isithalal.food

Halal-conscious recipe

Lamb sfiha

The Hairy Bikers' Syrian-inspired lamb sfiha with Halal mince: thin yeasted flatbreads topped with lamb or beef mince, tomato purée, Aleppo pepper, cumin, cinnamon, onion, pepper and parsley, baked hot and finished with lemon, red onion and sumac.

  • Cuisine Syrian
  • Meal Main
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Yield 4 flatbreads
  • Time 1h 40m
  • Last updated

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

Printable view
Turkish lahmacun flatbread with a minced meat topping, parsley, tomato, red onion and a lemon wedge
Photograph from our ingredient library: lahmacun, a Turkish minced-meat flatbread, not the finished dish from this recipe.

Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Rainer Zenz assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 3.0

Why Halal checks matter here

The topping is 250 g of lean lamb or beef mince, which is Halal only from a Halal-slaughtered animal; the dough is made at home from flour, yeast, sugar, salt and olive oil.

A thin yeasted dough is stretched into four flatbreads and covered with a topping of lamb or beef mince mixed with tomato purée, Aleppo pepper, cumin, cinnamon, onion, pepper, garlic and parsley. Lemon zest and oiled red onion go on top, and the flatbreads bake for 7 to 10 minutes on trays heated in a very hot oven. Only the mince needs a Halal source; the dough is made at home from flour, yeast, sugar, salt and olive oil.

It follows The Hairy Bikers' recipe for BBC Food, from The Hairy Bikers Go West, which calls it a Syrian-inspired flatbread and makes four individual or two large flatbreads.

Finish each flatbread with sumac and parsley, and squeeze over lemon at the table.

Halal-critical ingredients

  • Lamb or beef mince Lamb and beef are Halal only from a Halal-slaughtered animal, and mince without a Halal mark doesn't say how the animal was slaughtered. Buy the mince from a Halal butcher or in a certified pack. See Lamb and Beef.

Safe substitutes

  • Mince of unknown slaughter → 250 g lean Halal lamb or beef mince

Allergens

gluten (wheat flour)

Ingredients

Dough

  • 250 g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 1 tsp fast-action dried yeast
  • ½ tsp caster sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • up to 150 ml tepid water

Topping

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp tomato purée
  • 1 tsp Aleppo pepper (pul biber)
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 small onion, very finely chopped
  • ½ green or red pepper, very finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed or grated
  • 1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped (half for the topping, half to serve)
  • 250 g lean Halal lamb or beef mince
  • 1 lemon, zest only
  • 1 small red onion, finely sliced
  • a little olive oil, for the red onion
  • to taste salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

  • 1 lemon, cut into wedges
  • good pinch sumac

Method

  1. Make the dough. Mix the flour, yeast and sugar in a bowl. Add the salt, olive oil and up to 150 ml tepid water, mixing until you have a slightly sticky dough.
  2. Knead and rise. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Return it to the bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave somewhere warm and draught-free for about an hour, until well risen.
  3. Mix the topping. Put the olive oil, tomato purée, Aleppo pepper, cumin and cinnamon in a bowl with a generous amount of salt and pepper and mix. Stir in the onion, pepper, garlic, half the parsley and the Halal mince, and mix again.
  4. Heat the oven and trays. Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7 with two large baking trays inside.
  5. Shape the flatbreads. Cut the dough into four equal pieces. Roll or stretch each one on a floured surface as thin as you can, to about 20 to 25 cm across, and lay each on a piece of baking paper.
  6. Top. Divide the topping into four and sprinkle it evenly over the flatbreads, then sprinkle over the lemon zest. Mix the red onion with a little olive oil and scatter it over the top.
  7. Bake. Slide each sfiha on its paper onto a hot tray and bake for 7 to 10 minutes, until the dough is crisp at the edges and the topping is cooked through. Bake in two batches if your trays are small.
  8. Serve. Sprinkle with sumac and the rest of the parsley, and serve with lemon wedges.

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Food's 'Lamb sfiha' by The Hairy Bikers, from The Hairy Bikers Go West, which calls it a Syrian-inspired flatbread (makes 4 individual or 2 large flatbreads; prepare 1 to 2 hours, cook less than 10 minutes; dairy-free and egg-free. Dough: 250 g strong white flour, 1 tsp fast-action dried yeast, ½ tsp caster sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp olive oil and up to 150 ml tepid water, kneaded and left about an hour to rise. Topping: 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp tomato purée, 1 tsp Aleppo pepper (pul biber), 1 tsp ground cumin, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, salt and pepper, 1 small onion and ½ green or red pepper very finely chopped, 2 garlic cloves, half of a small bunch of chopped parsley and 250 g lean beef or lamb mince; lemon zest and a small red onion, finely sliced and mixed with olive oil, on top. Baked 7 to 10 minutes at 220C/200C fan/gas 7 on preheated trays; sumac, the rest of the parsley and lemon wedges to serve). The ingredient list gives one tablespoon of olive oil for the topping, but the method uses olive oil twice, in the topping mix and with the red onion; we list a little extra oil for the onion rather than guess an amount. We make the 4 individual flatbreads and count one each. We specified Halal mince; the published steps are followed in order. BBC Food gives no skill level; we rate it easy. The source gives prepare 1 to 2 hours; ours splits the hour's rise out as rest time. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Technique and ingredient sources

  1. Lamb sfiha — BBC Food Retrieved:

    By The Hairy Bikers, from The Hairy Bikers Go West; a Syrian-inspired flatbread. Makes 4 individual or 2 large flatbreads; prepare 1 to 2 hours, cook less than 10 minutes: a yeasted dough risen about an hour; 250 g lean beef or lamb mince with tomato purée, Aleppo pepper, cumin, cinnamon, onion, pepper, garlic and parsley; lemon zest and red onion on top; baked 7 to 10 minutes at 220C on preheated trays; sumac and lemon to serve. We specified Halal mince.

  2. Lamb analysis — isithalal.food Retrieved:

    What makes lamb Halal: the slaughter.

  3. Beef analysis — isithalal.food Retrieved:

    What makes beef Halal: the slaughter.

All Halal-conscious recipes