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Mantu (Afghan Steamed Dumplings with Yogurt and Split Pea Sauce)

Name: Mantu (Afghan Steamed Dumplings with Yogurt and Split Pea Sauce)
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Afghan
Ingredients: 300 g Plain flour; 150 ml Warm water; 1 tsp Salt; 400 g Minced beef or lamb; 400 g Onion; 3 cloves Garlic; 1 tsp Ground coriander; 1 tsp Ground cumin; 1.5 tsp Salt; 0.5 tsp Black pepper; 1 tbsp Oil; 300 g Plain yogurt; 1 clove Garlic; 0.5 tsp Salt; 100 g Yellow split peas; 0.5 Onion; 2 tbsp Tomato paste; 2 tbsp Oil; 0.25 tsp Ground turmeric; 0.5 tsp Chilli powder; 0.5 tsp Salt; 400 ml Water; 1 tsp Dried mint; Chilli powder; Naan or flatbread

Afghanistan's dish for guests: thin-skinned dumplings filled with almost as much onion as meat, steamed, then layered with garlic yogurt below and a yellow split pea tomato sauce above. Mantu is finished less by the dumpling than by how the two sauces are stacked around it.

Ingredients

4servings

Dough
Plain flour · Or 40 shop-bought dumpling/wonton wrappers300 g
Warm water · Adjust a little to your flour150 ml
Salt1 tsp
Filling
Minced beef or lamb · Not too lean400 g
Onion · Almost as much as the meat, very finely chopped — the key400 g
Garlic · Minced3 cloves
Ground coriander1 tsp
Ground cumin1 tsp
Salt1.5 tsp
Black pepper0.5 tsp
Oil · Mixed into the filling so it does not steam dry1 tbsp
Garlic yogurt (chaka)
Plain yogurt · If Greek, loosen with 2 tbsp water300 g
Garlic · Grated fine; raw, so one clove is plenty1 clove
Salt0.5 tsp
Split pea tomato sauce (qorma)
Yellow split peas · Yellow lentils work too100 g
Onion · Finely chopped0.5
Tomato paste · Or 200g ripe tomatoes2 tbsp
Oil2 tbsp
Ground turmeric0.25 tsp
Chilli powder · To taste0.5 tsp
Salt0.5 tsp
Water400 ml
To finish
Dried mint · Dried, not fresh — the Afghan signature1 tsp
Chilli powder · A pinch, for colour
Naan or flatbread · To serve alongside

Steps

Start the split peas first. Rinse them, put them in a pan with the 400ml of water, cover, and simmer gently for 30–40 minutes until they crush under a spoon. It is the only slow preparation, so it goes on the heat before anything else.
⏲ 40 min
Meanwhile make the dough. Mix flour, salt and water, knead 8–10 minutes until smooth, and rest it covered for 30 minutes. It has to relax before it will roll thin — see Dough and gluten. Using shop-bought wrappers, skip this and step 6.
⏲ 40 min
Make the filling. Mix the mince, very finely chopped onion, garlic, coriander, cumin, salt, pepper and oil by hand. Do not pre-cook the meat — mantu is filled raw and steamed, and the water the onion gives up is what keeps the filling moist.
⏲ 10 min
Make the sauce. Fry the onion in the oil over medium heat for 8 minutes until pale gold, add the turmeric and chilli for 30 seconds only, then the tomato paste and cook 2 minutes more. Ground spices need that brief moment in hot oil to open up — see Blooming spices.
⏲ 11 min
Tip the split peas in with their cooking liquid, salt, and simmer 10 minutes. You want it thick enough to sit on a spoon rather than run off it. Loosen with a splash of water if it goes too far.
⏲ 10 min
Roll the dough out 1mm thin and cut 8–9cm squares. Thinner is better — mantu does not forgive a thick skin.
⏲ 15 min
Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre, bring the four corners up and pinch the meeting edges together so the four ears stay open. Dab the seams with water and press firmly.
⏲ 25 min
Oil the steamer tray and arrange the mantu with gaps so they do not touch. Cover and steam 35–40 minutes. The filling goes in raw, so do not shorten it — why steam cooks differently from a hot pan is covered in Dry heat and moist heat.
⏲ 40 min
While they steam, stir the grated garlic and salt into the yogurt. It is raw garlic, so 20 minutes of sitting helps it settle in.
⏲ 5 min
Spread the garlic yogurt over the platter first, sit the mantu on it, spoon the split pea sauce over, then trail a little more yogurt across. Scatter dried mint and chilli. Yogurt below, mantu in the middle, sauce above — that stacking is the dish.
⏲ 3 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

The meat: lamb and beef are both usual in Afghanistan. Very lean mince steams dry, so pick something with a little fat in it.
Vegetarian mantu: filled with leeks or other alliums and potato it becomes aushak, served under exactly the same yogurt and sauce. Change only the filling and leave the rest alone.
The pulse in the sauce: yellow split peas are standard but yellow lentils are common too. Lentils cook in 20–25 minutes, so shorten step 1.
Heat: Afghan food is not a hot cuisine. The chilli is there for colour and a low warmth in the sauce, not for spice.
Close relatives: the same steamed dumpling changes its name at every border — Mongolia's buuz, China's xiaolongbao, Korea's mandu all share one root. What sets mantu apart is not the dumpling but the two sauces layered around it.
Alongside: serve naan and there is a way to wipe up the yogurt and sauce left on the plate.

Tips

Nearly as much onion as meat. 400g to 400g is not a typo. The water the onion releases is what keeps the filling moist through a long steam; cut the onion back and you get a dense little meatball instead.
Chop the onion fine, but do not blitz it. Blitzed onion sheds so much liquid that the wrappers go soggy and split. A knife is the safer tool — see Knife skills.
Roll the skins thin. Aim for 1mm. A thick skin still tastes of raw dough after 35 minutes.
Oil the steamer. Mantu stick, and a stuck mantu usually tears when you lift it.
Leave gaps. The skins swell as they steam, and two that fuse together tear each other apart when separated.
Give it the full 35 minutes. The filling starts raw, so go by the clock rather than by eye, and cut one open to check.
Do not pour the yogurt over hot mantu. That is why it goes on the plate first: poured straight onto something hot, it splits and weeps. The mechanism is in Why sauces split.
The mint must be dried. Fresh mint makes a different dish entirely. It is the dusty, earthy note of dried mint that bridges the yogurt and the split peas.
To get ahead, freeze them. Freeze the shaped mantu on a tray, then bag them, and steam from frozen with 5 minutes extra — see Freezing and thawing.

The basics behind this dish

Cooking basics →

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