🇹🇷🇺🇸 LAHMACUN WITH RANCH 🍕🌿

Welcome back to Flavours of the World Cup, the series where I’m cooking my way through the tournament - one game at a time ⚽️

This might be one of the most delicious combinations of the series so far … combining one of my favourite foods with one of my favourite dips!

The Inspiration

Lahmacun is a beloved Turkish street food often nicknamed “Turkish pizza” - a thin flatbread topped with spiced meat, herbs and vegetables.

For the American influence, I borrowed two things: the smash burger technique and ranch dressing. Because if there’s one thing Americans know how to do, it’s put ranch on absolutely everything!

The result was a crispy smash-style lahmacun topped with fresh salad and served with a quick homemade ranch.

Recipe

Ingredients

For the lahmacun mix:

• 300g firm tofu

• 2 tbsp onion, minced

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 tsp pul biber (Turkish red pepper flakes)

• 1 tsp smoked paprika

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• Small handful fresh parsley, finely chopped

• Salt, pepper + olive oil

• 1-2 tbsp gram (chickpea) flour, to help bind

For the ranch:

• 6 tbsp greek-style yoghurt

• 1 garlic clove, minced

• Small handful fresh dill, finely chopped

• Small handful fresh parsley, finely chopped

• 1/2 lemon, juice + zest

To serve:

• 4-6 small tortilla wraps

• Handful quick pickled onions (just finely sliced 1 small red onion, add a good pinch of flaky sea salt + the juice of 1/2 lemon, then scrunch up with your hands).

• Small handful fresh parsley leaves

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven (or you can do in arifryer) to 190C fan. Pat the tofu dry, then into a large mixing bowl crumble into mince-like pieces. Add the minced onion, garlic, tomato paste, spices + parsley. Season with salt, pepper + a good splash of olive oil, mixing well with your hands. Add 1-2 tbsp of flour to help bind.

2. Pop 1 large tbsp of the mixture onto the centre of the tortillas, then press down to spread out with your hands. Pop on a baking tray, then bake for around 15 minutes, or until the mix is nicely golden crisp + bubbling.

3. Mix together the ranch ingredients, seasoning to taste with salt + pepper.

4. Top the lahmacun with pickled onions, ranch, parsley + a squeeze of lemon juice. Enjoy with salad or just on its own - enjoy!

Football Facts ⚽

🇹🇷 Turkey’s best World Cup finish was third place in 2002.

🇺🇸 The United States reached the World Cup semi-finals in the inaugural tournament back in 1930.

To see how this one scored out of 100 and my score prediction, check out the reel on my socials.

Next up: Spain 🇪🇸 vs Uruguay 🇺🇾

Alfie x