Brussels sprouts and camembert borek
a beautiful coiled pie to close out 2024.
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Wishing everyone a happy and delicious holiday season. Thanks for hanging with me this year! It’s been such a big year of growth here at To Vegetables, With Love, there are more vegetable lovers than ever before. Let’s keep this community thriving - share with your friends and family. While paid subscribers keep the engine of this newsletter pumping, but there is plenty of free content to keep everyone well fed. This newsletter keeps me very busy but the work is so fulfilling and most of all, I love having this way of sharing good food and new ideas with my community every week. I’ll be taking a short holiday break next week but I’ll see you in 2025. Eat well ❤️
A cookie tornado hit my kitchen this week. Sugar on every surface, sweet bauble decorations rolling into every crevice, rolling pins, cooling racks, sheet pans and parchment paper populating every available surface. It’s a chaos that reigns only once a year in my kitchen.
I kept things simple this year, falling back on old favourites that I knew everyone loved. Here’s 2024 cookie selection:
Hazelnut thumbprints, some filled with Nutella, others with strawberry jam
Pistachio Linzers, filled with huckleberry jam (adapted from Nigella)
Almond cresents (Mandelhörnchen) (from Anja Dunk’s book Advent)
Choc mint sugar cookies
Neopolitan shortbread
Christmas rocky road
Iced sugar cookies
When the cookie boxes were packed, I welcomed the calm with Brussels sprouts. They are my essential Christmas vegetable, a tradition which began when we lived in London, and continued when we moved back home to Sydney (despite it being summer!). While a salad is my go-to with sprouts, today I’ve used them to make a savory, slightly sweet filling for this Turkish style borek, an attractive offering for the holiday table.
This recipe is heavily influenced by the boreks I’ve made from Ozlem Warren’s Sebze, one of my top books of 2024. I’ve borrowed Ozlem’s technique of brushing the pastry with an eggwash instead of butter and only brushing the top sheet of filo used to encase the pastry. It’s a small adjustment which makes the use of filo so much less cumbersome and fussy. The egg wash results in interior pastry layers which are more tender, akin to the tray baked boreks which I adore so much from Güllüoglu Cafe and Bakery in New York’s Brighton Beach.
The coiled pastry looks harder than it is. I actually find it easier than the straight layering. Just make sure you keep your baking dish is close by. Once the logs are rolled, be swift with the pastry to dish transfer. The pastry is delicate so it’s not suitable to leave it sitting around before getting it into the dish. Don’t worry if the pastry splits while you’re rolling it or once it’s in the dish. Brushing with the eggwash will help seal the pastry somewhat and once it’s baked, the splits will ooze with the cheese and it’s actually very lovely. Here’s my reel so you can see how it’s done:
For the filling, I’ve broken out a wheel of camembert, a cheese I rarely cook with (and to be honest, don’t even eat that often). But here, I wanted its subtle buttery creaminess, a gentility that would allow the Brussels sprouts to be the star of the dish. Of course, you can use other cheeses - a nutty gruyere, mellow Brie, earthy fontina, or a slightly punchier taleggio would all work. And let’s be honest, if you subbed in cheddar, no one would complain.
I’ve added a grated pear, which brings a certain holiday je ne sais quoi. It’s not all that discernable in the filling but it adds a hint of sweetness which keeps everyone guessing. I like it, but you could also leave it out if you wanted to stick in the savory space.
An abbreviated cook, eat, share this week because we all might be in recipe overload. Just a few tidbits:
I have a new recipe for those who need to make pavlova for Christmas but who might want a lazier alternative - Eton mess with passionfruit curd and strawberries.
- gathered a group of Substackers - , , to talk about our family holiday traditions. Watch or listen to our wide ranging chat here
I had the most wonderful and poignant conversation recently with Phil Williams and Natalie Jamieson on the podcast BESTSELLERS and though we had never met, I walked away like I’d spent an hour with old friends. Give it a listen here.
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
Brussels sprouts and camembert borek (coiled filo pie)
© Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love.
The egg wash mixture is one I learnt from Ozlem Warren from her book Sebze which is definitely one of my favorites this year. Ozlem says “The milk, egg and olive oil mixture works like a magic to keep the pastry intact while rolling”
I love how the egg wash yields a less crispy, more tender pastry.
Serves 4 - 6
Extra virgin olive oil
1 small leek, thinly sliced and washed well (or sub with 1 small thinly sliced brown/yellow onion)
675g (1.5 pounds) Brussels sprouts, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
10 to 12 sage leaves, thinly sliced
1 bosc pear, core removed and coarsely grated
250g / 8.8-ounces Camembert, cut into chunks
Approximately 6 - 8 sheets filo pastry (mine were 13 x 18 / 127mm x 178mm)
white sesame seeds, for sprinkling
nigella seeds, for sprinkling (optional)
Eggwash
2 tablespoons milk (any variety)
1 egg
1 tablespoon olive oil
Heat a large skillet / frying pan on medium high heat. When hot, add olive oil and the leek and cook, tossing, until they have softened slightly and starting to caramelise, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the Brussels sprouts and garlic, season well with salt and pepper and cook, tossing often (feel free to add more olive oil if it seems dry), until the sprouts have softened, with some charred bits throughout, 5 to 7 minutes. Taste and make sure the sprouts are well seasoned. Turn off the heat and allow to cool.
When cool, add the sage, pear and Camembert to the Brussels sprouts and toss to combine. Taste once again to make sure the seasoning is correct.
In a small bowl, make the egg wash by whisking together the milk, egg, and olive oil until combined.
Line a 9 - 10 inch round baking dish with parchment baking paper (you can use a rectangular dish too, just coil it the same way along the edge). Preheat oven to 200˚C / 400˚F.
Transfer 2 sheets of filo pastry on a work surface (with the long side closest to you) - keep the rest of the pastry covered with a damp tea towel - and brush the top sheet with the eggwash, covering it well. Place some of the filling along the long side closest to you, leaving a 2 inch / 5cm border along the bottom and sides. Taking the pastry closest to you, carefully roll the pastry into a log - the pastry may split but that’s okay. Carefully transfer the pastry log into the prepared dish, coiling it along the side of the dish.
Repeat this step with another 2 sheets of filo pastry, brushing with eggwash, filling, rolling and transferring to the baking dish, joining it with the pastry already in the dish, coiling it along the sides and then working the coil towards the centre. Don’t be too worried about the pastry splitting, it will be fine once it’s baked.
Continue with another 2 sheets of filo, creating a coil to fill the centre. My baking dish fit 3 pastry coils but if yours is bigger, it may fit more, so divide your filling accordingly. Brush the top of the pastry with the eggwash and then sprinkle over the sesame seeds and nigella seeds, if using. Bake until the top is golden, 30 to 35 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes and then cut into wedges and serve
Prep ahead: This can be prepared 2 days ahead and stored in the fridge, tightly wrapped in foil. Reheat for 10 minutes. It can also be frozen and reheated at 180˚C / 350˚F about 20 minutes or until heated through.
Note: This recipe makes a generous amount of filling to accommodate larger baking dishes so you may have a small amount of filling left over. Feel free to make hand pies with the remaining filling and filo.
Veganize: Sub the eggwash with vegan butter and omit the camembert, substituting with a plant-based feta or another dairy free cheese.
Io Vegetables, With Love is dedicated to vegetables and it is a joy to bring you a new recipe every week. Thank you to everyone who subscribes, especially to paid subscribers who make this work possible.
Everyone, I realized that in my original email that the addition of the pear was omitted from the steps. It has been rectified now - it is added with the sage and camembert. Thank you all!
Banger post as always