diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 2a5b81bb..7c999fde 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -3479,6 +3479,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "indicatif",
  "insta",
  "itertools 0.13.0",
+ "lazy_static",
  "marked-yaml",
  "memchr",
  "memmap2 0.9.5",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 94cbbc3b..c6d4797c 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -141,6 +141,7 @@ rattler_shell = { version = "0.22.4", default-features = false, features = ["sys
 rattler_solve = { version = "1.1.0", default-features = false, features = ["resolvo", "serde"] }
 rattler_virtual_packages = { version = "1.1.7", default-features = false }
 rattler_package_streaming = { version = "0.22.10", default-features = false }
+lazy_static = "1.5.0"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 insta = { version = "1.40.0", features = ["yaml"] }
diff --git a/src/recipe/jinja.rs b/src/recipe/jinja.rs
index b4ba4481..df84a633 100644
--- a/src/recipe/jinja.rs
+++ b/src/recipe/jinja.rs
@@ -366,6 +366,16 @@ fn parse_platform(platform: &str) -> Result<Platform, minijinja::Error> {
     })
 }
 
+lazy_static::lazy_static! {
+    /// The syntax config for MiniJinja / rattler-build
+    pub static ref SYNTAX_CONFIG: SyntaxConfig = SyntaxConfig::builder()
+        .block_delimiters("{%", "%}")
+        .variable_delimiters("${{", "}}")
+        .comment_delimiters("#{{", "}}")
+        .build()
+        .unwrap();
+}
+
 fn set_jinja(config: &SelectorConfig) -> minijinja::Environment<'static> {
     let SelectorConfig {
         target_platform,
@@ -382,14 +392,7 @@ fn set_jinja(config: &SelectorConfig) -> minijinja::Environment<'static> {
     default_filters(&mut env);
 
     // Ok to unwrap here because we know that the syntax is valid
-    env.set_syntax(
-        SyntaxConfig::builder()
-            .block_delimiters("{%", "%}")
-            .variable_delimiters("${{", "}}")
-            .comment_delimiters("#{{", "}}")
-            .build()
-            .unwrap(),
-    );
+    env.set_syntax(SYNTAX_CONFIG.clone());
 
     let variant = Arc::new(variant.clone());
 
diff --git a/src/used_variables.rs b/src/used_variables.rs
index 4672bbfe..2c8ad113 100644
--- a/src/used_variables.rs
+++ b/src/used_variables.rs
@@ -12,16 +12,14 @@
 use std::collections::{HashSet, VecDeque};
 
 use marked_yaml::Span;
-use minijinja::{
-    machinery::{
-        ast::{self, Expr, Stmt},
-        WhitespaceConfig,
-    },
-    syntax::SyntaxConfig,
+use minijinja::machinery::{
+    ast::{self, Expr, Stmt},
+    parse_expr, WhitespaceConfig,
 };
 
 use crate::recipe::{
     custom_yaml::{self, HasSpan, Node, ScalarNode, SequenceNodeInternal},
+    jinja::SYNTAX_CONFIG,
     parser::CollectErrors,
     ParsingError,
 };
@@ -45,16 +43,12 @@ fn parse<'source>(
     expr: &'source str,
     filename: &str,
 ) -> Result<ast::Stmt<'source>, minijinja::Error> {
-    let syntax_config = SyntaxConfig::builder()
-        .block_delimiters("{%", "%}")
-        .variable_delimiters("${{", "}}")
-        .comment_delimiters("#{{", "}}")
-        .build()
-        .unwrap();
-
-    let whitespace_config = WhitespaceConfig::default();
-
-    minijinja::machinery::parse(expr, filename, syntax_config, whitespace_config)
+    minijinja::machinery::parse(
+        expr,
+        filename,
+        SYNTAX_CONFIG.clone(),
+        WhitespaceConfig::default(),
+    )
 }
 
 /// Extract all variables from a jinja expression (called from [`extract_variables`])
@@ -149,6 +143,7 @@ fn find_jinja(
 ) -> Result<(), Vec<ParsingError>> {
     let mut errs = Vec::<ParsingError>::new();
     let mut queue = VecDeque::from([(node, src)]);
+
     while let Some((node, src)) = queue.pop_front() {
         match node {
             Node::Mapping(map) => {
@@ -162,11 +157,10 @@ fn find_jinja(
                     match item {
                         SequenceNodeInternal::Simple(node) => queue.push_back((node, src)),
                         SequenceNodeInternal::Conditional(if_sel) => {
-                            // we need to convert the if condition to a Jinja expression to parse it
-                            let as_jinja_expr = format!("${{{{ {} }}}}", if_sel.cond().as_str());
-                            match parse(&as_jinja_expr, "jinja.yaml") {
-                                Ok(ast) => {
-                                    extract_variables(&ast, variables);
+                            match parse_expr(if_sel.cond().as_str()) {
+                                Ok(expr) => {
+                                    extract_variable_from_expression(&expr, variables);
+                                    // extract_variables(&ast, variables);
                                     queue.push_back((if_sel.then(), src));
                                     // find_jinja(if_sel.then(), src, variables)?;
                                     if let Some(otherwise) = if_sel.otherwise() {