Vegetarian Pide

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Pide is an oven-baked flatbread in the shape of a small boat. They originated in Turkish cuisine and are baked in a wood-fired oven, but it’s easy to make them at home. The classic versions are with spinach and feta or with sucuk, but there is of course a wide range of possible toppings (see here). In this recipe you will find a simple tomato and bellpepper sauce topping, which is refined with a little yoghurt sauce after baking. The cold and fatty yoghurt contrasts well with the fruity tomatoes.

The dough takes a while to rise, but you can make it ahead of time and use less yeast or allow it to rise at a cooler temperature (e.g. in the fridge). Once the dough is ready, it is actually quite quick to get the freshly baked pide out of the oven.

The best pide comes from a large oven, but this is rather difficult in the average home. However, many Turkish restaurants offer it. When I lived in Mannheim, I used to go to Uzun Taşfırını in the city centre during my university lunch break - more of a snack bar than a restaurant, but great pide at a very student-friendly price. I still remember that place, where it felt like the oven was bigger than the space for the customers…

My Pide recipe is largely based on the one from Herr Grün kocht.

Recipe #

Vegetarian Pide with a Sauce of Tomatoes, Bellpeppers and Spices

90 minutes

2 portions

Ingredients #

For the dough #

• 250 g wheat flour
• 10 g fresh yeast
• 160 ml water
• 1 pinch of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the topping #

• 1 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 40 g olive oil
• 250 g tinned tomatoes
• half a red bell pepper
• 10 g parsley
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 pinch of chili
• 1 pinch of pepper
• 1 pinch of salt

For the yoghurt sauce #

• 1 clove garlic
• 5 g parsley
• 150 g Greek yoghurt
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 pinch of chili or cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch of pepper
• 1 pinch of salt

Directions #

1. To make the dough, mix all the ingredients together, knead well (ideally in a food processor), cover and leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour.
2. For the topping, peel and chop the onion and garlic.
3. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the diced onion and garlic over a medium heat. Meanwhile, wash and chop the bellpeppers. When the onions are soft, add the tomatoes and the bellpeppers to the sauce.
4. Wash and chop the parsley. Season the sauce with cumin, coriander, chilli, pepper and salt and allow to reduce slightly. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the chopped parsley and cover.
5. Prepare the yoghurt sauce: Peel and chop the garlic, wash and chop the parsley. Mix these two ingredients together with the cumin, coriander, chilli, pepper and salt in the Greek yoghurt. Cover and refrigerate until the pide comes out of the oven.
6. Shape the pide from the risen dough: Remove the dough from the bowl and put it on a floured work surface. Divide it in half and press it into long, oval shapes about 30 cm long and 15 cm wide. If the dough is very sticky, a rolling pin will help. Fold the edges over and press the tops together.
7. Preheat the oven to 230°C fan. Brush the two pide with the tomato sauce and bake on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, drizzle with the yoghurt sauce and serve hot.

Carbon Footprint #

In total, two portions of vegetarian pide have an estimated carbon footprint of 1061 g.

This ranks it number 14 out of 56 recipes published on the blog so far in terms of estimated carbon footprint.

When it comes to the individual ingredients, Greek yoghurt is particularly striking: It only accounts for just under 15% of the ingredient weight, but still more than 25% of the climate footprint. Replacing the Greek yoghurt with soy-based quark, for example, with around 0.7 g of CO₂ equivalents per kg, would reduce the estimated carbon footprint by 255 g. This vegan version would make the Pide one of the top 5 most climate-friendly recipes.

In addition to Greek yoghurt, olive oil and canned tomatoes also make an above-average contribution to the carbon footprint. Processing and packaging in particular consume resources.

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