Yufka Dough and Leftover Turkey Strudel

A simple yufka dough and leftover turkey strudel served with a simple tomato sauce. And information on working with yufka and filo pastry.

A nice and crispy vegetable strudel with leftover turkey or chicken, this makes a wonderful dish for serving any guests; you can be sure they will love it and will be impressed by its look and texture.

I love cooking with Turkish pastry leaves or filo pastry lately. I avoided it for a long time after a bad experience at the beginning of my “cooking career” many years ago and discovered it again only recently. And especially during the last year or so, I really have been baking with it quite a lot.

Sweet or savory, it doesn't matter; everything I used it for turned out great. Have a look at this wonderful Spinach Feta Pie with Yogurt, this Savory Cheese Pie with Quark, Feta and Yogurt, or this Skinny Pumpkin Cinnamon Pie.

What is the difference between yufka dough and filo?

Well, they are both used in Mediterranean cooking; judging by the name, I suppose that filo is more Greek, while yufka is definitely the Turkish version.

Filo pastry sheets are also thinner than the yufka pastry sheets, which can make them a tad more tricky to work with. Well, it is actually really not hard to work with it; you just have to layer a bit more sheets of it to get a sturdier baked good and keep the sheets covered with a damp towel while you work to prevent them from drying out too fast. When working with filo, I usually use about three pastry sheets for one layer.

Filo pastry sheets are usually to be found frozen and are used for making walnut and syrup pie - Baklava or Greek spinach feta pie – Spanakopita, for instance.

Yufka pastry sheets, on the other hand, are a bit sturdier/rougher, that making it a bit easier to work it. I have never really had to cover them with a damp towel, I am quite quick when brushing them with oil or melted butter and layering the sheets, and I have never had an issue with dry pastry sheets.

They come either in very large sheets folded into packets or precut into triangles for making cigarillo börek, for instance. I prefer to buy large sheets so that I can use them not only for rolled börek but also for regular börek or any other kind of pie. You can normally find them fresh in the refrigerator section of the supermarket.

Unlike filo pastry, yufka pastry sheets can be used as single sheets when baking, but I still prefer to layer at least two sheets when making something.

How to use yufka or filo pastry?

1. If the filo pastry is frozen, defrost it in the refrigerator, preferably overnight. Yufka is usually sold fresh, so there will be no need to defrost it.
2. Prepare the filling before even opening the packet of filo or yufka pastry. If you keep it open, the sheets of pastry will dry out.
3. Unroll only one sheet of pastry at a time and keep the other ones covered with a damp (but not wet) kitchen towel. Some of the sheets might break, especially there where they have been folded. It doesn't matter; just place them together when brushing them with fat, and you will not notice it at all in the end.
4. Work very quickly when brushing the sheets with oil or melted butter. I use a silicon pastry brush.
5. Roll or fold the pastry according to the recipe, and don't forget to brush the upper layer with melted butter or oil as well.
6. Bake according to the recipe you are following or until the baked goods are golden and crispy.

Ingredients for the strudel

Pastry:

• I normally use yufka pastry sheets when making this vegetable strudel recipe or any savory or sweet pies. We have a large Turkish community living in Germany and, luckily, quite a few Turkish shops in our area as well. So yufka is very easily available.
• The only trouble with yufka is that it normally comes in very large packets, and trust me, 400 g/ 14 oz of yufka pastry sheets can be quite a lot if you only need a few sheets (which are very large) for a recipe. And the last time I bought it, I didn't really have a proper look and actually bought an 800 g/ 28 oz packet.
• We had so many pies and rolled them in a very short period of time. 🙂 I was a bit worried that the sheets would dry out or go bad, so I took special care to repack the packet very carefully every time I used some of the sheets, and it was OK; I think I needed about 2 weeks to finish the packet, and the pastry was still perfectly OK.

Leftover turkey:

• I made these rolls using leftover turkey from the Roasted Turkey Drumsticks, so this would be a great way of using some of that leftover turkey from your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
• However, if you don't have any turkey leftovers, feel free to buy some fresh turkey cutlets, slice them, and fry them in a bit of olive oil before giving them to the filling.
• And if the turkey is not available, you can make a perfectly delicious vegetable strudel using cooked chicken breast or thigh meat.

Brushing mixture:

• I didn't use only oil to brush the layers of pastry, but a mixture of oil, egg, and yogurt. If using yufka pastry, brush each layer of dough with this mixture.
• If using filo pastry, layer two sheets of filo, brush with the mixture, top with two more sheets of filo, brush again and repeat one more time. Place a last single layer of filo on top and spread the filling on it. Roll the pastry.

How to serve?

• The recipe makes two large rolls, about 30-35 cm/ 12-14 inches long.
• The vegetable strudel with turkey or chicken can be served hot or warm with tomato sauce or even cold as a snack.
• As a side dish, you can have a nice salad with yogurt dressing or vinaigrette.