Mantu
Kabul's Silk Road dumplings: thin pasta wrappers folded around spiced lamb, steamed, then bathed in garlicky yogurt and a chana-dal sauce.
Overview
This is the small-plate version of mantu, folded into a four-pointed flower with the meat visible at the top, plated for a starter or a shared snack rather than the full main-course platter. The filling is ground lamb with grated onion (squeezed dry first, otherwise the parcel goes soggy), garlic, ground coriander, cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper. The fold is the interesting bit. Take a wonton wrapper, drop a teaspoon of filling in the centre, pull all four corners up over the centre, and pinch them together in pairs to make an X-shape with four small triangles of meat showing at the top, like an opened flower. Steam in a bamboo basket eighteen to twenty minutes over boiling water. Two sauces alongside: a chana-dal-tomato-and-mint sauce stewed thick, and chaka yogurt with garlic. Plate as you would aushak: yogurt base, dumplings on top, lentil-tomato sauce ladled across, dried mint scattered last.
Ingredients
Filling
- 400 g ground lamb (20% fat)
- 1 onion (small, grated, squeezed dry - about 80 g after squeezing)
- 4 garlic cloves (crushed)
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Wrappers
- 24 square wonton wrappers (10-12 cm; sold at Asian shops)
Chana dal sauce
- 100 g chana dal (split chickpeas - soaked 2 hours; or substitute split yellow peas)
- 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
- 1 onion (small, finely diced)
- 3 garlic cloves (crushed)
- 1 (400 g) tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried mint
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon chilli flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 300 ml water
Yogurt sauce
- 500 g Greek yogurt
- 3 garlic cloves (crushed to a paste with ½ teaspoon salt)
- 2 tablespoons cold water
To finish
- 1 tablespoon dried mint
- ½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh coriander (chopped)
Method
Stage 1 - Chana dal sauce
- Drain soaked chana dal; simmer in 500 ml fresh water 30 minutes until soft.
- In a separate wide pan, sauté onion and garlic 5 minutes in oil.
- Add tomatoes, tomato paste, dried mint, ground coriander, chilli and salt.
- Add drained chana dal and 300 ml water; simmer 15 minutes to thicken.
- Taste; adjust.
Stage 2 - Filling
- Mix all filling ingredients in a bowl for 2 minutes until sticky.
Stage 3 - Shape
- Place 1 teaspoon of filling in centre of each wrapper.
- Pull all four corners up over the filling.
- Pinch opposite corners together at the top in 2 paired pinches, leaving a small visible gap of meat between each pinch - the result is a flower shape with 4 tiny meat windows.
Stage 4 - Steam
- Line a bamboo steamer with baking paper (cut to size, pierced).
- Arrange dumplings with 1 cm between them.
- Steam over boiling water 18-20 minutes.
Stage 5 - Yogurt
- Whisk yogurt with garlic-salt paste and water to a thick but spoonable consistency.
Stage 6 - Plate
- Spread half the yogurt sauce across a wide platter.
- Place mantu over.
- Spoon remaining yogurt over.
- Top with hot chana dal sauce.
- Sprinkle dried mint, Aleppo pepper and fresh coriander.
Notes
- Steam, never boil: The thin wrappers tear in boiling water. Steaming over (not in) gives the right texture.
- Open-top flower shape: The exposed meat is a signature visual. Don't pinch all four corners together at once - pinch in two pairs (opposite corners), leaving gaps in between.
- Two sauces matter: Yogurt + chana dal + mint together is what makes mantu - the cool tangy yogurt + warm spiced lentil + bright mint. Skipping the chana dal turns it into plain dumplings.
Storage
- Filled raw dumplings freeze 2 months on a tray.
- Cooked mantu: refrigerate 2 days; re-steam 5 minutes.
- Sauces keep separately 4 days.
