Pontic Greek Dumplings in Yogurt and Garlic (Manti Pontika)

Manti belong to an enormous family of small dumplings found from the Caucasus through Central Asia, and the Pontic Greek version arrived in Greece specifically through refugees from the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor, who resettled largely in Macedonia after the population exchanges of 1922 and kept the dish very much alive within their own communities and beyond.

The dumplings themselves are tiny, meant to be a genuine mouthful rather than a large parcel, folded by hand from a simple dough around a small amount of spiced minced meat, then boiled and served under a garlic-laced yogurt sauce with a drizzle of butter tinted red with paprika, a finish shared with several related dishes across the wider region.

This is real hands-on work, folding dozens of tiny dumplings by hand, and it is exactly the kind of thing traditionally done as a group activity around a kitchen table rather than a quick solo weeknight task.

Key preparation steps

1. Make a simple dough and roll it thin.
2. Cut into small squares and fill with a little spiced meat.
3. Fold each into a tiny sealed parcel.
4. Boil, then serve under garlic yogurt and paprika butter.

The dough and filling

A simple dough of flour, egg and water, rolled out as thin as you can manage and cut into small squares, about three centimetres across, holds a tiny amount of minced meat, seasoned with grated onion, salt and pepper, in the centre of each square. This filling is deliberately small, since manti are meant to be bite-sized rather than a substantial dumpling.

Folding by hand

Bring all four corners of each square up to meet in the centre and pinch firmly to seal, forming a small, closed parcel with a distinctive pinched top. This is genuinely fiddly, repetitive work, and it goes considerably faster with two or three people folding together than alone.

Boiling and the garlic yogurt finish

Boil the dumplings in salted water, or simmer them directly in a light stock, for around ten minutes, until the pastry is tender and the filling cooked through. Serve immediately under a generous amount of thick yogurt mixed with crushed garlic, and finish with a drizzle of melted butter that has been warmed with a little paprika until it turns a deep red-orange, poured over everything at the very last moment.

What matters in this dish