Hungary: vegan langos

This week we head north from The Democratic Republic of the Congo and find ourselves in Hungary in Eastern Europe. Here we prepare vegan langos, a delicious Hungarian street food. These deep fried dough pieces are found at many street vendors and food trucks, often frequenting different festivals and events across Europe. Read on to learn more about langos or jump straight to the vegan langos recipe.

Hungarian cuisine

Hungarian cuisine is almost synonymous with paprika which is grown throughout the country and used in so many dishes ​[1]–[3]​. Maybe the most famous Hungarian dish is gulyas, also known as goulash, the thick stew with meat, vegetables and full of paprika and garlic, served with sour cream ​[4]​. Other related soups or stews are also very popular, such as paprika-seasoned fish soup (halaszle) ​[5]​, pörkölt, a stew based on braised meat and served with noodles ​[6]​ and the stew paprikas, where paprika (surprise!), tomatoes and sour cream create a rich sauce, usually containing chicken ​[7]​. Hungarian cabbage rolls are also popular and just like Romanian sarmale, they are often made with fermented cabbage leaves and enjoyed with sour cream.

Hungary also has some interesting takes on how to eat pasta, such as sweet pasta dishes where spaghetti or tagliatelle is covered with poppy seeds ​[8]​or crushed walnuts ​[9]​ and powdered sugar. Another exciting dessert is kürtöskalacs, or spit cake. A sweet dough is wrapped around a cylinder, coated with sugar and baked on a spit. While baking, the cake is brushed with butter. The result is a nice cylindrical chimney cake to be enjoyed with cinnamon, walnuts, or maybe some ice cream ​[10]​.

For this blog post, I decided to not go with paprika but rather cook some Hungarian street food, the popular deep fried langos found on events and festivals in Hungary and many parts of Europe.

Vegan langos

Langos is a deep fried dough dish that has become a popular street food throughout Hungary and neighbouring countries​[11]–[13]​. Today, langos are made from a simple yeast dough which is shaped into a pizza like disc and deep fried. The langos dough is often made from wheat flour, yeast and some dairy product such as milk ​[14], [15]​, yoghurt or sour cream ​[16]​, but some recipes just use water ​[11], [17]​. One version of langos, called krumplis langos, also contains mashed potatoes in the dough ​[14], [18], [19]​.

After deep frying the dough, the result is a golden and crispy langos which is eaten plain or topped with a wealth of different toping combinations, such as sour cream and grated cheese or simply rubbed with some garlic or garlic water. In some places, you can even find langos topped with traditional Hungarian stews like pörkölt ​[15]​.

For these vegan langos I simply went with plant-based milk for the dough and vegan sour cream as a topping.

Origin of langos

The word langos itself derives from the word lang, Hungarian for flame ​[20]​, but the exact origin of the langos is not entirely clear. From what I can tell, the predecessor of today’s deep fried langos was made in wood fired bread ovens ​[11]​. Heating a large oven for making breads was a laborious and costly affair and was usually done every 5-6 days rather than daily. When it came time to baking, the last batch of bread was usually finished so while baking the next batch of large loaves, you would often make small breads with leftover dough scraps and bake them near the fire in the oven (a wood fired oven is heated by lighting a fire in one part of the oven, allowing you to control baking temperature with proximity to the coals). Or even throw the dough straight onto the coals ​[15]​. These small breads would cook fast and could be eaten as lunch or a snack while making the rest of the breads.

The question is where this tradition of baking this mini bread came from. Some claim it is as old as bread in Hungary ​[11], [15]​, some that it is of Roman ​[12], [15], [16]​ or Ottoman ​[12]​ origin, and some that it is an Hungarian invention ​[15]​. The origin question aside, I feel that this mini bread solves a very relatable problem – who doesn’t get hungry while smelling whatever is baking in the oven?

Modern langos

With the tradition of making small breads for snacking well established, in the 1950s the switch was made from a wood fired oven to deep frying the dough pieces and the modern langos was born ​[11]​. One large benefit with this method is that you can make the deep fried version without owning or using a large wood fired oven. Aside from the taste of deep fried dough of course.

The modern, deep fried langos quickly became popular and is now eaten at the beach ​[14]​, the street, amusement parks and different events, both in Hungary and in neighbouring countries ​[12]​. When I still lived in Sweden, I would frequent a free, annual festival which hosted a mix of entertainments, from outdoor concerts and beer tents to theater plays and live cooking demonstrations. An array of food trucks was always present with Hungarian langos being a highlight for many visitors.

Conclusion

I haven’t had langos since moving away from Sweden many years ago. Back then I was lacto-ovo vegetarian and these are my very first vegan langos. And they lived up to the memory. But then again, it is hard to see how deep fried dough can fail to deliver. The langos are crispy, a bit chewy, fluffy and has a very nice flavour that goes great with raw onion and plant-based sour cream. If you give these vegan langos a try, you won’t be disappointed!

Vegan langos recipe

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Vegan langos

Langos are a popular Hungarian streetfood where a wheat and potato dough is deep fried and enjoyed with various toppings.

Course Snack, street food

Cuisine Eastern European, Hungarian

Keyword bread, deep fried

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Proofing 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4 langos

Ingredients

• 250 g Potatoes
• 200 g flour ~400 mL
• 1 ½ tsp dry yeast, ~4g or 25 g fresh yeast
• 120 mL Plant-based milk
• ½ tsp salt
• more flour for baking
• oil for deep frying (e.g. canola)

Suggested toppings

• raw garlic
• red onion, finely chopped
• plant-based sour cream
• plant-based shredded cheese

Instructions

Dough

• Peel the potatoes and chop them into small chunks. Boil them until tender.

  Let the potatoes cool, e.g. by covering in cold water.

  Mash the potatoes using a fork
• While the potatoes are boiling, heat the milk to 37C and dissolve the yeast in it.
• When the mashed potatoes are cool enough (too hot and they will harm the yeast), add the potatoes and salt to the milk with yeast.

  Stir in the potatoes, creating a very liquid mash.
• Add the flour, a little at a time and work it in. The dough should be quite firm.
• Let the dough proof until doubled in size, 40-60 min.

Langos

• When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down (force out most of the air) and dump it onto a floured surface.
• Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces.

  Roll the dough pieces into balls and carefully stretch them into circular discs with an edge thicker than the centre.

  Add more flour if needed.
• Let the dough discs rest ~10 min.
• Add the oil to a pot or a pan, about 2 cm should be enough.

  Heat the oil to 175C.
• Carefully add one of the langos to the oil. Deep fry for 2-3 minutes on one side, until the langos is golden.

  Flip the langos and fry on the other side for another 2-3 minutes.
• Remove from the oil and drain on a piece of tissue.

Serving

• Serve the langos as soon as it is done. Popular toppings include

  – brushing the langos with a slice of garlic;

  – finely minced garlic;

  – garlic water;

  – sour cream and red onion

  – sour cream and grated cheese

References