Here is an easy and simplified take on the Turkish Manti recipe. Manti is an iconic Turkish dumpling recipe that requires hours of preparation. With this recipe, you will get the traditional flavor in a non-traditional way.

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Try This Viral Manti Recipe
This is not the traditional way to make Manti, in fact, this technique can be used to make any meat stuffed dumpling recipe. From Asian dumplings, Turkish, or the Middle Eastern Shish Barak.
Simply make your filling, roll it, and freeze. Then you are going to dip the frozen meatballs into iced water, and then cover them with flour so the flour sticks to the meatballs. Repeat this process 3 to 4 times, and here you have it. Perfectly flour-covered meatballs that you'll cook in boiling water.

Ingredients
- For the meatballs, you will need ground beef, onion, parsley salt and pepper.
- All-purpose flour and iced water to create the coating.
- For the yogurt sauce: yogurt, garlic, salt and pepper.
- For the red sauce: butter, paprika, dry mint and tomato paste.
Pro Tip
The smaller the meatballs the better the Manti recipe, but if you do not have the patience, you can make the meatballs bigger. Just do not serve them to Manti fanatics.

Easy Turkish Manti
Ingredients
For the Manti meatballs:
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 cup parsley chopped
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
For cooking the Manti:
- 2 - 3 cups all purpose flour more if needed
- 2 liter of iced water more if needed
For the yogurt sauce:
- ½ cup Greek Yogurt
- ¼ cup hot water from boiling the manti
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- Salt to taste
For the red sauce:
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- Salt dry mint and paprika, to taste
Instructions
Make the Manti meatballs:
- In a bowl mix the meatballs ingredients well and shape them into 1 teaspoon small balls.
- Place rolled meatballs on a large baking sheet and freeze. This will take 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Cooking Manti:
- Place a large pot with salted water on the stove and turn heat to high, bring to a rapid boil.
- While the pot is heating up, prepare a large plate with all purpose flour and another bowl of iced water.
- Using a large sieve, place about 20 frozen meatballs in the sieve.
- Dip the sieve in iced water and make sure all the meatballs are getting wet.
- Remove from water then dump the meatballs into the flour. Roll so that the meatballs are covered with flour.
- Remove meatballs from the flour mixture shaking off any excess flour and place them back into the sieve.
- Repeat this process for 2 to 3 more times for a total of 3 or 4 rounds.
- Place the meatballs into the boiling water, do not add all the meatballs at once so they do not stick. This depends on how large is your pot, I’ve added 20 at a time.
- Wait for them to float to the surface, this means that they are done cooking. This will take 4-5 minutes.
- Using a slotted spoon remove the dumplings from the water and place on your serving platter. You may spray with an oil spray to prevent sticking.
- Continue until done with all the dumplings.
Make the yogurt sauce:
- In a large bowl combine yogurt, garlic, boiling Manti water, black pepper. Mix them well, taste to adjust salt.
Make the red sauce:
- In a small saucepan heat butter on medium, add tomato paste and whisk. Then add the paprika, dry mint and salt.
- Serve Mantil drizzled with yogurt and red sauce.
Notes
- You can skip the freezing step, but I highly recommend it as it makes the process foolproof.
- The meatballs are really small, so they won’t take much to freeze and firm up.
Nutrition
FAQs
This Manti recipe is better consumed right away, as the yogurt and red sauce may make the manti soggy. If you made a big batch, then do not put them all in yogurt sauce. Eat whatever you want and drizzle the rest in olive oil to prevent sticking, then refrigerate. Microwave as needed.
Of course, this Manti recipe is freezer-friendly. After coating the Mantil balls with flour ( I recommend 4 rounds of flour if you are freezing them), place them on a large baking sheet and freeze. You can then place them in ziplock bags for up to 2-3 months. Cook from frozen in boiling water as in the recipe card.
More Turkish Recipes
- Turkish Red Lentil Soup
- Turkish Simit
- Turkish Delight (Lokum)
- Turkish Coffee
- Ayran, Turkish Yogurt Drink










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