What are mantu dumplings?
Mantu are traditional Afghan dumplings filled with seasoned ground beef or lamb, steamed until tender, and topped with garlic yogurt sauce and tomato-based meat sauce.
Afghan Mantu
Ingredients
Dumpling Filling
- 250 g Ground beef
- 500 g onion finely chopped
- 8 g Minced Garlic
- 10 g Minced Ginger
- 1-2 Green chilli Adjust to spice tolerance
- 6 g Ground coriander
- 1 g Cayenne
- 10 g salt
- 6 g black pepper
Lentil Tomato Sauce
- 100 g yellow split peas / Dhall (600ml water pressure cooked for 24mins)
- 30 ml olive oil
- 75 g finely chopped onion
- 2.5 g minced garlic
- 32 g tomato paste
- 1 g ground coriander
- 0.5 g turmeric
- 1 g paprika
- 3 g salt
- 113 g tomato sauce
- 240 ml water
Dumpling dough
- 375 g all-purpose flour
- 30 ml olive oil
- 12 g salt
- 215 ml water
Mint yogurt sauce
- 450 g yogurt
- 1/4 cup dried mint
- 1 lemon (juiced)
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
Dumpling filling
- Finely chop the onions in a food processor. Add all the remaining filling ingredients and blitz until well combined. The filling should be smooth, without large chunks of meat.
Dough
- For the dough, weigh out the dry ingredients, add the oil, and mix. Gradually add the water while mixing in a stand mixer for 20 minutes. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes so it can fully absorb the water.
Tomato sauce
- Pressure cook the yellow split peas in 600 ml of water for 24 minutes.
- In a pan, cook the onions and pressure-cooked yellow split peas in olive oil. Add the tomato paste, followed by the spices. Stir in the tomato sauce and water, then simmer on low heat for 20–30 minutes.
Forming the mantu
- Roll out the dough using a pasta roller, starting at setting 0 and working up to setting 3. Then roll it out further using a rolling pin until very thin.
- Using a circular cutter, cut out dough circles. Add filling to the centre of each circle.
- Shape each one into a boat-shaped mantu. Before folding, lightly spritz the edges with water to help seal the mantu and make the process easier.
- Set the finished mantu aside on a plate and cover them to prevent drying out.
Cooking the mantu
- Prepare the steamer by adding water to a boil.
- Dip the bottoms of the dumplings in oil to prevent sticking, and lightly brush the tops with oil to keep them from drying out.
- Steam for 20 minutes, until the wrappers become slightly translucent and the meat is fully cooked.
To serve
- To serve, spread a thin layer of yogurt sauce over a flat plate. Arrange the mantu on top, spoon tomato sauce over each piece, then add more yogurt sauce. Finish with a sprinkle of mint and a drizzle of olive oil.
