Bulgarian Banitsa Cheese Pie

Banitsa is a traditional Bulgarian cheese pie, made out of feta cheese, yogurt, and cheese. In Bulgaria, it's served for breakfast with some yogurt or a fermented beverage called Boza.

This dish can be prepared in many different configurations: a lasagne-style layered pie, multiple small snail-shaped pies, or one large spiral pie - in this Instructable, we are going to make the latter variant.

As feta cheese is very salty and thus not very healthy, I decided to bring a healthier twist to the traditional recipe. Some of the feta will be replaced with cream cheese, and zucchini will be added to the filling for a more balanced taste (in Bulgaria, spinach is also often included in the recipe).

So without any further ado, let's get started!

3 eggs

1 zucchini

2 onions

16 oz of filo dough

4 Tbsp of chopped dill

2/3 cup of feta cheese

2/3 cup of cream cheese

1/2 cup of natural yogurt

5 Tbsp of melted butter

Salt and pepper

Chop the onion into small pieces.

Grate the zuccini.

In a pot, heat up the olive oil. Add the chopped-up onions and fry until they start to turn golden and emit a caramel-like aroma.

I also added some chopped-up bell pepper for additional color.

Then, add the grated zucchini and fry until everything is soft. As zucchinis are very watery, this stage also helps to bring down the fluidity of the mixture.

Season with salt and pepper and leave to cool.

In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the scrambled feta cheese, the cream cheese, the yogurt, and the chopped dill.

Finally, add the fried vegetables from step 3.

Place a sheet of cooking paper in an oven-proof tray. Alternatively, you could cover the tray with oil.

Filo is a very thin pastry, that can be found in grocery stores usually in frozen form. Let the filo warm up in a refrigerator for at least two hours before using it.

Flatten out the filo sheets, and brush the top one with some melted butter, to avoid it drying out and becoming brittle.

Spoon some filling on the filo sheet and roll it up. As filo is very fragile, you have to be very careful during this step. You could also use two sheets per roll to make life easier.

Curl up the roll and place it in the center of the oven dish. Repeat this process until you have one giant spiral.

To get a nice golden Banitsa, brush some melted butter on top of the dish - you could also slice up the butter and place the pieces on top.

Cook for 30 minutes at 392°F.

Remove from oven and serve right away. If you can't manage the whole dish in one mealtime, don't worry - Banitsa is also delicious when cold! :)

Enjoy!