LIKE MANY of the dishes at Balkan Treat Box in Webster Groves, Mo., lahmacun is Turkish in origin. This recipe for the flatbread—typically topped with minced beef or lamb—is also rooted deep in the story of the restaurant’s owners, Loryn and Edo Nalic. As a child Mr. Nalic fled his native Bosnia and the war that tore it apart in the 1990s, moving around Europe with his family for years afterward. While living in a Turkish neighborhood in Germany, he fell hard for lahmacun.
Ms. Nalic’s second Slow Food Fast recipe honors her husband’s childhood favorite but swaps in minced cauliflower for the meat topping. “It works amazingly,” the chef said. “When cauliflower is caramelized, its sugars come out and it turns extra meaty.” She serves it with sumac-spiced onions, yogurt and lemon wedges. At the restaurant she makes her dough from scratch, but substituting pita makes this incredibly easy to pull off at home.
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