Börek vs. Spanakopita: What's the Difference?

The short version of börek vs. spanakopita is dough and scope. Börek is a whole Turkish family of pastries built on yufka, a thin but pliable wheat sheet, with fillings from white cheese to ground meat. Spanakopita is one Greek dish: spinach and feta baked in tissue-thin phyllo. Börek tends soft, spanakopita tends crisp.

Key Takeaways

• Börek is a category, not a dish. Fillings run from beyaz peynir and parsley to spiced ground beef, potato and spinach.
• Yufka is thicker and more pliable than phyllo. Phyllo is tissue-thin, dry and brittle when raw, and it shatters when baked.
• Su böreği boils its sheets before layering. No spanakopita does that, which makes it the most distinctive technique in the Turkish family.
• The fat is applied differently. Börek is soaked with a mixture of oil, milk and egg; spanakopita is brushed sheet by sheet with butter or olive oil.
• Feta is legally defined and beyaz peynir is not. Feta must be at least 70 percent sheep's milk under its PDO rules, while beyaz peynir is commonly cow's milk or a blend.

Cut into a tray of su böreği and the knife meets almost nothing. The layers are soft and damp, closer to baked pasta than to pastry. Cut into a spanakopita and the top sheets crack, shed flakes across the counter, and the square makes an audible noise on the way to the plate.

Same idea, opposite sound.

Both are savory pies of stacked dough baked in a tray, and both come out of the same eastern Mediterranean and Balkan tradition. The pita and börek family runs from Greece through Turkey and up into Bosnia and Serbia. Cooks in that region have been trading techniques across borders for a very long time, in every direction.

This piece covers what actually separates the two: the dough, the fat, the filling, the shape and the cheese, plus what happens when you build one with the other's dough. For the wider family, our guide to the shapes and styles of Turkish börek is the place to start, and the sheets themselves are covered in our yufka and filo dough guide.

Are Börek and Spanakopita the Same Dish?

No, and the matchup is slightly unfair from the start. Börek is a category. Spanakopita is a dish.

Börek covers dozens of Turkish pastries built from stacked or rolled yufka. The filling might be white cheese, spiced ground meat, potato or spinach. The shape might be a coil, a fried cigar or a full tray of flat layers. Spanakopita names one specific thing: spinach and feta in phyllo, seasoned with herbs.

So the honest comparison is not börek against spanakopita. It is ıspanaklı börek (spinach börek) against spanakopita — one member of a large Turkish family against its Greek counterpart. Everything below works from that pairing.

Which One Came First?

Nobody can answer that in good faith. Layered savory pastry is older than the borders it now sits inside, and recipes moved with people rather than with flags. Neither dish is a copy of the other. They are cousins, and the family reunion has been going on for centuries.

What Is the Difference Between Yufka and Phyllo?

This is the real dividing line. Almost everything else follows from it.

Yufka is a large round wheat sheet, traditionally rolled out with a long thin pin called an oklava. It is thin, but you cannot read a newspaper through it. It stays supple enough to fold, roll and coil without cracking, and it has some chew to it. Turkish grocers sell it fresh or semi-fresh in plastic, meant to be used within days, and frozen packs are common too.

Phyllo, or filo, is thinner again. Machine-rolled sheets run to a fraction of a millimeter. They are dry to the touch, brittle when raw, and they tear if you handle them impatiently. That fragility is the whole point. Dozens of near-weightless layers, each one separated by fat, bake into something that comes apart into flakes.

Yufka bakes into distinct soft layers. Phyllo bakes into shards.

Why Does Su Böreği Boil Its Dough?

Su böreği (water börek) is the technique with no Greek equivalent. The yufka sheets go into boiling salted water for under a minute, then into cold water, then onto a towel, then into the buttered tray. Nothing in the spanakopita method resembles this.

Boiling gelatinizes the starch and relaxes the dough completely. The finished pie is soft, dense and unmistakably layered, which is why people reach for lasagne as the comparison. Our step-by-step su böreği recipe covers the timing, which is the part that goes wrong. Try the same trick with phyllo and you will get soup.

How Does the Fat Change the Texture?

The second difference is what goes between the sheets.

Börek is wetted, not merely greased. Most recipes use a slurry of oil, milk and egg, sometimes with yogurt, occasionally called a terbiye. It gets ladled or poured over each layer, and it soaks in. The sheets absorb liquid and stay tender, and some of the mixture sets into a thin savory custard between them.

Spanakopita is brushed. Melted butter or olive oil goes on sheet by sheet in a thin film. Fat repels water, so it keeps the layers from fusing together. Water in the dough turns to steam, pushes the sheets apart, and leaves air where the steam was.

That is why one comes out soft and the other comes out crisp. Same oven, opposite goals.

Building either one at home: yufka sheets and ready-made börek live in our Frozen Food collection, and the beyaz peynir or feta the filling needs is in Dairy.

What Goes Inside Each One?

Spanakopita is defined by its filling. Spinach and feta, with herbs — most often dill and scallion, sometimes leek — plus olive oil and black pepper. Some cooks bind it with rice or egg. Change the vegetable and you change the name: a leek version is prasopita, not spanakopita.

Börek has no such rule. The common fillings:

• Peynirli. Crumbled beyaz peynir (Turkish white cheese) with flat-leaf parsley. This is the default, and it is what goes into most fried böreks.
• Kıymalı. Ground beef or lamb cooked down with onion, green pepper and often a little pul biber.
• Patatesli. Mashed potato with softened onion, black pepper and sometimes dried mint.
• Ispanaklı. Spinach, usually with white cheese and onion. This is the direct counterpart of spanakopita.
• Nothing much at all. Su böreği often carries only cheese and parsley, because the dough is the event.

