Turkey – Traditional Lahmacun (Flatbread with meat and paste)

By Fariha saeed

About the dish

Lahmacun is a thin flatbread that has a yummy paste (sauce) and meat on top of it. In Turkey, this is called ”TURKISH PIZZA”. Usually, it has beef or lamb. This is the most appetizing dish in Turkey. It is very famous in Istanbul. People enjoy this at Sunday dinner or you can have this as lunch or as breakfast. This is served with some vegetables, pickle, topped with parsley and freshly cracked pepper. Lahmacun does not have cheese in it like usually normal pizza has cheese in it. This is the most famous street food in Turkey. This dish is made by doing 3 steps:

Step 1

• Making of dough.

Step 2

• Cooking of meat

Step 3

• Puting all the ingredients together

The taste of this pizza is very unique because most of the pizza has tomato sauce on it but LAHMACUN has a little bit of sauce in the meat not on the top of bread, and one more thing the flatbread is so thin not like other pizza has a thick dough. Most of the pizza has chicken on top of it but this has beef or lamb. This is also known as ” Cheeseless pizza”. In the restaurants, Lahmacun is on the top of the menu because of its delicious flavor. People make this dish at festivals or on birthdays to enjoy the unique taste.

Nutrition list

• Calories 400
• fat 12 g
• protein 27 g

Dough

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
• pinch of salt
• warm water as needed
• 5 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Making

Take a bowl and add the flour, milk, salt, oil, and yeast and mix well. Add water for kneading the dough. When the dough is prepared set this aside for 24 hours.

Topping

Ingredients

• 15 Ounce Lamb mincemeat
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 1 tomato (chopped)
• 1/4 green bell pepper (chopped)
• 1/4 yellow bell pepper (chopped)
• 1/4 red bell pepper (chopped)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp dry coriander
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley
• 1/4 tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Cooking

Take a frying pan and add oil and meat and saute it for 15 minutes. Now add all the spices and mix well and cover the lid for 5 minutes. now add the tomato, onion, parsley, bell peppers, and mix for a minute.

Baking the Lahmacun (pizza)

Take a medium piece of dough and roll it very thin and then place it on a baking tray. Now add the topping (meat mixture) to the dough and bake it for 5 to 7 minutes until brown. Serve it with some wedges of lemon, pickled onion, and fresh parsley.