Savory Pastry Fillings

Using in-season ingredients is an important part of how Macedonians cook. Savory pastries are made year-round with sirenje (cheese) or meso (meat) fillings, but we typically use pras (leek) and tikva (pumpkin) in the fall, and spanak (spinach) and kisela zelka (sauerkraut) in the winter. These fillings can all be used for any of the savory pastry dishes. Each filling recipe is enough for one Bourek (Filled Pastry), Banitsa (Filled Coiled Pastry), or Lesna Banitsa (Easy Filled Coiled Pastry). I recommend trying them all.