Name: Shortcut Lebanese Meat Pies Recipe
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: 1/2 pound lean ground beef; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 1 tablespoon tahini (sesame paste); 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1/2 onion, finely chopped; 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; 1/4 cup pinenuts; 6 mini naan breads

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If you love the flavors of Middle Eastern food try this super simple Lebanese meat pies. I used a shortcut but these have all the flavor of traditional meat pies that my mom used to make. Eat this Lebanese meat pies for a light meal or even a snack. They are sure to satisfy your craving for Middle Eastern food.

You might also like these shortcut Lebanese spinach pies or spinach fatayers.

white plate with a Lebanese meat pie — *This post contains affiliate links. For more information visit our* *policies* *page.*

Growing up half Lebanese I was fortunate enough to sample some wonderful Middle Eastern cooking. My father’s mother and my aunts on his side made the best Lebanese dishes like kibbeh, stuffed grape leaves, lubbiah, malfouf, etc. And best of all my Irish German mom learned and mastered all their delicious recipes.

Unfortunately she died when I was 30 and I never really learned all her cooking secrets but I do remember how they tasted and I have her recipes. So today I tackled her Lebanese meat pies. I didn’t want to make the bread dough so I used mini Naan bread for the base because it has the right shape and taste. It was perfect to me!

The meat filling or topping was a mixture of onions, ground beef, tahini, yogurt and a few other simple ingredients. So to be clear this recipe is a shortcut version of traditional meat pies that doesn’t require making homemade dough. It has a similar taste but takes very little time.

aerial view of a baking sheet and white plate with meat pies

Recipe ingredients I used.

The simple ingredients you need to make these mini naan bread, meat pies are lean ground beef, lemon juice, plain yogurt, vinegar, tahini, salt, black pepper, yellow onion, cinnamon and pine nuts.

Normally you would be making your own dough with flour, yeast and other ingredients but my version is a shortcut recipe. My mom did make homemade dough from scratch and I remember her spending hours in the kitchen doing it. I wanted to simplify the process for this recipe.

Really the only unusual ingredient is tahini which is simply sesame seeds ground into a paste. Think of it like a nut butter using seeds instead. It’s used in a lot of Lebanese cooking like for hummus as an example. You should be able to find this in a larger grocery store or sometimes in a health food store.

The only spices are salt, pepper and cinnamon. My grandmother used cinnamon often and it’s something that I love and always reminds me of her cooking.

I have many childhood memories of all her delicious Lebanese dishes as we ate at her house every Wednesday. She was a wonderful cook and I was too young to appreciate it like I would now.

recipe ingredients, ground beef, pine nuts, yogurt, tahini, lemons, cinnamon, vinegar and naan

How to make shortcut Lebanese meat pies.

Step 1: Preheat 350°F and prepare a baking tray by spraying nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Step 2: Add onion to a food processor bowl and pulse until finely minced. Then add the ground beef, tahini, yogurt, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt, black pepper and vinegar and pulse until the meat starts to look like a paste but don’t over work it.

Step 3: Place the naan bread on the baking tray then take the ground meat mixture and spread until the naan as shown below. Then sprinkle a few pine nuts on top.

baking sheet with meat pies ready to go in the oven

Step 4: Spray the edges of the naan that is not covered with meat topping. You can also brush the edges with olive oil before hand instead of the spray. Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven. Bake for 15 minutes until the beef filling is fully cooked and the edges are a golden color.

Step 5: Take out the baking sheet and let cool before eating. Store leftover meat pies in an airtight container. These also freeze well if you have a freezer safe container or even a ziplock bag.

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The bread gets nice and crispy on the bottom and around the edges. The beef mixture has such delicious flavor and the toasted pine nuts are like the icing on the cake.

I was so happy with how these came out because I do not have the patience to make my own bread dough and I miss my mom’s cooking so much. This really was a good substitute for me.

More easy Lebanese recipes to try.

If you like Middle Eastern food and flavors here are a few more of my easy takes on the classics.

eggplant beef stew and green bean stew
low carb tabouli
easy Middle Eastern chicken couscous soup
low carb kibbeh meatballs
chicken and rice skillet dinner
stuffed zucchini with ground meat and pine nuts

a hand holding a half of Middle Eastern meat pie

Well that my friends is my shortcut Lebanese meat pies recipe. I think my version tastes so much like my mom’s but also so much easier. I have to say they were a hit with my family too so for those more adventurous eaters give them a taste and see if they like it too! Enjoy.