Easy Lebanese Pizza

This Lebanese pizza recipe is super easy to make and really full of flavor. They make a nice change of pace from regular pizza. The Middle Eastern spices in the ground meat along with the store bough bread helps you to make this tasty dinner in just 20 minutes!

You might also like this Middle Eastern chicken & rice skillet recipe.

Every year I used to take my dad to Florida to visit his sister Margo, who just happened to be a fabulous cook. Everything she made was delicious but especially her Lebanese dishes. And while I could never cook her Lebanese dishes like she does, I do feel this easy Lebanese pizza recipe is one I feel good about making.

This is something she made for a quick dinner one night and she called them Armenian meat pies. I don’t know if technically they are Armenian, nor if they are meat pies or pizza. However I call my version an easy Lebanese flatbread, pizza or meat pie.

As I recall, Aunt Margo had used a flour tortilla (it was a long time ago) but I decided to use naan bread. Either way you make it, it’s a delicious snack or quick meal on busy weeknights. 

More dishes you can make with store-bought naan bread!

I love using naan bread to make pizza and flatbreads. It’s the perfect texture for meat pies too. I’ve made this Peach & Basil Flatbread, Apple & Cheese Flatbread and last year this Asiago, Sausage & Peppers Flatbread.

One of the reasons for my obsession with flatbreads is that naan bread is readily available at Aldi and Costco and I shop there often. They have a great chewy texture and the flavor to me is just tasty.

Plus you don’t have to spend hours making homemade pizza dough or mess with flour and yeast. It’s like a blank canvass ready to hold all your favorite toppings.

Recipe ingredients and substitutions.

I’m making these Lebanese meat pies from memory but below you can see what I used. The simple ingredients are lean ground beef, onion, tomato paste, cinnamon, salt, black pepper, parsley and naan bread.

Lean Ground Beef
The reason you want to use lean beef for this recipe is that it won’t shrink when it’s cooking nor will it add a lot of grease to the pizza. You can use higher fat ground meat but just be aware that it might get messy.

I think this recipe would be best with ground beef but you could try ground lamb or even ground turkey if you want.

Naan Bread
This is the base and I buy naan bread from Aldi and just love it. You can also use a flour tortilla like my aunt did but I prefer the naan as it’s more like a pizza bread. Note that this is not pita bread with is a bit drier. You could substitute with that too though.

Tomato Paste, Onion & Parsley
The tomato pastes gives the meat a delicious sweet tomato flavor and I would not substitute with tomato sauce or any other tomato product. Similarly the fresh onion and parsley give the meat more flavor so try to use them as well.

You could possible substitute dehydrated onion if you don’t have fresh. And you could skip the fresh parsley and use dried but it will taste better with the fresh.

Ground Cinnamon
The ground cinnamon spice is what gives the meat that middle eastern flavor that you might recognize in Lebanese food. This is a spice that my grandma used to use a lot and while some people don’t like the sweet flavor it imparts on the meat, if you like middle eastern food you will like it. I high suggest you use it in the recipe.

While most Italian pizza recipes have mozzarella cheese on them, this one does not. I’m not even sure what kind of cheese would work well with it so I’m not suggesting any.

How to make this easy Lebanese pizza.

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a baking tray with nonstick cooking spray.

Step 2: Get out the food processor and add the fresh parsley and onion. Pulse until it’s finely chopped. Next add the ground beef to the food processor and pulse just a few times to mix it with the onion mixture. You don’t want to overwork the ground beef as it will make it tough.

Step 3: Spoon the meat mixture to a large mixing bowl along with the tomato paste and spices. Mix it well with your hands to combine.

Step 4: Take some of the meat mixture and spread over the naan bread, using your hands to smooth and even it out. You want to it to go close to the edge if possible and not to be too thick. See below.

Step 5: Place the naan pizzas on the prepared baking sheet and spray the outer crust that is not covered with meat, with nonstick cooking spray. Or you can brush some olive oil instead of spraying.

Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes until the meat topping is cooked through and edges golden brown.

You could also put these under the oven broiler since you just need to cook the meat but it’s easier to bake in the oven.

Store leftovers in an airtight container. Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card.

And that is all there is to it. It is really tasty I’m telling you. There is something about both the tomato paste and cinnamon that give the meat a bit of sweetness and compliments the onion and parsley.

It’s a bit like kofta spread out on chewy naan bread and it’s a winning combination. You serve this with a green salad and make it meal!

To make the Lebanese pizza with a flour tortilla.

Another option you can use are flour tortillas. I think that is what my aunt used and so I tried both of those and the naan bread today.

I personally like the naan bread much better because the tortilla is a bit thin for the heavy meat. However it was also good. I would recommend not putting as much meat on the tortillas if you are using them. Here is what they look like.

As you can see my meat layer was a bit thick. Next time I would make it a bit thinner. Still the meat mixture is so tasty and so simple.

More easy Middle Eastern recipes to try.

I try to make my grandmother’s or aunt’s old recipes but take short cuts to make them quicker and easier. Here are a few of my favorite recipes with Middle Eastern flavors.

• stuffed zucchini with ground beef
• Middle Easternchicken and rice skillet
• short cut meat pies and spinach pies
• low carb tabouli with cauliflower rice
• green bean stew and eggplant beef stew
• keto kibbeh meatballs
• healthy chocolate tahini bites
• roasted cauliflower and rice

I hope you like this easy Lebanese pizza or meat pies recipe using naan bread. It’s great for those throw together meals on busy days. Enjoy!