Recipes mentioned here
Mantu
Mantu are the steamed lamb dumplings that Afghanistan shares with the rest of Central Asia, plated under garlic yogurt and topped with a thick split-pea-and-tomato sauce. The filling is straightforward: lamb mince fried with onion and spices, then cooled completely before it goes into the wrappers (warm filling makes the dough soggy). A plain flour-and-water dough rolls thin, gets cut into 8 cm squares, and each square gets a teaspoon of filling pinched closed at all four corners. Steam for twenty minutes. While they are steaming you whisk the chaka (yogurt with garlic and salt) and cook a quick qorma of yellow split peas with tomato and dried mint. Plate stacked: yogurt under, mantu in the middle, qorma over the top, dried mint and a sprinkle of chilli powder to finish. A whole platter goes to the centre of the table to share.
Aushak
Aushak are the Afghan leek-and-mint dumplings that share their plating shape with mantu: a smear of garlic yogurt under, dumplings boiled and fanned over, a thick lamb meat sauce ladled across the top, dried mint and chilli to finish. The filling is just leeks (or scallions), salted briefly to draw the water out, squeezed dry, then mixed with fresh mint, ground coriander and pepper. Wonton wrappers (or homemade dough) seal around a teaspoon of filling pinched into half-moons or triangles. While the dumplings boil, you make the topping: ground beef or lamb fried with onion, garlic, tomato paste and dried mint, simmered into a thick savoury sauce. The yogurt sauce is just chaka with garlic. Plate together while everything is still warm.
More like this
Aushak
Aushak are the Afghan leek-and-mint dumplings that share their plating shape with mantu: a smear of garlic yogurt under, dumplings boiled and fanned over, a thick lamb meat sauce ladled across the top, dried mint and chilli to finish. The filling is just leeks (or scallions), salted briefly to draw the water out, squeezed dry, then mixed with fresh mint, ground coriander and pepper. Wonton wrappers (or homemade dough) seal around a teaspoon of filling pinched into half-moons or triangles. While the dumplings boil, you make the topping: ground beef or lamb fried with onion, garlic, tomato paste and dried mint, simmered into a thick savoury sauce. The yogurt sauce is just chaka with garlic. Plate together while everything is still warm.
Seekh Kebab Roll
Lamb mince (with enough fat for tenderness; 20%) combines with grated onion (squeezed dry), ginger, garlic, green chilli, fresh coriander, mint, garam masala, ground cumin, ground coriander, salt and a small spoon of besan (chickpea flour, helps the mince cling to the skewer). Mixed vigorously for 3 minutes to develop the proteins. Rested for 1 hour. Shaped into long sausages on metal skewers (or wooden skewers soaked for 30 min). Grilled hard over charcoal (or under a screaming-hot grill) 8-10 minutes turning often, until charred and just-cooked. Pulled off the skewers onto warm parathas; rolled with sliced onion, fresh coriander, mint chutney; eaten by hand.
Chapli Kebab
Chapli kebabs are the spiced beef patties sizzling on a wide flat tawa at any roadside grill from Peshawar to Kabul, big enough to wrap a hand around and seasoned with the unusual punch of dried pomegranate seeds and coriander. The mince mixes with grated onion, chopped fresh tomato, ginger, garlic, beaten egg and a little gram flour to bind, plus the signature Afghan spice blend (coriander seed, pomegranate seeds, chilli flakes, cumin and garam masala). A thirty-minute rest lets the gram flour absorb the moisture and the spices marry. Pat thin and wide (the word chapli means "flat" or "slipper-shaped"), then fry hard in oil three or four minutes a side until darkly crusted. Eat hot from the pan, wrapped in fresh naan with sliced raw onion and a green chutney.
Mantu
Mantu are the steamed lamb dumplings that Afghanistan shares with the rest of Central Asia, plated under garlic yogurt and topped with a thick split-pea-and-tomato sauce. The filling is straightforward: lamb mince fried with onion and spices, then cooled completely before it goes into the wrappers (warm filling makes the dough soggy). A plain flour-and-water dough rolls thin, gets cut into 8 cm squares, and each square gets a teaspoon of filling pinched closed at all four corners. Steam for twenty minutes. While they are steaming you whisk the chaka (yogurt with garlic and salt) and cook a quick qorma of yellow split peas with tomato and dried mint. Plate stacked: yogurt under, mantu in the middle, qorma over the top, dried mint and a sprinkle of chilli powder to finish. A whole platter goes to the centre of the table to share.