There are many variations of börek in Turkey. These baked or fried filo pastry dishes come in different shapes and fillings. Sigara börek has a long shape like a cigar and is normally filled with cheese and herbs. Mostly it's deep fried and fatty stuff.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. I'm thinking about heating the oven up to 250 degrees to get my börek something darker next time. This time they were a little bit too pale for my taste.

Get 250 g of best quality feta cheese. Turkish groceries normally have the best you can get. Vegan feta is available in the most supermarkets now. I personally recommend the Greek White from Violife Foods the most.

Cut & squeeze the feta in a big bowl, where you can mix the complete filling for your börek.

Wash a handful of spinach. I usually take young spinach salad.

Cut the spinach well and add it to the bowl.

Cut one red hot chili pepper into small pieces. If you don't like it too hot, get rid of the inside stuff of the chili. Add it to the bowl.

Take 5 g of parsley, get rid of the stems and cut it fine. Take 10 g of mint and do the same. Add your herbs to the bowl.

Season your filling with few salt, because the feta is already salty, some pepper and a das of quality olive oil.

Mix everything well and put the bowl aside, but still in reach.

Turkish groceries normally offer a good choice of filo pastry for börek. This one is what you need for sigara börek. This 360 g package is enough for over 20 sigara böreks, but I handle it a little bit differently.

Normally I is planned to take one filo leaf for one börek. But this börek is very delicate and is very like to break while handling it, so I take 2 or even three filo leaves for one börek to get it solid. 

Please wet your filo pastry leaf a bit, because it is supposed to stick together well when it's rolled up. 

For the filling of one börek pastry leaf take one good table spoon and spread it in line. 

Carefully roll up the filo pastry leaf. The ends must be wet. 

Press the ends flat with your finger and fold up the edges. 

Place your sigara börek on an oven tray with baking paper. Put them in the oven for 20 minutes. When the pastry rolls are slightly brown, they are ready.

If I had more space on the tray, the whole ingredients of this recipe would have made 12 rolls in total. 

Normally, sigara börek are pan fried or even deep fried in much oil. I prefer it less greasy.

After baking, leave the börek cool down for 10 minutes. Otherwise they are too hot to handle and eat. 

Serve them in a flat bowl or plate and garnish them with herbs or red onions like I did. You may offer some dips with it like cacik aka tzatziki or some hot sauce or hummus. Enjoy!

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