Classic mushroom bourekas recipe {Vegan}

There is a small corner bakery in the city I grew up in, where everyone goes after a night of drinking.

On any night but Friday (the evening of the holy day of rest, when all religious or kosher establishments must close), men and women of all ages can be seen lounging and laughing around haphazardly spread tables under an outdoors canopy, sharing greasy, carb-heavy treats of flaky dough.

As the smells of baked and fried dough, fragrant sautéing onions, and sweet honey fill the night air, passersby stop in their tracks and approach the glowing counters of Hapina HaChama, or The Sweet Corner, trying to decide what delicacy their alcohol-filled stomachs crave most.

And usually, what they crave is an order of baked bourekas.

Whether it is spelled bourekas, borekas or börek, these little hand pies are all very similar.

The Mediterranean delicacy of bourekas are little pockets of dough, usually phyllo (filo dough) or puff pastry, filled with a variety of flavours.

Bourekas is not limited to the Middle East, and its larger cousin the Börek makes frequent appearances on Turkish, Bosnian, Serb and even Armenian tables, where meat varieties often make up a light lunch.

In Israel, the most popular bourekas recipes are cheese bourekas or potato bourekas, though at Hapina HaChama, many go for the combination of eggplant and feta as in the Balkan bourekas, or my personal favourite, the mushroom bourekas. I also love this Bosnian pita recipe, which is a relative of the Ottoman Borek.

• store-bought phyllo dough - any filo dough you like will work here!
• mushrooms - use fresh mushrooms for best results; a mix of baby portobello and white button mushrooms is my favorite. You can also go crazy and experiment with wild mushrooms in the filling for these mushroom bourekas.
• onions - white onions, or a combination of sweet Vidalia onions and red onions will give you my favorite
• margarine - use either margarine, a vegan butter alternative like Earth Balance, or butter, if you’re not vegan or lactose-intolerant
• olive oil
• thyme - you can use dry thyme or fresh thyme, but fresh is better
• salt
• Juice of a lemon - fresh or bottled is all good

See recipe card for exact quantities.

Defrost filo dough

If working with frozen dough, defrost your phyllo dough overnight in the fridge, or leave on the counter for a few hours.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make mushroom bourekas filling

Chop onions finely.

Preheat a pan over medium heat. Once pan is hot, add your margarine or vegan butter and oil and let it melt. Add onions to the pan and cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until they are starting to turn translucent. Lower heat to low, and let onions reduce and caramelize for 20 minutes.

Slice mushrooms, taking care to not slice too thinly or too thickly. Chop the larger slices into smaller pieces. You want your mushrooms to retain their meatiness, but also be small enough to fit into phyllo triangles.

Add mushrooms to the pan with the onions, and raise heat to medium. Let cook until mushrooms brown, about 10-15, stirring occasionally.

Add herbs, salt, and lemon, tasting and correcting flavours as necessary. You want the filling to be rich, earthy, sweet and salty, but with a burst of bright acidity that cuts through the meatiness.

Prepare bourekas dough for filling

Prepare your phyllo dough. Cover your work surface with parchment paper. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, and oil them slightly. If you haven’t done so yet, melt 1 tablespoon of margarine in a small bowl, and dilute it with 1 teaspoon of water.

Carefully spread out one phyllo sheet on your work surface, covering the rest with a towel so they don’t dry out. With a pastry brush, lightly brush your sheet with the melted margarine and water mixture. Cover it in half lengthwise, and dab lightly with the margarine mixture.

Fill mushroom bourekas

To prepare the bourekas, spoon 1 tablespoon of the mushrooms and onion filling at the right end of the strip. Fold the end of the strip diagonally over the filling to form a neat triangle, pushing in the corners to ensure it's nice and snug around the filling.

Continue folding the strip over on top of itself, keeping it in a neat triangle after each fold, until you reach the strip’s end (take care to fold the triangles tightly around the filling, as phyllo dough without filling tends to dry out and crisp in the oven).

If any errant dough remains at the end of your strip, cut it off. Brush your triangle with the margarine-water mixture, and lay out on the parchment paper-covered cookie sheet.

Repeat as necessary, until you run out of dough or filling. Any remaining filling will taste great piled on toast.

Reheat mushroom bourekas in the oven at 350F for 5 minutes. The microwave will make it soggy.

Adaptations

This mushroom bourekas recipe is already for vegetarian and vegan bourekas.

Gluten-free

Unfortunately, I haven't yet tried making these bourekas gluten-free - but that's coming! In the meantime, you can use my gluten-free samosas dough. Or you can also buy premade gluten free puff pastry and use that.

Paleo, keto and Whole 30

My best suggestion for keto bourekas would be to use something like cheese wraps or daikon slices for raw bourekas.