Pide; in English Flatbread with ground beef and vegetable fillings on top, is a delicious and popular fast food in Turkish Cuisine. You can find this delicious food almost on every corner of Turkish streets. This food usually sells at the shops known as Pideci; however, recently many pastry shops start to sell different small-size varieties of it too.
When it comes to fillings and ingredients, it has endless varieties. The most common fillings are ground beef, ground beef with eggs, ground beef with cheese, pastırma, mushrooms, roasted beef, spinach, and spinach with eggs.
Pide variations also vary from region to region in Turkey. For example; in the northern cities of Turkey, the locals prefer to make Kapalı Pide, in English Closed Turkish Pide. While you are making this variation, you close both sides of the pide dough after you place the ingredients and let the ingredients cook from inside. In central Anatolia cities; locals prefer to make a very thin crust. In western cities of Turkey; locals prefer to make small-sized Turkish Pide consume in the mornings for breakfast. If you are making a road trip to Turkey, I bet you can taste endless variations of Turkish Pide (Turkish Flatbread).
Once you first see it, you may think it looks like a Lahmacun but I have to say that it is way different from Lahmacun. The main difference between the Lahmacun and Pide is; the meat we use at Lahmacun contains more fat than we use at Pide.
The other main difference is; the meat in the Lahmacun has onions and finely chopped parsley in it. On the other hand, the meat in the Pide has only onions in it. The third main difference is the shape. While Lahmacun has a round shape, Pide has a long and kayak look-alike shape. So if it is your first time tasting it in a restaurant, you can differentiate the difference between Pide and Lahmacun.
The recipe that I am going to share with you is the most well-known Turkish Pide with ground meat filling in it. If you want, you can use your local ingredients in it, but I strongly recommend you to stick to my recipe. It will give you the exact taste of the famous Turkish Pide.
Pide
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 3 cups All purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tbsp Instant Yeast
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 cup warm water
For the Topping
- 300 gr ground beef
- 1 onion – medium size finely chopped
- 1 green pointy pepper finely chopped
- 1 red pepper finely chopped
- 1 tomato (deseeded) diced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon grounded black pepper
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp olive oil to brush the Pide
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F.
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First, combine the flour, instant yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl. Then pour olive oil and warm water. Combine the mix well until you reach a soft and smooth dough.
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Cover the bowl with moisturized kitchen towel and set a side for an hour. Its size will be double.
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While your dough is resting, prepare your filling. Heat olive oil in a wide pan and stir in the onions and peppers.
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Saute the onions and peppers for 3 minutes at medium heat, until they start to get soften. Stir in the tomatoes and continue for an additional 2 minutes. Add the salt and ground black pepper. Turn the heat off.
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Place the ground beef in a bowl and combine the cooked ingredients with the ground beef and them mix well. This is your topping for Pide.
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Once the dough rise, place the dough on a floured surfaced counter. Cut the dough into 18-20 equal size balls.
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On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough balls into oval shapes of 25 cm x 50 cm with ½ cm thickness.
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Place baking paper in an oven tray and place oval shaped thin dough on it. (You can try to place 2 oval shape dough to 1 baking tray)
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Spread the filling evenly over the 2 oval shaped dough by leaving 1 cm at the edges as a border with no filling.
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Fold/Seal the sides of the dough to keep the filling in it. Repeat the same steps until you finish all dough balls.
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Beat an egg in a small cup and mix it with 1 tbsp. olive oil. Brush the edges/corners of dough with this mixture.
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Bake for 20 minutes, until the all Pides are golden brown color and crispy at the edges.
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Cut into slices and then serve.
