Burekas With Spinach or Eggplant Filling Recipe (2024)

Why not give the recipe with the olive oil to make it parve?

The accompanying article says the dough is boiled twice. ??

Considering that these are made with feta cheese, they wouldn't be parve anyway. That said, a quick rule of thumb for substituting butter with oil is to use 2/3 - 3/4 oil for the volume of butter the recipe calls for. So if a recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, use between 2/3 and 3/4 cup of oil instead. You may have to experiment a little to get the texture you want, since pastry made with oil produces a less flaky product than butter does.

shouldn't the directions for the dough be for a food processor with the blade, not a kitchen mixer with paddle attachment? You can't pulse a kitchen mixer, just a food processor....

It struck me as horribly arrogant to first praise the generations-long tradition these women are so carefully and proudly preserving and to speak of the proud history behind it, then to dismiss it all because you find your recipe to be far superior. Give us the recipe with oil, please. That’s what we want. Bravo to these fabulous ladies for helping to hold their community together, and with a recipe everyone already loves as is.

I would like to read about the traditional dough at least, since the article was slanted to tradition in general. Why not give the option to decide what to make?

I tried the recipe with the spinach filling; next time I'll add quite a bit more of both cheeses. The dough, however, is excellent. Growing up with the traditional one (with oil), I have to say that I prefer this one with butter. The size of the finished burekas, however, is too small. On a separate note, just as a suggestion, before closing each bureka, I recommend wetting half of the disc, slightly, with one finger; this will really seal it (cold water will do).

for the dough no need of a blade or paddle, just use your hand the old way a wonderful feeling

A bladed food processor is what I used and it works well. It is very much like making a pie crust. I tend to use butter out of the freezer and cut it into 1/8" to 1/4" bits

Before.

Would you freeze these before or after baking?

I prefer to have the recipe with olive oil, or at least with both butter and oil options.Jewish cooks, especially in the Middle East and Turkey do not cook with butter and everything they make is delicious.

In fact, you can pulse a stand mixer. It's not as neat, but I do it all the time.

Based on comments, it appears this recipe is untested in a kitchen with appropriate tools. For all of us making this recipe for the first time, please respond to inquiries so we know we have a reliable recipe and dependable methods. Thanks, happy cooking!

I note that this recipe uses all purpose flour, which is higher protein than the White Lily flour mentioned in the article. White Lily is a low protein flour popular in the South for biscuits.

Delicious. Browned 1 chopped onion in EVOO, deglazed pan with white wine and cooked it off. Added red pepper and used beet greens instead of spinach because that what I had in my garden.

I substituted King Arthur measure for measure gluten free flour and it worked perfectly. The crust was flakey and delicious. I hadn’t realized how simple making these could be!

Dough was easy to prepare and work with. The size made the end product over doughy and not enough filling. If I were to make this again, I would definitely make lareger ones. I cut the eggplant into small cubes and fried them; provided a very nice flavor and texture when added to the tomatoes and onions. I also would use a cheese that melts such as mozzarella or fontina to the mixture. Definitely, use water to dampen and seal the burekas.

No one I know of at Or Ve Shalom uses butter. Olive oil is how it's done.

The temperature and timing is too high I am afraid! 20 minutes into it with the temperature suggested they started burning. My other batch I lowered the temperature, 392 F for 30 minutes and it worked fine. 425 F is excessive. Sorry! apart from that, they were delicious!

I grew up with these burekas and they're a very special treat. Regarding whether they should be frozen before or after baking, I always freeze after. Everyone in our synagogue (Or Ve Shalom in the article) does too. If anyone has baked it after freezing, please let us know. I'd love to know how they turn out.

First public comment, but I feel compelled. These are lovely. I couldn't figure out what was lacking and why - with all the ingredients in the spinach filling. (I used fresh, and it makes a difference.)Then I realized the problem - there is no sauted onion or garlic in the filling. I think it needs that, and next time I'll alter the recipe and see if that makes them better. Bet it will.

The dough is excellent. I made the eggplant-tomato filling but, much as I love eggplant, I found it unremarkable. I will use the dough again, but definitely with a filling that has more pizzazz.

Wow, people sure will complain about anything. If you don’t see the recipe you want look it up. Anyway, I made these with the eggplant filling. I thought the filling was bland so I added garlic, oregano, mozzarella cheese and a pinch of hot pepper to the listed ingredients. Meh, ok, but not worth the trouble in my opinion.

These are absolutely scrumptious! The dough is easy to work with. A keeper recipe.

I was inspired by this recipe to make fillings using food that needed to be consumed, so in the end the only component to which I was faithful was the crust. I measured my flour by weight and I needed to add more than 1/2 cup water (much more, by recipe standards). Filled with cooked bratwurst/roasted peppers & onions/cream cheese + dijon/cheddar cheese, and cooked chorizo/said peppers&onions/carmelized cabbage/cream cheese. And two little apple turnovers when I ran out of meat fillings.

Loved this recipe. Quick question for anyone who can help. When I make a pie crust (admittedly not often because I take shortcuts and buy one - I know, I know, that is awful!) the flour I use to roll it sometimes makes the resulting product taste chalky. How do I avoid this?

I loved all the individual elements of this recipe. The crust was super flaky (butter may not be kosher, but it makes a great crust), and the eggplant and tomato filling was tasty on its own, but combined it could’ve been more flavorful. Still this is a fun little project recipe that I want to make again with the spinach filling.

I made these today with the spinach filing. They seem very dry. Did I do something wrong? I even added a chopped onion sautéed in olive oil but not enough moisture?

It was wonderful seeing Joan Nathan's article in the Times. My mother was one of those"grandmothers" from whom my generation learned to make these and other Sephardic dishes. Of course , they were then made by hand, w/fresh spinach, and veg.oil. As a Brooklyn resident since my long marriage and widowhood, I greatly miss those heavenly smells and tastes. If your family came from Rhodes, I would love to hear from you.I understand Ladino, but speak it haltingly.Come con gana!