Vegan Lahmacun, also often called Turkish pizza, is a thin, rolled out yeast dough, which is covered with a spicy sauce. Traditionally, the red sauce on the Lahmacun is made from minced meat. But today I’ll show you how to prepare vegan Lahmacun. And our Lahmacun simply tastes fantastic! It’s spicy and savory and the yoghurt sauce with fresh mint gives it a pleasant freshness.
Instead of minced meat, we simply use soy granulate*. This granulate is very similar in texture to minced meat and can also be used for Bolognese or other minced meat dishes. The sauce is made with peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, parsley and many delicious oriental spices.
Vegan Lahmacun also delights meat lovers
This vegan version even surprised all my meat-loving colleagues at work! Because to really make sure that the recipe doesn’t just taste good to me and my husband, I recently prepared it together with one of my colleagues for lunch. My other colleagues are sure that vegans only eat grass and stones (ok, I’m exaggerating a bit) and they would only very reluctantly try something vegan. So we didn’t tell them it was vegan and prepared an extra “vegan” baking tray for me. Of course all 4 baking trays were vegan. And all my colleagues were completely astonished. They were so sure it was made of meat. Even when I took a piece of another baking tray, nobody wanted to believe that it was vegan!
In Turkey, this traditional dish is very popular. No wonder! You can enjoy it hot from the oven or cold as a take away. Traditionally Lahmacun is served with parsley, onion pieces, fresh lemon and optional spicy chili flakes.
Vegan Lahmacun – Turkish Pizza
Ingredients
For the dough (if you want to save time, use store-bought pizza dough):
- 1 packet dry yeast a lternatively ½ cube of fresh yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 500 g wheat flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 4 tbsp olive oil
For the soy minced meat sauce:
- 100 g soy granules*
- 300 ml vegetable broth*
- 1 onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp paprika powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- salt and pepper
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp cane sugar
- 500 g strained tomatoes
For the salad topping:
- ½ iceberg lettuce
- 1 cucumber
- 1 red onion
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- 6 pepperoni
- ½ red bell pepper
- 12 olives
For the garlic sauce:
- 250 g soy yoghurt* for a creamier sauce use plant-based quark
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp herb vinegar
- ½ lemon
- ½ TL ground cumin*
- 1 tsp sugar
- ½ bunch fresh mint
- 2-3 tbsp fresh dill
- salt and pepper
Instructions
For the dough (part 1):
- In a bowl, dissolve the dry yeast with the sugar in 3 tablespoons of warm water and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
- Sieve the flour with the salt into a bowl and press a hollow in the middle. Add the yeast mixture, olive oil and 250ml lukewarm water to the flour. Knead all the ingredients until the dough is even. I prefer to use my hands for this, because the warmth of the hands helps the yeast to rise. But you can also use a food processor. The dough should not have any dry spots or be sticky. It should be fluffy and soft.
- Form the dough into a ball and put it back in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and leave to rise in a warm place for at least 1 hour. The volume of the dough should then have doubled.
For the soy minced meat sauce:
- As the dough rises, prepare the soy minced meat sauce. Put the soy granules in a bowl and pour over the boiling vegetable stock until the soy granules are lightly covered. Cover and leave to swell for 10 minutes.
- Peel onion and garlic and cut into fine cubes. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add the soy granules and sauté over medium heat. Stir in tomato paste, spices and sugar and let caramelize lightly. Pour in the tomatoes and simmer at medium heat for 10 minutes until the consistency is thicker.
For the dough (part 2):
- Knead the dough one again. Line a baking tray with baking paper and roll out the dough.
- Spread the spicy sauce on the dough and bake the Lahmacun in the oven at 180°C for about 25 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
For the salad topping:
- In the meantime, cut the salad into bite-sized pieces. Halve the cucumber lengthwise and cut into slices. Peel the onion and cut into rings. Cut the tomatoes in half. Cut the peppers into thin slices.
For the garlic sauce:
- For the garlic sauce press the garlic and put it in a bowl. Squeeze out the lemon juice. Finely chop the herbs and add them. Put the remaining ingredients in the bowl and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve the Lahmacun with salad, tomatoes, cucumber, paprika, pepperoni, olives, onions and garlic sauce.
Nutritions
If you liked this recipe for Turkish Lahmacun you may also like one of these other Turkish recipes:
If you liked this recipe, you can use this picture to create a pin for Pinterest. Just select the picture and click on the Pinterest button in the upper left corner. This way you can save the recipe for later use.
You will find more delicious recipes from all over the world in our recipe section.
