5-Ingredient Simple Vegan Baklava
I know that I’m biased to say this, but my mum makes the best baklava. Honestly, I’ve never had one that’s better than hers! Other’s are either super dry, flakey, have the wrong flavours, have no taste, or are too sweet. I know that I’m onto a winner here with this five-ingredient vegan baklava with minimal ingredients and maximum flavour.
You can make it with different nuts, but the one that I have grown up eating was only with walnuts. This is the traditional Greek way of making it.
Baklava typically uses butter and honey/raw sugar as the sweetener. I decided to give it a go with macadamia oil and coconut sugar instead, and it was perfect.
A healthier version of the traditional baklava
I also chose to reduce the amount of sugar that is used in most recipes, as I find it to be too sickly sweet. You want the sweetener to accompany and enhance the flavours, not overpower them. I’ve heard they use up to 1 kilo for one tray of baklava. Now that’s a bit of a sugar overdose!
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Using macadamia oil and coconut sugar helps to make this treat a little bit healthier and vegan-friendly. It’s loaded with calories but nowhere near as much. I’ll have to admit that I can easily eat a little more than I care to admit. It’s SO easy to lose count!
My mum was by my side when I was making this, so I made sure that I got every step right. It was a pleasant bonding experience for us.
I’ve been enjoying taking recipes from my childhood that have been vegetarian and transitioning them to a tastier, healthier, and vegan version of the same dish and not compromising flavour.
How to make vegan baklava?
Here are the steps through photos so you can see what it should look like.
The images below are of what the layering of the walnuts should look like as you are building the pastry and walnut layers, and then what it should look like once it’s finished baking straight out of the oven.
The following demonstrates how the phyllo should be cut while it’s still hot and how it looks when you have poured the syrup over it and placed the cut lemon slices.
A few tips for making this vegan baklava recipe
- Make sure when you’re cutting the phyllo that you gently hold down the top layer as it may start to lift a little. Just press firmly with a sharp knife and keep cutting.
- Don’t use too much oil to coat each layer as it will become too soggy. On that note, also make sure to make the exact amount of the syrup as it will be too dry if there isn’t enough, or swimming in syrup if you use too much.
- If you don’t have enough walnuts, you can use almonds as well. I wouldn’t substitute completely as you won’t get the same amazing flavours.
- You can use melted vegan butter instead of the macadamia oil if you don’t have that oil on hand. The results will still be great. After all, the traditional baklava recipes all use butter.
Other sweets you’ll love:
- Vegan Semolina Cake with Lemon Syrup
- Easy Vegan Apple Burek (Posna Pita Sa Jabukama)
- Vegan Tufahije Recipe (Bosnian Walnut Stuffed Poached Apples)
- Easy Vegan Tiramisu (Gluten-Free)
- Vegan Kremลกnita (Vanilla Custard & Cream Cake)
- Vegan Cherry Strudel with Cream Cheese
If you try this recipe, let me know! Would love for you to leave a comment and rating below. If you want to go that extra mile, tag us onย Instagramย or share your photo of the recipe onย Pinterest.ย
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Simple Vegan Baklava
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: Makes 25 pieces
Description
This vegan baklava is nutty, light but dense, and full of flavour. Super simple to make and with only 5 ingredients, you’ll be wondering why you haven’t made it sooner!
Ingredients
- 4 cups / 480g walnuts
- 1 cup / 250ml macadamia oil (or other neutral oil)
- 375g / 13.22 ounces phyllo pastry (filo)
- 2 cups / 320g coconut sugar
- 2 cups / 500ml water
- 1 lemon, cut into thin slices
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius (355 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Oil the bottom of a baking dish around 23cm x 33cm / 9.05 inches x 12.99 inches.
- Start off with blending half the walnuts in your food processor using an S blade and blend until it almost turns into a walnut meal. Add in the other half of the walnuts and pulse until you have some smaller chunks of walnuts left. I like to have some chunkier bits in here to have a more textured baklava.
- Place 2 sheets of the phyllo on the bottom of the baking dish, leaving the sides to hang out of the dish a little.
- Using an oil brush, oil the phyllo pastry and sprinkle evenly with 1ยฝ tablespoons of walnuts. Make sure to also get some in the corners.
- Fold one sheet of the phyllo in half and place on top. Coat this layer with macadamia oil.
- Continue this process of layering until you have run out of walnuts. You may have one sheet of phyllo left over at the end.
- To finish it off, top with 2 phyllo sheets and tuck and overlap the phyllo on the sides. Coat with macadamia oil and place in the oven.
- Bake for 50 minutes until the top of the phyllo becomes golden brown (as pictured in the image above).
- While the baklava is baking, place the coconut sugar and water in a saucepan and stir over a low-medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a gentle simmer for 7-10 minutes. You can cook it for longer if you want a thicker sauce. Make sure you don’t reduce it too much as you will need it to seep into the pastry.
- Once the pastry is done, cut it into diamond shapes (as pictured in the image above) while it’s still hot. Pour ยพ of the syrup over the baklava aiming to get it in between the cut sections.
- Place the slices of lemon on top and pour the rest of the syrup over.
- Set aside to cool completely before serving.
- You can eat the lemon if you wish but it’s more there for that extra flavour whilst it cools and it looks pretty!
- Diet: Vegan
Hello,
This recipe was so lovely. I love baklava but didn’t expect to find a vegan version- and only 5 ingredients is a bonus. I agree that it’s even a little healthier than the normal one! I just wanted to let you know that I’ve added it into my list of the easiest vegan dessert recipes.
This is the link if you want to check it out.
https://www.happierwithtea.com/index.php/2020/05/05/easy-vegan-dessert-recipes/
Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Any subsitute ideas for the oil? Im not a oil fan
Hmmm…I don’t think so. You need it to help keep the filo pastry soft. Either that or vegan butter. Sorry ๐
Trying the baklava for the first time.
I am 68 year old that loves trying your recipes as my son and daughter in law are trying out the vegan life. Me too!
Any helpful tips are welcome. It will be a fun weekend of cooking.
Oh have a wonderful time Jane! Thanks for sharing ๐ My number one tip is, have fun! ๐
Why not olive oil?
You can try olive oil but I personally don’t use it in desserts and find that the baklava will probably taste like olive oil. If you do try it, let me know how you go!
hi!! can i just ask why you used macadamia oil instead of coconut oil? does it work better for this recipe?? thanks ๐
Hi Emily!
The reason I’ve used macadamia is because it has a neutral taste and smell. Coconut oil will be a little overpowering for a more traditional baklava. Also, with coconut oil if you put the baklava in the fridge it will go hard and change the consistency of it. Hope that helps!
Thanks ๐