This is the BEST, MOST DELICIOUS Middle Eastern Pizza ever! This Middle Eastern Pizza recipe uses a combo of ground beef, tons of garlic, fried onions, tomato flavors, and tons of mozzarella and parmesan. It’s flavor on top of flavor on top of flavor!!
The other day my Persian mama cooked up some amazing loobia polo and it inspired me to make a pizza with some of those same flavors because honestly, why in the world not? Persian Food + Pizza = Um, Most Definitely Yes
But why didn’t I think of this sooner? Now I’m thinking of all the pizzas I could’ve made my way through! Ghormeh sabzi pizza, gheimeh bademjoon pizza… oh lawdy.
So I started thinking of all the yummies that I could put on this Middle Eastern or Persian style pizza, flatbread, or whatever you want to call it—it so doesn’t even matter because it’s all about the eating here and not so much about the naming.
Tons of fresh garlic, sweet olive oil-fried onions, fresh Mozzarella, some green chile heat, and then some more cheese just in the form of another cheese—parmesan!
This beef—made loobia polo style—has such a rich and charred tomato flavor from the tomato paste that’s sautéed alongside it, and there’s just a hint of sweetness that comes with that, which all intensifies by a bit of cinnamon that gets mixed in.
Yep, cinnamon. Don’t forget it because it makes all the difference and no one will ever tell it’s even in there. Seriously, use the cinnamon. Please and thank you and you’re so definitely welcome.
I used freshly baked Persian sangak bread as the crust from our local Persian grocery store, but by all means, use any bread or crust you want. The thing about this pizza is that it’s all really easy and simply about ingredients you’re craving and flavors you’re into. So feel free to improvise. Still, this recipe… it’s pretty golden if you make it this way.
Can you tell I’m a little protective over my ingredients list? I’m trying hard to conceal it but I’ve got to keep it real too, you know?? Ok, you know what? Forget it. Just make it the way I made it. Then you can make it again the way you want if you still want to do that. Because that’s what’s fair.
So you’re totally going to make it your way, right? Mmk, that’s cool.
I’ll take what I can get.
Try my absolutely delicious (and easy!) BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe!
Try my ridiculously easy and super yum cheesy beef calzone recipe!
Try my Persian beef and green bean rice (loobia polo) recipe!
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel HERE
The BEST Middle Eastern Pizza – VIDEO!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) divided
- 1 Onion half of the onion should be puréed using a food processor/box grater, and the other half should be chopped
- ½ pound Ground Beef
- ½ tablespoon Sea Salt
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric
- 3 oz Tomato Paste ½ can
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ a whole Sangak Bread or whatever bread/dough/flatbread/pizza crust you like
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 8 ounces Fresh Mozzarella thinly sliced (can also substitute regular mozzarella)
- 5 Garlic Cloves roughly chopped or sliced into fourths
- 1 tablespoon Diced Hatch Green Chiles (or thinly sliced jalapeno, thai chile pepper, or any other pepper) you can buy diced hatch green chiles in a small can
- Optional: freshly grated Parmesan Can also add Red Chili Flakes, and chopped Parsley (or Cilantro if you prefer) to top it off
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
- Add two tablespoons ghee to a nonstick pan and add the chopped onion to it over med-high heat.
- Using a wooden spatula, mix it around occasionally to keep from burning. You want the onion to fry and get golden-brown. It may take about 15 minutes.
- Remove fried onion to a plate and place the pan back on heat.
- Add beef, pureéd onion, salt, pepper, and turmeric.
- Using the same spatula, incorporate together very well and break it up into small pieces.
- Once all liquid evaporates, add tomato paste and fully incorporate.
- Add cinnamon and mix in well.
- Remove pan from heat.
- Place the sangak bread (or whatever crust you’re using) onto the back of an upside down cookie sheet.
- Drizzle about two tablespoons of olive oil all over the sangak bread.
- Top with mozzarella, then garlic, and green chiles.
- Place in oven until cheese has melted and started to bubble (approximately 15 minutes).
- Remove from oven and top with parmesan, chili flakes, and chopped parsley (or cilantro) before slicing into squares. Enjoy!
- ~~If you enjoyed this recipe, please rate it below and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos!~~
Awesome idea
Thanks, I thought so! Ha! 😉
I don’t eat meat, so I used beyond meat ground instead of beef. Delicious! 😋