Spinach, in other words, is one filling among many on the Turkish side and the entire identity of the dish on the Greek side.

Is Beyaz Peynir the Same as Feta?

Close, but not identical. Both are white cheeses ripened in brine, and they behave much the same inside a pie. The legal difference is real: feta holds PDO status, must be made in defined regions of Greece, and must be at least 70 percent sheep's milk with the remainder goat. Beyaz peynir has no such requirement and is commonly cow's milk or a blend, which usually reads as milder.

They substitute for each other well. Saltiness varies more by brand than by country, and a soak in cold water for twenty minutes calms a pack that is too aggressive. Our side-by-side on beyaz peynir and feta goes through the milk and texture differences properly. Kaşar, the yellow melting cheese, turns up in plenty of böreks; it has no business in a spanakopita.

What Shapes Does Each One Take?

Börek is defined as much by its shape as by its filling, and the names tell you what you are getting.

• Kol böreği. A filled rope of yufka, coiled into a spiral or laid across the tray in an S.
• Sigara böreği. Thin cigars rolled from triangles of yufka and usually fried. Our sigara böreği cheese rolls recipe is the standard meze version.
• Gül böreği. Filled ropes wound tight into individual rosettes, which is where the name comes from — gül means rose.
• Tepsi böreği. Flat layers built in a tray and cut into squares after baking. This is the shape closest to spanakopita.

Spanakopita keeps things simpler. Most often it is a tray-baked slab, cut into squares or diamonds once it has settled. The other common form is the individual triangle, spanakopitakia, folded flag-style from a long strip of phyllo. Deep-fried spanakopita is not really a thing. Deep-fried börek very much is.

Can You Make Börek with Phyllo, or Spanakopita with Yufka?

Yes to both, with adjustments. This is the most useful thing in the article, because it decides what you cook this weekend.

Yufka is sold at Turkish and Middle Eastern grocers, fresh in the refrigerated case and often frozen as well. Phyllo sits in the freezer aisle of most American supermarkets. If the choice is between driving across town and using what is already in your freezer, use what is in your freezer.

Börek Built on Phyllo

It works, and it comes out crisper and more fragile than the original. Compensate in two ways. Use more sheets than the recipe calls for, since each one is much thinner than a sheet of yufka. Then be generous with the milk and egg mixture, and let the assembled tray sit for ten or fifteen minutes before it goes in the oven so the liquid can soak through. Keep the stack under a damp towel while you work. One exception: do not attempt su böreği this way, because boiled phyllo simply disintegrates.

Spanakopita Built on Yufka

Also fine, and noticeably sturdier. Yufka gives you a chewier, breadier pie that holds together in the hand. That is an advantage for a picnic and a disadvantage if the shatter was the point. Brush each sheet with butter or olive oil as usual, and use fewer sheets than the recipe lists. Trim the rounds to fit a rectangular pan, or overlap them and fold the overhang back in.

One rule covers both doughs: keep the sheets covered while you assemble. Uncovered yufka dries out and cracks. Uncovered phyllo turns into confetti.

Everything a tray of either one needs: the dough, the cheese and the pantry staples are stocked across our Bakery collection and the wider Turkish groceries online range.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is spanakopita the Greek version of börek?

Not exactly. Spanakopita is a single dish, while börek is a whole family of Turkish pastries with many fillings and shapes. The closer match is ıspanaklı börek, the Turkish spinach börek, which uses the same spinach-and-white-cheese idea on yufka rather than phyllo. Both belong to the same layered-pastry tradition that runs across Turkey, Greece and the Balkans.

Can I use phyllo dough instead of yufka to make börek?

Yes. The result is crisper and more fragile than börek made with yufka, because phyllo sheets are much thinner. Use more layers than the recipe specifies, be generous with the oil, milk and egg mixture, and let the assembled tray rest for ten minutes before baking so the liquid soaks in. Skip su böreği, which depends on boiled sheets.

What is the difference between yufka and phyllo?

Yufka is a thicker, more pliable Turkish wheat sheet that you can fold and roll without cracking, and it is sold fresh as well as frozen. Phyllo is machine-rolled to a fraction of a millimeter, dry and brittle when raw. Yufka bakes into soft distinct layers, while phyllo bakes into flakes that shatter under a fork.

Is beyaz peynir a good substitute for feta in spanakopita?

Yes. Both are brined white cheeses, and they crumble and soften the same way inside a baked pie. Beyaz peynir is often made from cow's milk and tends to taste milder, while feta must be at least 70 percent sheep's milk under its PDO rules. If either one tastes too salty, soak it in cold water for twenty minutes first.

Which is crispier, börek or spanakopita?

Spanakopita, in almost every case. It is built on tissue-thin phyllo brushed with butter or olive oil, which keeps the layers separate so they crisp and flake apart. Börek is usually soaked with a mixture of oil, milk and egg that keeps the yufka tender. Fried böreks are the exception, and those are genuinely crunchy.

Where can I buy yufka in the United States?

Turkish and Middle Eastern grocers carry it, usually fresh in the refrigerated case, and online Turkish grocers often stock it frozen. Phyllo is easier to track down, since most American supermarkets keep it in the freezer aisle near the puff pastry and pie crusts. Both doughs freeze well and should be thawed slowly in the refrigerator.