Burek refers to a family of Ottoman pastries made with a thin flaky dough like filo or yukfa dough. It’s typically filled with meat, cheese, potatoes, and leafy vegetables like spinach. It comes in many forms and is widely consumed throughout the Balkans, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, the Levant, and in some parts of Eastern and Central Europe.
In the Balkans, burek goes by many names. Bosnian burek is referred to as pita and is perhaps one of the most well-known versions of burek in the Balkans. It’s filled with meat and rolled in spiral form before being cut into sections for serving. It can also be filled with other ingredients like cottage cheese (sirnica), spinach and cheese (zeljanica), and potatoes (krompiruša).
In Romania, burek is known as plăcintă. In Bulgaria, it’s called banitsawhile in Armenia, it’s referred to as boereg or byorek. Armenian boeregis made with phyllo dough that’s folded into triangles and filled with cheese, spinach, or ground beef.
Burek is known as boureki in Greece and börek or böreği in Turkey, where the dish may have originated from.
