Low Carb Manti Turkish Meat Dumplings in Tomato Butter Sauce

Low Carb Manti with Yogurt Sauce and Tomato Butter Sauce

I found this recipe for Turkish Manti on the Food & Wine site and decided to try converting it to a low carb meal.  It worked!

We found it so delicious even my son, who is not on low carb diet, found this keto converted meal delectable.

This savory meat dish has just the right balance of acid and fat from the tomato and yogurt.  I used ground beef for the meat filling (and meatballs) but I'm sure ground lamb or ground pork would be tasty as well.

It is a multi step recipe - but quite doable - and well worth the effort!

Admittedly this is a stock photo- we ate ours before taking pics

Make the dough first, then the meat filling and the two sauces.

Dough 

1 cup plus almond flour, plus more for dusting

2 tbsp coconut flour 

1 egg 
5 tblsp water or as much as needed to make dough form into a ball

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt 

Combine all the dough ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until well combined.  It will form a moist dough.  Form it into a ball with your hands.  Traditional recipes with regular flour have you kneading it on a floured board- but I found this was unnecessary with the almond flour.  Let the ball of dough rest in the bowl where you prepare the meat filling.

Meat Mixture

1/2 pound ground beef
1 small onion, grated
3 tblsp minced parsley
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper


Combine all ingredients for the meat mixture in a bowl and mix well.  Mixture will be stiff- best to finish the mixing process with your hands.

Yogurt Sauce

1 c. Greek yogurt 

(keep in mind that any yogurt can be made into "greek style" by simply straining it and letting some of the water drain out.) note: I used Bulgarian yogurt because it is lower carbs- plus I just really like it.

1-2 cloves of finely grated garlic (depending on your taste for garlic choose 1 or 2)

Kosher salt to taste

Combine all ingredients and mix well.  Refrigerate until ready to plate.

Tomato Butter Sauce

4 tblsp unsalted butter
2 tblsp tomato sauce
1 teaspoon paprika
Dried mint and Aleppo pepper, for garnish *note:

*note:  I did not have dried mint and Aleppo pepper on hand. I substituted tarragon and ancho chili powder - putting just a light dusting across each bowl as I served it.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Stir in tomato sauce 
and paprika and keep warm.

Preparing the dumpling dough and meat filling:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

On a lightly floured work surface, pat out the dough to roughly1/16 inch thick. (You will probably not get this soft low carb dough to go that thin - but do the best you can.) Cut the dough into 2-inch squares. 

Spoon 
1/2 teaspoon of the filling in the center of each square. To form the manti, fold the dough over the filling to form a triangle; press the edges together to seal. Transfer the manti to a slightly greased baking sheet.

Bake the manti dumplings on baking sheet in 350 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes.  Yes, the meat cooks inside the dumplings!

note:  Traditional recipes boil the manti - but I found that my almond flour dough disintegrated in the boiling water.  So I worked out a wonderful compromise.  I baked the manti then made the remaining meat mixture -because I had extra- into small meatballs (1 scant tblsp each) and boiled them in salted boiling water.  I served these meatballs alongside the manti - and they were terrific.  

Boil meatballs in salted water as above- they will rise to the top of the boiling water when done - about 5-8 minutes depending on size.

Remove the meatballs with a slotted spoon and serve in a shallow bowl with the baked manti, spoon on the yogurt sauce and swirl in the warm tomato butter sauce and garnish with a sprinkle of tarragon and chili powder or dried mint and Aleppo pepper if you have access to it.