Sigara Boregi (Crispy Cheese Rolls)
Shatteringly crisp cigar-shaped rolls of thin yufka pastry wrapped around a feta and parsley filling — the appetiser that disappears from Turkish tables in minutes.
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Ingredients
26 triangle yufka sheets (2 x 360 g packs)
300 g Turkish white cheese, drained and crumbled
1 bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
A few sprigs of fresh dill, chopped (optional)
1 egg yolk, to bind the filling
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp plain flour mixed with 2 tbsp water, for sealing
500 ml sunflower oil, for frying
Pinch of pul biber, to serve (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Mash the drained white cheese with the parsley, dill, egg yolk and black pepper into a rough paste.
- 2
Lay a yufka triangle on the worktop with the wide edge facing you and place a heaped teaspoon of filling along that edge.
- 3
Fold the two side corners inward over the filling, then roll up tightly toward the point like a cigar.
- 4
Dab the tip with the flour-and-water paste and press to seal; repeat with the remaining triangles.
- 5
Heat the sunflower oil in a deep frying pan to about 170C — a scrap of yufka should sizzle instantly but not brown in seconds.
- 6
Fry the rolls in batches, turning once, for 2-3 minutes until evenly deep golden; do not crowd the pan.
- 7
Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot, sprinkled with pul biber if you like.
Sigara boregi, literally cigarette borek, is the recipe every Turkish cook learns first. Triangles of paper-thin yufka are rolled tightly around a simple white cheese and parsley filling, then fried until deep golden and audibly crisp. They belong on the breakfast table, next to afternoon tea, and at the start of every family feast.
Ready-cut triangle phyllo makes this genuinely easy in the UK — no cutting, no waste. Two tips make all the difference: squeeze excess brine from the cheese so the rolls stay crisp, and seal the tip with a little flour-and-water paste so nothing bursts open in the hot oil. Rolled boregi also freeze brilliantly; fry them straight from frozen, adding a minute to the cooking time.
Pick up triangle yufka, Turkish white cheese and fresh parsley from Turkish Online Market and you are fifteen minutes away from a plate of crackling, golden rolls. Serve hot with cold ayran or a tulip glass of black tea.
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