipe for everyone who wants to try this old traditional classic potato phyllo pie – the vegan way. Let’s do this!

Classic Potato Phyllo Pie

Tradition goes vegan? Yes, again, with this classic potato phyllo pie (burek)! Spiced, but soft. Crunchy, but luscious. Something you will not regret.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine Turkish

Servings 6 pieces

Ingredients

  

Phyllo dough

• 350 g white flour spelt or wheat
• 200 ml luke warm water
• 10 ml vinegar
• pinch salt

Potato filling

• 1500 g potatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 200 ml cooking cream soy or oat
• oil for greasing

Instructions

 

• Put all the ingredients for phyllo dough into a large bowl. Knead for 10 minutes so the gluten forms strong bonds and the dough becomes very elastic. Cover the bowl with bees'-wax wrap, wet kitchen cloth, or plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
• Peel, clean, and grate potatoes. Chop onions.
• Sautée onions in a large pan, using a bit of oil or just water so it doesn't stick to the pan. After a few minutes add potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Sautée potatoes for at least 10 minutes, even better if you do that for 15 minutes. At the end, add a bit more than a half of the cooking cream to the filling and stir it in. Set aside and let it cool down.
• Take a large table-cloth. Clean the table surface and cover it with table-cloth. Sprinkle the cloth with flour. Take your phyllo dough from the bowl and stretch it out a little, so it forms a snake shape. The longer side of the table is super important here, it's the measure we'll be using.
• Now, stretch the dough over the whole surface of the table. Using your fingers, very gently pull the dough apart from the middle. Be careful and very gentle - once it tears there's nothing you can do. If it's nice and strong, you can even use your palms, reach below the dough and stretch it out with your whole hand.
• Once that's done, take your potato filling and, using your hand, sprinkle it on the surface. Remember the long side of the table? Work along that side - imagine the thirds of the table and sprinkle your filling on the left and the right third, leaving the middle empty.
• Rolling time! Step to the one side of the table, the long one, of course. Using your fingers, make the first roll. Then grab the edge of the kitchen cloth and roll the dough towards the middle of the empty third in the middle of the table. Repeat the same on the other side. You want to get two long, thin rolls. Leave some space between them, about 1 cm, so you can cut the dough in the middle and separate the two rolls.
• Here comes the tough and the fun part. Take your round baking tray and grease it with oil. Then place it on the table next to one of the rolls. Gently lift the roll up and place it into the tray, working from the outer edge towards the middle, creating a spiral. You might want to move the tray as you move along the length of the table. It can be hard to lift the whole roll up and place it into the tray. So keep lifting up part after part and placing it into the tray.
• Uf! Done! Now it's baking time. Bake burek in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20 minutes. Then pour the remaining of the cooking cream over it or spread it around using a kitchen brush. Bake for additional 10 minutes, et voilá!
• Serve with a bit of soy or coconut yogurt. Enjoy!

Notes

You can buy phyllo dough in the store. Be aware that working with store-bought dough is different than with homemade dough. You have to wet it with water so it doesn't tear so easily and it's easier to work with. It comes in sheets so you'll have to stick a few together. Use water or oil for that.

If you're using oil, I recommend coconut oil, olive oil or sunflower-seed oil. 

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