Turkish Flatbread (Lahmajoun)

I love it when you can put salad on top of your dinner and call it a complete meal. This flatbread originated in Turkey. It is traditionally topped with ground lamb or beef, but I went for a plant based meat. I had never heard of this dish until I saw Christopher Kimble make it on Milk Street. I was intrigued and decided to make it.

The dough for the flatbread comes together in the food processor in one minute. This is a yeast raised dough, but don’t let that scare you. It uses instant yeast, which means you just dump it in with the rest of the dry ingredients.

The wet ingredients for this dough are a bit unusual. In addition to water, yogurt is also added. Yogurt, because of its acidity, will relax the gluten, making the bread more tender. It also adds a subtle tang to the crust. Let the food processor do all the work, no hand kneading required. It takes between 1-2 minutes, and you will notice that the dough will get quite warm in the food processor. This is totally normal. Once the dough is smooth and satiny, remove, divide it in half, form two balls of dough and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

While the dough is rising, make the filling. Roasted red pepper and onion get chopped in the food processor until fine. Add tomato paste. I love buying tomato paste in a tube. It keeps forever in the fridge and there is no messing around with half a leftover can.

The spices include cumin, for an earthy note, paprika and red pepper flakes for some kick.

While the arugula and yogurt topping are not traditional, I really love how the peppery arugula cuts through the richness of the meat topping, The yogurt drizzle helps to tame the kick from the red pepper flakes. Plus, your entire dinner is right there on a flatbread. No side dishes are required.

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