How To: Make Manti (Armenian Dumplings)

As a member of the Armenian Diaspora, I grew up learning about the place where my family members had come from what is now a long time ago. Through the years, my family has tried their best to teach me about my culture and heritage through music, language, and, most significantly, food. I've been making Armenian recipes since I was around five, and cooking with my grandmother will always be one of my fondest memories. Though I've made many different foods, my very favorite has always been manti. Through making this dish, I've been drawn closer to the beauty of Armenian cuisine and culture and I hope that making this recipe does the same for you. I do recommend making this with family or friends, however, as the long process is always made shorter with good company.

For the dough:

- ½ kg of all-purpose flour

-1 egg

-1 tbsp of oil

-1 tbsp of salt

-250 ml of water

For the filling:

-1 kg of ground beef

-½ of an onion

-½ of a large bell pepper (optional but recommended)

Other:

-Butter (to butter your pans)

-Broth (optional)

-Plain yogurt (optional)

-Mint (optional)

First, place the flour in a bowl, along with the egg, the oil, and the salt. Mix the ingredients, gradually adding in the water until everything is fully mixed.

Personally, I start off using a spatula and then begin to knead it on a floured surface using my hands once the mixture begins to form. This ensures that the mixture becomes homogenous and allows me to make sure that the dough is coming along well. However, you can also do it all by hand or with a mixer. Then, split the dough into a couple pieces and allow it to rest for at least twenty minutes. If, as you knead, the dough seems too sticky, add flour. If the opposite is true, though this is almost never the case, add a little bit more water.

While the dough is resting, take the opportunity to wash and chop up both the onion and bell pepper. These pieces should be really small, as shown above.

Now, place the ground beef in a bowl with the chopped bell pepper and onion. Begin to mix it in, so that it’s evenly dispersed throughout. I use my hands for this, though you can use a fork or spoon if you would rather not get your hands dirty. Then, set it aside. Turn on the oven and set it to 350.

Grab some of the dough and place it on a floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it’s as thin as possible. You may also use a pasta maker to help you stretch the dough out really thin, though I personally prefer to do it by hand. Then, using a non-serrated knife, cut the dough to create thin squares that are about 3-4 cm on each side. They probably won't be the same size or be perfect squares, but don’t worry about it. Small imperfections like these won’t impact the end result in any way.

Next, grab the bowl with the filling once again. What you want to do is begin to grab small amounts of the meat and placing a little bit in each square. Some people choose to roll each little piece to create little balls (as shown above), but I’ve found that that it causes little to no difference in the end product.

Once all the squares have filling, you want to start to make the actual manti. You do this by grabbing a square and folding it in half, pressing opposite sides together to form a sort of boat shape. As seen in the picture above, you will end up with a sort of dumpling that has flat sides and a thicker middle (where the meat is). Then, you want to repeat that with all of the other squares. This is a process that can be time-consuming, which is why I often make this recipe with family or friends to help.

Place all of the manti on a buttered pan and add some small extra pieces of butter as well, it’ll melt as its in the oven so don’t worry about the size or placement. Though you can place the manti in an organized manner on the pan, this is not necessary or significant in any way.

After the pan is ready, you can place it in the oven for more or less 20 minutes, until the manti are fully cooked and golden brown. While the first round is in the oven, you can repeat steps 5-7 with the rest of the dough. If you had divided it into two pieces, you only have to do one more, if you had divided it into three it’d be two more rounds, etc.

Once you have the manti done there are a few options you can choose from.

a) You can eat it as it is, adding yogurt and mint as you’d like

b) You can put the manti in broth, making it into a sort of soup and adding yogurt and mint on top

The latter is my personal preferred method.

This recipe makes ten servings, meaning that often times there is a decent amount of manti left over. This means that you can save it for another day. After letting them cool, you can put the manti in a sealed bag and place it in the freezer, allowing it to last for future meals.

When you want to eat it, just get it out of the fridge and boil it with the broth, warming and softening it up. It tastes just as good as it did on the day it was made and serves as a quick and easy meal.