A taste of Bulgarian Banitsa

Recipe by Selin Ismetova

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Background

Bulgaria is a small country situated in Southeastern Europe, in the east of the Balkans. A cultural melting pot with Greek, Slavic, Ottoman, and Persian influences, it has a rich heritage of traditional dance, music, costumes, crafts and cuisine. At the foot of domed Vitosha mountain is its capital city, Sofia, dating to the 5th century B.C.

Among the most popular dishes of Bulgarian cuisine, there is a wide variety of hot and cold soups, the most popular are the tarator for cold soups and chorba for hot soups, and excellent salads such as the famous shopska. A breakfast staple in the country, a banitsa consists of layers of very thin pastry, interspersed with eggs, cheese and sometimes yogurt, which puff up in the oven like a soufflé. The pastry sheets can be either filled and rolled, as I have explained here, or simply scrunched up and dotted with the filling.

Serves: 6

>Prep time: 25 mins

>Total time:

Ingredients

  • 30g butter, plus extra to grease
  • 3 large eggs
  • 125g low-fat natural yogurt
  • 2 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 8 small sheets filo pastry, from a 220g pack
  • 200g vegetarian feta, crumbled

Step by Step

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 4. Grease a 20cm round baking dish with butter. In a mixing bowl, lightly whisk together the eggs, yogurt and oil.
  2. Lay one sheet of pastry out on your work surface and drizzle over some of the egg and yogurt mixture. Scatter over some feta and then roll up the pastry from one of the short sides, into a cigar shape. Place in the prepared baking dish, following the edge. Repeat with the remaining sheets of pastry, spiralling the rolls until the dish is full. Spoon any remaining egg and yogurt mixture into any gaps in the coil and then dot the top with butter.
  3. Bake for 45 minutes, or until risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven, cover with a clean cloth and leave to cool until warm. Serve cut into wedges.
Nutritional information (per serving)
  • Calories- 281Kcal
  • Fat- 19gr
  • Saturates- 9gr
  • Carbs- 15gr
  • Sugars- 4gr
  • Fibre- 0gr
  • Protein- 13gr
  • Salt- 1.1gr

    • Video Instructions here.

    Explore our other web pages to learn more about different cultural foods!