These lamb flatbreads are inspired by lahmacun (Turkish meat pizzas). The thin base is spread with a lamb mince and veg mixture, cooked until crisp, then topped with sumac-dusted onions. It’s normally a snack, but this has main event status thanks to a thicker, puffier dough that soaks up all that delicious fat from the richly spiced lamb.
Be a better cook Try to get your flatbreads stretched out nice and big for these – you want a large surface area to spread the lamb mixture over, as you don’t want it too thick or it won’t cook through properly.
The double baking tray trick A baking stone will give you the crispest base but if you don’t have one you can put 2 baking trays on top of each other to absorb more heat.
To make this recipe, you’ll also need a batch of flatbread dough.
Ingredients
1 batch flatbread dough in 6 balls, at room temperature
1 red onion, finely sliced
30g parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp sumac
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Fine semolina or plain flour to dust
450g jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into thin strips
250g greek yogurt, whisked
For the topping
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 long red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
30g parsley, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, roughly chopped
1 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp shawarma spice mix
250g lamb mince, ideally 20% fat
Specialist kit
Baking stone, or try the double baking tray trick (see ‘before you start’)
Method
Put all the topping ingredients (except the lamb) in a food processor with a good pinch of salt, then whizz to a coarse, wet paste. Add the lamb mince and whizz again – you really want to break down the mince into a paste. If your food processor isn’t big enough, you can knead the mince and whizzed for 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. The consistency should be quite wet and easily spreadable – if it’s a bit too firm, add a splash of water. Keep in the fridge until needed.
Heat your oven to the hottest it can possibly go, with a baking stone on a tray inside to warm up (or heat your pizza oven – aiming to get it to 450°C). Mix the red onion, parsley and sumac together in a large bowl and squeeze over a little lemon juice from the wedges.
Dust a work surface with semolina or flour and stretch out a dough ball, then spread an even layer of the lamb mixture all over the top, leaving the edge exposed. Top with some strips of red pepper, then cook for 8-12 minutes in the oven or 2-3 minutes in a pizza oven.
Pipe, spoon or drizzle the yogurt on top of the flatbread, then add a pile of the onion salad and serve with lemon wedges. Cook the rest of the flatbreads in the same way.
Recipe courtesy of delicious magazine
