Viral Mantı Recipe (Gluten Free Version)

You’ve probably seen this viral mantı recipe on social media. The filling is coated in flour, then placed into a bowl of water, then coated in flour again, and this process is repeated several times. In some of the videos I watched, the results looked visually quite impressive, while others unfortunately didn’t look very appetizing. Feedback from people who tried it also suggested that it’s not as easy as it looks and that with the same effort, you could just make traditional mantı. So it didn’t really tempt me to try it at first. But then I thought this method might actually work better in a gluten-free version, and I decided to create a gluten-free adaptation of the recipe.

Since whole gluten-free flours, by definition, don’t contain gluten, they would simply dissolve while boiling in water. So I either needed to use ready-made gluten-free flour blends with additives or rely on a binder like eggs. Since I don’t like the smell of packaged gluten-free flour mixes, I chose the second option. The first flour-coating step was quite easy, but as soon as I dropped the pieces into the water, they started sticking to each other and most of the flour coating washed off. So I quickly changed strategy and started dipping them into the water in small batches. I placed some mantı into a strainer, dipped it into the water, and took it out. Although this method made the process longer, it made it much more manageable. I repeated the flouring and wetting process three times.

On the fourth round, I cracked an egg into one of the flour bowls (which had about a teaspoon of flour left in it). I added a bit of water and whisked it to create a fluid mixture. I coated the mantı in this mixture and then dredged them in flour again. I want to emphasize that I did all these steps in small batches. If you try to do everything at once, they stick together. This is a process that requires patience, persistence, resilience, and trust in the process. And these qualities, in the kitchen, essentially mean experience. In short, if you don’t have much kitchen experience or if your first instinct when something goes wrong is to throw everything away, I wouldn’t recommend attempting this.

One of my favorite gluten-free flours is buckwheat flour, so I included it in my blend. The second flour I used was teff flour, and the third was almorta flour. Almorta is a legume grown in central Spain, sometimes referred to as “grass pea.” It is very rich in protein. However, when consumed in large quantities over a long period, it can cause a neurological condition called Lathyrism. That’s why it hasn’t gained widespread popularity in gluten-free products worldwide. I had bought it out of curiosity, and since I had it on hand, I decided to use it and boost the protein content of the mantı. You can substitute it with chickpea flour.

By the way, instead of preparing the egg mixture, you can also replace one of the flours with tapioca starch. Tapioca starch is used to make the pearls in bubble tea and does not dissolve in water. However, it is still a starch, meaning it contains almost no protein and has very low nutritional value. If your gluten-free diet allows such ingredients, you can prepare this recipe in a way that’s closer to the original.

After boiling the mantı, you can toss them with a small amount of oil, let them cool, and then freeze them for storage.

Enjoy…

Enjoy your meal.