Lahmacun: Make your own Turkish pizza

What is Lahmacun – and why does it taste so good?

Turkish pizza is a flatbread topped with a mixture of minced meat and vegetables, then baked in the oven until crispy. Lahmacun is savory, very spicy, and incredibly aromatic. You can eat it much like an Italian pizza – or you can fill and roll it like a wrap. Of course, especially in big cities, you can find lahmacun, much like doner kebabs, on practically every corner; but if you live in the countryside like us , don't want to spend too much money, or want to try a vegetarian version, it's great to be able to make lahmacun yourself. We like to have it every now and then as a special alternative to our usual dinner, where we typically eat filled sourdough bread, toast, or flatbread.

Lahmacun dough: How to make it correctly

Turkish pizza is based on a simple, neutral yeast dough with a little olive oil, but without yogurt like Turkish pide. Lahmacun dough is rather firm so that it can be easily worked later.

After rising, you roll it out in portions into thin flatbreads. Due to its consistency, the lahmacun dough unfortunately tends to shrink back a little during this process. This is normal and shouldn't stress you out; after all, Turkish pizza doesn't have to be perfectly round. I usually roll it out directly on a lightly floured pizza peel because then you don't have to "carry" it anymore, but can simply slide it off.

An important note: Homemade Turkish pizza is smaller than what you might be used to from a takeaway. Mine are about 20 cm in diameter and weigh about 100g because 1. they're so easy to roll out and 2. you can bake two at the same time. If you want very large pizzas, around 25 cm, you'll need to use more dough per pizza.

The topping: Turkish pizza with minced meat

The traditional lahmacun topping is minced beef, though some also add a little lamb. Pork, of course, is not part of Turkish cuisine. If it doesn't have to be authentic and you don't mind pork, you can easily use regular mixed minced pork and beef. Add tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, garlic, and spices.

Unlike pide, empanadas, or poğaça, the minced meat mixture is not fried first, but placed raw on the dough. It then cooks along with the rest of the Turkish pizza as it bakes.

This "works," or rather, it works, because the layer is thin and the baking temperature is high.

I don't recommend preparing the ground meat mixture the night before, as some other recipes do. Personally, I think the risk of bacterial growth is too high. Also, the tomatoes in the dough can make the mixture watery.

My tips: Filling, rolling, veggie

How do you eat Turkish pizza? There's no single right answer; ultimately, it's what you like. On the one hand, you can, of course, eat it freshly baked and flat. What goes on lahmacun? For example, red onion rings, fresh parsley, lettuce, and feta cheese. Or you can make classic rolled lahmacun with fillings. These could include lettuce, sauces like cacık or tzatziki, or, of course, cheese.

Here's how to roll it up: If you want to eat filled lahmacun, you first need to make the baked, crispy flatbreads more flexible and softer. There's a simple trick for this: Stack them immediately after baking, while they're still hot, and place an upturned baking sheet on top as a kind of lid. This creates steam. However, it can take a while for the Turkish pizza to become pliable, sometimes even longer than five minutes.

Try vegan Turkish pizza! If you want your lahmacun to be vegetarian or vegan, simply use veggie mince. I hardly eat any meat anyway, and I've tested both. Since plant-based mince alternatives are often pre-cooked, the only differences might be that the baking time is slightly shorter or the topping gets a bit crispy. But it's just as delicious!

For the dough

260 milliliters of lukewarm water

For the topping

½ teaspoon of sugar

Chili and pepper to taste

500 grams wheat flour, 7 grams dried yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, 260 milliliters water, 30 grams olive oil. For the yeast dough: Put the flour, sugar, and dried yeast in a mixing bowl and mix. Add the lukewarm water and let it stand briefly. Add the salt and oil, knead slowly for 1 minute, then for about 5 minutes on medium-high speed. The dough should completely pull away from the sides of the bowl.

1 large red onion, 2 pointed peppers, 2 medium tomatoes, 15 grams ajvar, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon paprika powder, 1 teaspoon cumin, chili & pepper. Meanwhile, peel, core, and roughly chop the onion, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes. Place them in a small blender with the tomato paste, ajvar, and spices, and roughly puree. Finely chop the parsley.

Mix 4 sprigs of parsley, 300 grams of minced meat, tomato paste, and parsley into the raw minced meat using a spoon.