Lahmacun
Lahmacun are a kind of Turkish pizza. In this vegan recipe, I replaced the minced meat with a lentil and bulgur mix inspired by the vegan dish mercimek köfte from Turkey. Any leftover topping can be mixed with parsley and scallions and shaped into mercimek köfte.
Servings 4 servings
Ingredients
Dough - option 1
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast one 8g satchel
- 500 mL water
- 1300 mL all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Dough - option 2
- 1-2 ball(s) store bought pizza dough
Topping
- 200 mL red lentils
- 200 mL fine grain bulgur
- 600 mL water
- ½ onion, grated
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp chili
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
Fresh toppings
- parsley, chopped
- red onion, sliced
- lemon wedges
- olive oil
Instructions
Dough
- Heat the water to 37°C (finger temp). Dissolve the yeast in some of the water.
- Add rest of water, salt and olive oil.
- Mix in four, a little at a time until a good dough texture is reached.
- Let rest for about 1 h, until doubled in size.
Topping
- Bring lentils to a boil in water with salt. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the lentils start to break apart.
- Mix in the grated onion, pressed garlic, spices, olive oil, tomato puré, and bulgur.
- Cover and let rest for 15 minutes or longer (until dough has finished proofing).Taste some of the topping. The bulgur should become soft. You might have to add some more boiling water but wait a while first.
- Preheat the oven to ~260°C with a baking tray in the oven.
Assembly and baking
- When the dough has doubled in size after ~1 h, move it to a lightly floured work surface.
- Divide the dough into 4-8 balls, depending on what size you prefer (I found 6 to be good). Roll out one ball as flat as you can. Transfer to a piece of parchment paper.
- Spread a thin layer of the lentil and bulgur topping over the dough. You might have to add a little more water to make the topping easier to spread.
- Take out the warm baking sheet and slide the parchment paper onto it.
- Bake for ~10 minutes, until the lahmacun gets nice colour.
- Repeat for the other balls of dough.
Eating
- When the lahmacun are cool enough to handle, add parsley, sliced red onion and a squeeze of lemon. You can try other toppings like folive oil, resh tomatoes, cucumber, green onion and tahini as well.
- Roll up or slice into wedges and enjoy.