Doug felt like having homemade pizza for dinner, but I didn’t feel like messing around making dough from scratch because it’s still really hot here in the south.
Doug’s solution was to purchase commercially prepared, ready-to-bake
crust. So, we bought two 3-packs of Mama Mary’s 7-inch, thin and crispy crusts.
Lahmajoun made on a small pizza crust
What Doug didn’t know was that I had other plans for the crusts.
He wanted pizza, but I was in the mood for lahmajoun – guess who won!
I had a need to experiment making lahmajoun with this crust. When I use flour tortillas as a lahmajoun shortcut, the tortillas can become soggy resulting in a disappointing product.
I wanted to see how these crusts would hold up as the base.
Here’s what I did:
Mama Mary’s small pizza crusts
Crusts covered with lahmajoun topping
I made my traditional lahmajoun topping (see below) using ground turkey. I spread a generous amount of the topping on the six crusts and placed 3 crusts on two baking sheets. Each tray was baked at 425°F for 7 minutes on the
bottom rack and then another 7 minutes on the top rack until the topping was cooked through.
There was enough topping left to cover another 2 or 3 crusts which I didn’t have. I made 2 ‘burgers’ for another meal instead.
The lahmajoun was served with a tossed salad – a hearty, simple meal!
I’m happy to report that Doug was very pleased with the recipe swap; I was happy with the simpler preparation.
Although the crusts held up well for a lahmajoun base, they were just too thick. One apiece was more than enough to satisfy us. Regardless, we enjoyed every bite.
Lahmajoun Topping Recipe
Yield: Enough topping for 8 or 9 small pizza crusts
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground lamb or beef (or a combination of the two) Note: Ground turkey may be substituted
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium red pepper, chopped
1/2 small green pepper, chopped
½ bunch parsley, washed well, stems removed, chopped
1 – 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained well
2 Tbsp. tomato paste or red pepper paste
1 to 2 Tbsp. flour
2 tsp. dried mint
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. sweet paprika
dash cayenne pepper
Directions:
1. To save time, process the onion, peppers, and parsley in a food processor, using the metal “S” blade. Squeeze out any excess liquid – this is VERY important! Be careful not to over-process. Vegetables should still be a bit chunky, not pureed. Note: If chopping by hand, be sure to finely chop the vegetables.
2. In a large bowl, combine all of the topping ingredients, mixing well.