Lahmacun – Turkish Flatbread with Spiced Lamb

Ingredients:

Preparation mode:

👉 Lahmacun (pronounced lah-mah-joon) is a paper-thin Turkish flatbread spread with a spiced mixture of minced lamb, peppers, tomato and herbs, baked in a very hot oven. It’s often called “Turkish pizza”, but it’s lighter, crispier and meant to be rolled up with fresh parsley, onion and lemon.

It’s one of the most popular street foods in Turkey, especially in the southeast around Gaziantep and Urfa.

How to Make Lahmacun

1. Make the dough. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add the warm water and olive oil and knead for 8 minutes until smooth. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes, until doubled.
2. Make the topping. Put the meat, onion, bell pepper, tomato, garlic, parsley, both pastes and all the spices in a bowl and knead with your hands for 2–3 minutes until it becomes a smooth paste. (A food chopper makes the vegetables fine and quick.)
3. Heat the oven. Heat the oven as hot as it goes – 250–275°C (480–525°F) – with a baking tray or pizza stone inside.
4. Shape. Divide the dough into 8 balls. Roll each one very thin into an oval about 25 cm (10 in) long.
5. Spread the topping. Spread a thin layer of the meat mixture over each base, right to the edges, pressing it in with your fingers.
6. Bake. Slide 1–2 lahmacun onto the hot tray and bake for 6–8 minutes, until the edges are crisp but the centre is still soft enough to roll.
7. Serve. Top with parsley, sliced red onion with sumac and a squeeze of lemon, then roll it up and eat with your hands. Ayran is the classic drink.

👉 More comfort food from around the world: 25 Cozy Comfort Food Recipes

Footnotes:

Keep the topping thin: lahmacun is not a pizza – the meat layer should be almost see-through so it cooks in a few minutes.

Make ahead: the topping keeps 1 day in the fridge; baked lahmacun can be frozen and reheated in a dry pan.

Photo: Garrett Ziegler / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and color-adjusted).