What in the world is a Mankousheh, you ask?
A Mankousheh is a popular levantine food consisting of dough topped with thyme, cheese, or ground meat. It is often referred to in the plural form of Manakish, also manaqish, manaeesh or manakeesh or in singular form man’ousheh, mankousheh or mankoushe (Arabic: مناقيش) .
This Lebanese Mankousheh recipe is topped with thyme.
The way we make it at home is on a hot pizza stone on the grill. You can easily make it in the oven instead. But I highly recommend the stone in a grill method to achieve the perfect brick-oven-like result.
There are several ways to prepare the dough. Our go-to method is well documented in another post where we talk about our trusted pizza dough recipe. We use the same dough for all pizzas and manakeesh we make.
More on the Thyme Blend
The thyme mix is very easy to prepare. Just mix the thyme (zaa’tar) with olive oil. You will want enough olive oil to make spreading the mix on the dough easy.
The thyme mix is a natural blend of deep green roasted thyme, roasted wheat, tangy sumac, and toasted sesame seeds.
Just spread and press the dough by hand first and then use a rolling pin to form it into a 12″ circle. Then dust with flour as needed as you roll the dough on both sides.
Dust a pizza peel with flour, pick up the mankousheh and slide it on the pizza stone. The stone should be already sitting in a pre-heated grill on high for about 10 minutes.
It usually takes 3 to 4 minutes. The time varies based on your grill and how well the stone is pre-heated. Open the grill after 3 minutes to check on it. Lift it with the peeler to check if it’s to your liking. When done, simply pick it up with the peeler. You can then slice it like you would slice a pizza or cut it with scissors if that’s what you prefer.
A mankousheh goes well with veggies and herbs like tomatoes and mint on the side or even inside of it if you want to roll it into a sandwich.
Enjoy! 🙂
Lebanese Mankousheh Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 3.5 min
- Total Time: 13.5 min
- Yield: 6 slices
Instructions
- Place the pizza stone in the grill and pre-heat it for about 10 minutes on high.
- Meanwhile, mix the thyme zaa’tar blend in a bowl with the olive oil.
- Press the dough by hand.
- Dust and roll the dough on both sides into a 12″ diameter circle.
- Spread a thin layer of the blend evenly on the dough using a spoon.
- Note that you may not need the entire thyme blend. All you need is a thin layer.
- Sprinkle some salt evenly all over.
- Pick up the mankousheh with a pizza peel and slide it gently on the hot pizza stone.
- Set a timer for 3 minutes.
- Open the grill and lift the mankousheh with the peel to check if the bottom is to your liking.
- It usually takes 3 to 4 minutes. But as always, it depends on your grill and how hot the pizza stone is.
- Pick up the mankousheh with the peek and place it in a large tray.
- Slice it and enjoy with your favorite veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers and mint.
Notes
Note that the thyme we’re talking about here is not the thyme spice that you find in the herbs aisle at the grocery store.
The zaa’tar blend you need is a natural blend of deep green roasted thyme, roasted wheat, tangy sumac, and toasted sesame seeds.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 139
- Sugar: 1
- Sodium: 203
- Fat: 7
- Carbohydrates: 16
- Protein: 2
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