Turkish Tofu & Spinach Börek | Vegan

To say I’m excited to share today’s recipe with you would be an understatement; this is one of my favorite dishes I’ve made lately. Coupled with the Antalyan White Bean Salad I shared earlier this week, it makes for a Turkish feast from vegan heaven, or any heaven for that matter.

Typically made with cheese and spinach between layers of buttery filo pastry, börek is surprisingly easy to veganise. I have used shop-bought filo pastry for this recipe because, well, who has time to roll out millimetre-thick layers of pastry? Since ready-made filo pastry is often vegan already (check the packet first, of course) it makes life much easier on all fronts and can be coated with a dairy-free margarine so you don’t lose out on the buttery, golden kind of filo this vegan börek demands. In place of cheese, crumbled tofu, with a dose of nutritional yeast to give it a cheesy hint, does a very fine job for the filling.

This is the kind of dish that’s very easy to make but looks very impressive – perfect if you’re hosting a dinner or cooking for a potluck. I made a gif to show you how easy it is to make, because, why not!?

Turkish Tofu & Spinach Börek | Vegan   Save Print Prep time 15 mins Cook time 45 mins Total time 1 hour   A veganised version of a Turkish classic, Börek. Layers of filo pastry, spinach and tofu mixed with fresh mint baked in the oven to create a perfect main course or starter. Author: The Tofu Diaries Recipe type: Main Cuisine: Turkish Serves: 6 Ingredients

• 6 sheets filo pastry, cut in half and left out of the fridge for ten minutes
• 100g fresh spinach
• For the tofu layer:
• 400g tofu, drained and crumbled
• 20g fresh mint, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 50g dairy-free margarine, melted
• 2tbsp nutritional yeast
• ½tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Mix the tofu layer ingredients together thoroughly.
3. Grease a large oven-proof dish with a thin coating of the melted dairy-free margarine. Add the first sheet of filo pastry, followed by a coat of margarine. Repeat with three more filo sheets.
4. Cover the filo pastry evenly with half of the spinach, followed by half of the tofu mix.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add the next layer. Add a final layer of filo sheets, being sure to coat the top layer with plenty of the melted dairy-free margarine.
6. Bake in the oven for around 45 minutes or until the pastry has turned golden brown.

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What’s cooking in your kitchen this week?