Borek cigars with feta and herbs

These crispy börek cigars are one of my favourite little bites to make when friends come over. It simple, fragrant, and always gone in minutes.

I stuff them with creamy feta, lots of flat-leaf parsley, spring onions, and a good sprinkle of za’atar, then roll them tightly in filo before frying them gently in vegetable oil until golden and flaky. The magic, though, is in the dipping sauce, tangy yogurt with lemon and more za’atar. It’s fresh, zesty, and just the right contrast to the salty filling. By the way that lovely plate comes from Big Mamma, they are now selling them!

Preparation for Börek cigars with feta and herbs

Wash the parsley and spring onions, then dry them and roughly chop them up together.

Put the feta in the bowl and crumble it with your fingers, then add the 2 eggs and the chopped up herbs. Sprinkle the za’atar and add some pepper. (no salt the feta covers that)

Mix it all with a wooden spoon.

Lay out your pastry. (I bought it ready to roll)

Put a large spoonful of your mixture on the pastry like shown on the photo. Then close the pastry on both sides and roll. To make the end stick, all you need is to dip in a glass of water.

When you have finished all of them, heat up the vegetable oil at medium heat in a frying pan.

Cook them on all sides, do them in batches to make sure they don’t touch. Keep an eye on them and when they are crispy and golden all around, take each one out and place it on some kitchen paper to get rid of the excess oil.

Preparation for sauce to accompany the Börek cigars

For the sauce:
300 gr of plain yogurt
1 tablespoon of creamy goat cheese
1 big teaspoon of lemon zest
2 teaspoons of za’atar
a pinch of black garlic salt ( I use the one from Umami called Salle all’aglio nero’)

In a serving bowl, mix up the yogurt, the goat cheese, the lemon zest, some of the za’atar and a pinch of ‘sale all’aglio nero’. Once it is well mixed, add the rest of the za’atar on the top for presentation purposes.