Lavash
Paper-thin unleavened flatbread, blistered and scored in the tradition of the hearth.
Step-by-step →Appetiser · Constantinople
TOPIK
Թոփիկ
A chickpea and potato sheet rolled around sweet onion, tahini and currants — Lenten food dressed for a banquet.
1 h 30 min
Total time
Serves 8
Yield
4
Steps
Step by step
HOW IT IS MADE
- 01
Cook the onions down
Steam or fry the onions very slowly with a pinch of salt for forty minutes until sweet, pale and collapsed. Cool completely.
- 02
Make the filling
Mix the onions with tahini, currants, pine nuts, spices, sugar and lemon into a thick paste.
- 03
Make the casing
Mash chickpeas and potato smooth with salt, then spread the mixture into a rectangle on a damp cloth.
- 04
Roll and chill
Spoon the filling along the centre, use the cloth to roll it into a sealed log, chill four hours and slice with lemon and oil.
At a glance
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Energy
- ≈ 310 kcal per serving
- Preparation
- 1 h
- Cooking
- 40 min onions + 4 h chilling
- Season
- Lent, especially early spring
- Occasion
- Lenten tables, formal starters, Bolsahay holiday meals
Cook's notes
GET IT RIGHT
- The onions must not brown at all; sweetness comes from slow heat.
- Cool the filling completely before rolling or the casing tears.
- Use a damp cloth or cling film to roll — it will not hold by hand.
- Chill fully before slicing, and use a thin, wet knife.
Variations
Individual topik
Shaped into small balls with filling hidden inside each one.
With tahini crust
Extra tahini brushed over the outside before chilling.
Questions
ASKED IN THE KITCHEN
Why is my roll cracking?
The casing is too dry or too warm. Add a spoon of chickpea water and chill it.
Is it vegan?
Yes, entirely.
History & Culture
WHY THIS DISH
Topik is a Bolsahay dish — Armenian Constantinople — and the classic fasting starter in a cuisine where Lent lasted seven weeks and still had to impress guests.
Its filling is essentially a lesson in patience with onions; old cookbooks insist that any browning at all is a fault, because the sweetness must come from time, not colour.
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