Incredible Middle Eastern Pizza - Lahmajoun
Hold the cheese! Middle Eastern pizza, or Lahmajoun, is a thin flatbread topped with deliciously spiced ground lamb and vegetables! Easy to make and incredibly moreish, you will feel like you are on the streets of Istanbul eating this Lahmajoun!
Equipment
- Pizza Stone optional but you will get better results with a pizza stone
- Food Processor optional but makes prep easier
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground lamb
- ½ onion minced
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- ½ green pepper minced
- 5 Thai chilis minced (can sub red chili flakes to taste)
- 1 large tomato deseeded and cut up into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon mint
- 2 tablespoon parsley plus additional for garnish
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 ts salt
- 1 ts pepper
- ½ ts cumin
- ¼ ts allspice
Garnishes and To Serve
- lemon wedges to serve
- few sprigs parsley garnish
- ½ onion sliced
- 1 ts sumac to toss with the onion (can omit)
Dough
- 2 cups flour
- 1 packet instant yeast 2.25 ts
- 1.5 ts sugar
- 1 cup warm water heated to 110F-115F (plus additional if necessary)
- 1 ts salt
- ½ ts garlic powder
- 2 tablespoon olive oil plus additional
Instructions
- Combine the flour, salt, garlic powder, and olive oil in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the warm water, sugar, and yeast and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, add the warm water, sugar, and yeast combination to the mixing bowl. Stir together well (using your hands is best.) You are aiming for a sticky dough, so you may need to add additional water a little at a time until the sticky dough is achieved. Keep stirring until you get this! Add a bit of flour to the sides of the mixing bowl to keep the dough from sticking. Cover with plastic wrap and leave it for around 30 minutes to allow the dough to rise. You are looking for the dough to roughly double in size, and it may take longer than 30 minutes so please allow extra time if necessary.
- While waiting for the dough to rise you can start prepping the lamb mixture. Use a food processor (if one is available) to mince your garlic, chilies, green pepper, onion, tomato, parsley, and mint. Add 2 tbsps of tomato paste, and process again until smooth. Leave this to sit covered in your fridge for around 15 minutes. After this time you may see some excess liquid...you can pour this out to help avoid a soggy pizza!
- In a separate bowl, add the salt, pepper, cumin, and allspice to your ground lamb. Mix well. Then add the contents of your food processor to the lamb and spice mix, and mix until well combined. Set this aside until your dough is ready.
- When the dough has roughly doubled in size then it is ready to work with. Divide the dough into 4 round balls. (I made 4 flatbread bases with the dough I had...if you desire smaller flatbreads you can adjust accordingly.) On a floured surface, roll each dough ball out very thinly as thin as you can without the dough breaking and falling apart.
- Preheat a pizza stone in your oven at 450F.
- Take some of the lamb mixture, and top the dough leaving a little of the edges uncovered. You want to press the lamb into the dough a bit...but not too hard. Repeat with all remaining flatbreads.
- Transfer the pizzas onto the heated pizza stone, and bake for around 15 minutes or until the lamb is cooked. You may have to do this twice, depending on how large your pizza stone is, etc. Keep checking every 5 minutes to ensure it is not burning and it is cooking evenly.
- Ok! Admire the thing of beauty you have created, and garnish with onion tossed with sumac, parsley, and generous drizzling of lemon juice!
Notes
Afiyet Olsun! Bon Appetit in Turkish!
It is common to roll or fold up the pizza and consume this way. However you decide to eat it, enjoy!!!
Nutrition
Calories: 2634kcalCarbohydrates: 234gProtein: 110gFat: 138gSaturated Fat: 51gPolyunsaturated Fat: 13gMonounsaturated Fat: 65gCholesterol: 331mgSodium: 5205mgPotassium: 2455mgFiber: 16gSugar: 21gVitamin A: 2814IUVitamin C: 133mgCalcium: 237mgIron: 22mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
