Lahmajun (Armenian flatbread) is a thin, crispy flatbread topped with a savory blend of spiced ground lamb or beef, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs — all baked until golden and aromatic. Served with fresh parsley, red onion, lemon, and a dash of sumac for a bright, zesty finish. Street food at its finest: bold, satisfying, and made to be shared.
I made these at the request of one of my kids. They were super tasty and we ate them all. This recipe takes some planning because the dough is made the day before. It is a super easy, low kneading required dough though, which is great. Ideally you should bake these on a pizza steel because that helps the crust get super crispy. If you don’t have one, you can use the back of a baking sheet.
A pizza steel is great to have though if you are interested in one. I use it not only to get great crust on pizza, but also for baking breads like baguettes or ciabatta.
There is step in preparing the onion salad for topping these flatbreads which has the onions soak in hot water for 5 minutes. Don’t skip this step as it tames down the onion flavor a little and makes them just the right amount of flavorful for topping these breads.
Lahmajun (Armenian Flatbread)
Crispy meat flatbread with a fresh onion, parsley, lemon and sumac topping
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 3 cups bread flour
- 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp Kosher salt
- 1 cup plus 2 tbsp water more or less as needed
- 2 tsp olive oil
For the meat topping:
- 1 red bell pepper seeded and stemmed and cut into pieces
- 1 onion peeled and cut into pieces
- 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt divided
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 3 tbsp biber salcasi pepper paste or sub 2 tbsp harissa plus 1 extra tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 3/4 lb ground beef or lamb
For the onion salad:
- 2 medium red onions thinly sliced
- 1 cup parsley leaves chopped
- 2 tbsp ground sumac
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt more to taste
Instructions
For the dough:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together bread flour, yeast, sugar, and salt until thoroughly combined. In a separate medium bowl, combine water and 2 teaspoons oil. Add the flour mixture and stir or knead until a shaggy dough forms and no dry flour remains. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Using lightly greased hands, knead dough in bowl gently until it tightens up, 10 to 20 seconds, then gather dough into a smooth ball. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand at warm room temperature until dough is puffy and about 1 1/2 times in volume, 1 to 2 hours. This is less kneading than you usually do for bread dough but this helps keep the texture of the dough nice for flatbread.
- On a lightly-floured work surface, divide dough into 4 equal portions. Shape each portion into a tight, smooth ball, making sure to seal seams on the underside tightly. Spray balls with oil spray and transfer to a lightly-oiled rimmed baking sheet. Cover loosely but completely with greased plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.
For the meat topping:
- In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine bell pepper, onion, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Process, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until finely chopped, 10 to 20 seconds. Transfer mixture to a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium bowl and let drain for at least 10 minutes.
- Press on onion-pepper mixture to extract any remaining liquid, then return to food processor bowl; discard drained liquid. Add parsley, pepper paste, tomato paste, garlic, allspice, paprika, cumin, pepper, and remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt. Process, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until mixture is finely chopped.
- Using your hands, break ground meat into walnut-sized chunks and distribute around bowl. Process, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until mixture is just combined, 5 to 10 pulses. Set aside while you roll out dough. If you refrigerate this mixture, let sit at room temp for 30 minutes before you make the breads.
For the onion mixture:
- Place the red onion in a medium heatproof bowl, cover by at least 1 inch boiling water, and let stand for 5 minutes. Drain onion through a fine-mesh strainer then rinse for 10 seconds under cold running water and shake dry. Transfer to a clean kitchen towel or paper towel and pat dry. Return onion to now-empty bowl, along with parsley, sumac, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine, season with salt and pepper to taste, and set aside.
To assemble and bake:
- One hour before baking, adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position (rack should be 4 to 5 inches from broiler element), set a baking stone or steel on rack, and heat oven to 500ËšF (or 550ËšF, if your even allows it).
- Dust tops of dough balls with flour, then transfer to a well-floured work surface, seam side down. Working one at a time, using a rolling pin, gently roll the disk into an 11- to 12-inch round, adding flour to top and underside of dough and countertop as needed to prevent sticking.
- Transfer to a well-floured baking peel (or a rimless cookie sheet if you don't have a baking peel). Scatter one-quarter of topping evenly over top of dough. Using the back of a spoon and your fingertips, gently flatten and spread topping into an even layer, leaving 1/8-inch border.
- Shake peel to loosen dough, then carefully slide lahmajun onto baking stone. Bake until bottom crust is browned and upper edges are lightly browned, 4 to 6 minutes. While lahmajun bakes, begin rolling next dough ball. Transfer baked lahmajun to a wire rack, stacking or overlapping them on the wire rack as they're finished. Repeat assembling and baking steps with the remaining dough balls and topping.
- Once all 4 lahmajun are baked, return them to the oven, overlapping them to fit on the stone, until reheated, about 2 minutes (alternatively, you can eat them warm, room temperature, or cold—lahmajun are great at all temperatures). Serve lahmajun with onion-parsley salad, if desired, and lemon wedges.This recipe is adapted from Serious Eats.
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