Recipes: Banitsa with Yova

During my first year of uni at Edinburgh, I somehow ended up meeting and hanging out with a lot of Bulgarians. I would go to Bulgarian parties and that is how I met Yova. I lived with her for a year and I remember her mom sending her packages with typical Bulgarian produce with which she would make traditional dishes. One of them was banitsa. Its super simple to make and super yummy!. Its great as a side, snack, or as something to bring to potluck. After almost 4 years of eating banitsa, I finally managed to have Yova teach me how to make it! So here it is! 

Note: This is the most simple version of banitsa. Apparently you can add pretty much whatever you like into the filling, for example spinach, minced meat, or leeks!

Ingredients

- 300 grams feta, crumbled

- 3 eggs

- 250 grams plain yogurt 

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 125 grams butter, melted

- 1 pack of phyllo dough 

Instructions

Preheat over to 180 C. Mix eggs with crumbled feta. Add the yogurt, baking soda, and melted butter to the mixture and mix well. Butter a large pan. Take a few sheets of phyllo dough and spread some of the feta mixture all over the dough. Roll it up. Arrange in a spiral in the buttered pan. Repeat the previous step and continue arrange the rolls around the first spiral. Continue until you've run out of filling. Place in oven and bake for 45 minutes. Slice it in squares and serve!