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Turkmenistan · Dough and pastry
Turkmen Gutap (Pumpkin Gutap)
Local name: Gutap
Thinly rolled dough filled with spiced pumpkin, cooked in a dry pan and served with butter and yogurt.
- Servings4
- Prep1 h
- Cooking35 min
- Total time1 h 35 min
- DifficultyMedium
🌱 VegetarianContains glutenContains dairy
About this dish
Gutap is a Turkmen flatbread pie: dough is rolled very thin, filled, folded into a half-moon and cooked on a saj or in a dry pan. Fillings change with the season; pumpkin, spinach and other greens, or minced meat are the most common. It is made for family meals, when guests visit and on festive days.
This pumpkin version follows the Ashgabat style known as Kädili Gutap. The dough is only flour, water and salt, rolled thin and cooked without oil. It is brushed with melted butter while hot and served with yogurt on the side.
Ingredients
Tick the ingredients off like a shopping list.
Dough
Filling
To serve
Method
Put the flour in a large bowl and mix in the salt. Add the warm water gradually and bring it together into a stiff dough.
Knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
Peel the pumpkin and grate it on the coarse side of a grater. Finely chop the onion.
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion for 5 minutes. Add the pumpkin, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until the moisture has cooked off.
Spread the filling on a plate and cool for 10 minutes. Hot filling will tear the dough.
Divide the rested dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each into a thin circle about 18 cm across on a floured surface.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of filling onto half of each circle, fold the other half over and press the edges firmly to seal into a half-moon.
Heat a wide dry pan or saj over medium heat. Cook the gutaps without oil for about 2 minutes per side until golden-brown spots appear.
Brush the cooked gutaps with melted butter straight away and stack them under a cloth to keep warm.
Serve hot with yogurt.
💡 Tips
- The dough must be stiff; soft dough sticks and tears when rolled thin.
- If the pumpkin is watery, cook the filling longer or squeeze it, otherwise the gutap turns soggy.
- Resting makes the dough far easier to roll out, so do not skip it.
- Heat the pan well but use no oil; the dough should puff and brown lightly.
- Stir chopped dill and coriander into the yogurt for a fresh dip.
🛒 Can't find it abroad?
- Pumpkin — Use butternut squash or sweet potato in the same amount.
- Coriander — Replace with dill or parsley in the yogurt dip.
This recipe was prepared with the help of AI, following the traditional home-style method; quantities, times and steps were checked automatically for consistency. Ovens and stoves differ, so check doneness by eye.
