Banitsa Recipe (Traditional Bulgarian Food) - Happy Foods Tube (2024)

FAQs

What is banitsa made of? ›

Banitsa is prepared by layering a mixture of whisked eggs, plain yogurt, and pieces of white brined cheese between filo pastry and then baking it in an oven. Traditionally in Bulgaria, lucky charms are put into the pastry on certain occasions, particularly on New Year's Eve.

Meshana Skara (Mixed Grill)

The Meshana Skara is the holy grail of Bulgarian food, especially if you love meat. The mixed grill includes the classic kebapche, and other meats like kyufte (meatballs much like the Indian kofta) and skewers of pork meat and a pork steak.

Photo: We have 4 different types of banitsa (typical Bulgarian pastry): - with cheese; - with lentils; - with spinach and cheese; - with ham.

Main courses are very typically water-based stews, either vegetarian or with lamb, goat meat, veal, chicken, or pork. Deep-frying is not common, but grilling—especially of different kinds of sausages—is prominent. Pork is common, often mixed with veal or lamb, although fish and chicken are also widely used.

Banitsa (phyllo pastry with different fillings, the most popular one being white feta cheese) is known in different countries under different names: burek, tyropita, bugatsa, etc (Fig. 1).

Poultry was the most consumed meat type in Bulgaria. In 2022, Bulgarians consumed an average of 12.3 kilograms of poultry meat per capita. Pork ranked second with 12.2 kilograms consumed per person.

Life in Bulgaria is quite affordable and much cheaper in comparison to Western Europe.

Bulgarians call their Bulgarian-style Feta 'Sirene', which means simply 'a cheese', it is still correct, in English, to call it 'Bulgarian Feta' even though it is a different subtype of Feta than the Greek one. The cheese has several different variations, depending on the milk used.

What is a traditional Bulgarian breakfast? ›

Banitsa. BULGARIA. M.B. Banitsa is a traditional Bulgarian dish made by layering sheets of buttered phyllo pastry with a mixture of eggs, yogurt, and white cheeses like sirene and feta for the simple and classic version of banitsa.

What is this? In Bulgaria, Banitsa is commonly made on Christmas and New Year's Eve with good luck charms (kusmeti). The charms may be small pieces of dogwood branches with a certain number of buds, coins, or handwritten fortunes wrapped in foil.

Food and Drinks

As eating out is not expensive in Bulgaria, you won't have to budget much for this part of your trip. A meal for two at a mid-range restaurant with desserts and a bottle of wine will cost between $20-50. A simple meal with a beer might even be less than $15.

мляко nt. the milk of human kindness. състрадание nt.

Aleksandar Taralezhkov teaches us how to make and amazing filo pie from scratch! This recipe happens to have a vegetarian filling and vegan pastry. You can use pre-bought filo pastry as well.

Bulgarian cheese tastes like feta, except a little softer and creamier. Feta cheese is sharper, firmer, and more crumbly. Bulgarian cheese also has another taste that is hard to describe, it's almost earthy.

Originally it was made with sheeps milk, but today much of it is made from cows milk. You should take note that none of these Bulgarian packages of this style cheese pictured here contain the words 'Feta'. They simply say 'Bulgarian White Cheese' but not much at all has changed in this age old process.

How to make banitsa. Mix crumbled Feta cheese, with yogurt, eggs and baking soda. Lay a sheet of filo pastry on your worktop, spoon some of the filling over (you can spread it slightly) and roll. This is then rolled into a snail like shape and placed in a greased oven-proof dish.