Can’t Get Enough Lahmajoun!

11 years ago

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 so I made 2 ‘lahma-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 thin 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.