Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.

Flavors · Kayseri

Kayseri mantısı

Tiny dough dumplings filled with beef, onion and basil, boiled and topped with butter, tomato paste and pepper, with yogurt and sumac optional: Kayseri mantı.

Traditional dish from Kayseri

Also known as: Kayseri mantı, mantı, Kayseri mantisi

Updated October 2026

Click a photo to enlarge it.

Kayseri mantısı — Kayseri, Turkey — Kayseri mantısı

Kayseri mantısı — Kayseri, Turkey

Kayseri, in Central Anatolia at the foot of Mount Erciyes, is the province most associated with mantı in Turkey. What sets Kayseri mantı apart is the size: the dough of flour, egg, water and salt is rolled to about 1 millimeter and cut into little squares of 1.5 centimeters per side. A pinch of filling goes into each, and the edges are folded closed by hand.

The filling is lean raw minced beef mixed with onion, basil, red pepper powder and black pepper. The mantı cook in salted water for about 15 minutes and are plated with a sauce of butter, tomato paste and red pepper. Yogurt, with or without garlic, and sumac are optional — people add them if they wish.

A local saying holds that forty mantı should fit on a boxwood spoon ("Bir şimşir kaşıkta kırk tane mantı"), and the geographical indication record cites that phrase to explain the size. The skill of rolling and closing such tiny dough is passed down in homes, which is why the registration covers the whole province.

The name "Kayseri Mantısı" has a geographical indication registered since 2009 (no. 113), requested by the Kayseri Chamber of Commerce. There are versions sold dried, to cook at home. In the province there are other types of mantı, such as yağ mantısı, fried or baked.

Where it comes from

Kayseri
A home tradition across the entire province; the geographical indication is limited to the province of Kayseri.

Ingredients

Dough of wheat flour, egg, water and salt; filling of lean minced beef, onion, basil, red pepper and black pepper; sauce of butter, tomato paste and red pepper; yogurt (with or without garlic) and sumac optional.

How it is eaten

Hot, served in a deep plate with the butter sauce on top and, if desired, yogurt and sumac; eaten with a spoon or fork.

When it is eaten

Year-round, for lunch or dinner.

Your questions

Questions about Kayseri mantısı

What is the difference of Kayseri mantı?

The size: each little dumpling is about 1.5 centimeters per side, and the local saying says forty should fit on a spoon. The filling is beef with onion and basil, and the sauce is butter with tomato and pepper.

Does Kayseri mantı include yogurt?

Yogurt is optional, with or without garlic. What is always present is the butter sauce with tomato paste and red pepper. Many people sprinkle sumac on top.

Can you take Kayseri mantı home?

There are dried, packaged mantı suitable for cooking later. Food import rules in your country may change: check before you travel.

Flavors of Turkey

Discover other flavors of Turkey

Dish · Adana

Adana kebabı

Wide skewer of lamb meat with tail fat, hand-chopped (zırh) with red pepper, grilled over coals and served with lavaş, onion with sumac, and grilled tomato and pepper.

Dish · Adıyaman

Adıyaman etsiz çiğ köfte

Fine bulgur hand-kneaded with dried pepper (isot), pepper and tomato paste, onion, garlic, walnuts, parsley, pomegranate molasses and spices, meatless, served in lettuce leaves: Adıyaman çiğ köfte.

Dish · Ancara

Ankara tava

Shoulder and rib of lamb roasted for hours in a stone oven, served over rice cooked in the meat’s broth in a tinned copper dish with lid: the meat dish of the province of Ankara.

Dish · Antália

Antalya piyazı

Small white beans with tahini tarator sauce, garlic, lemon and vinegar, boiled egg, tomato and parsley: in other regions piyaz is a salad; in Antalya it is a main course.

Dish · Bodrum

Bodrum çökertme kebabı

Very thin shoestring fries, garlic yogurt and strips of beef sautéed in butter, layered on the same plate: çökertme is Bodrum’s kebab, served in the district since the 1960s.

Dish · Bursa

İskender kebap

Thin slices of döner atop pieces of pide bread, with tomato sauce, hot butter poured at the table and yogurt on the side: the kebab named after İskender Efendi of Bursa.

Sweet · Çanakkale

Gelibolu peynir helvası

Sweet made from unsalted fresh cheese cooked with wheat flour and sugar until fibrous and glossy, served hot: the specialty of Gelibolu, on the Gallipoli peninsula on the European side of Çanakkale.

Dish · Çorum

İskilip dolması

Rice cooked for about 12 hours by steam in a copper pot sealed with dough, over the meat and butter, served in a large copper dish: the wedding dish of İskilip, in Çorum.

Dish · Denizli

Denizli kebabı

Lamb under one year old roasted for two to three hours in a brick oven with an earthen floor, cut with a butcher’s cleaver and served with pide bread, onion and tomato, to be eaten with the hands.

Dish · Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır ciğer kebabı

Skewers of lamb liver alternated with tail fat, seasoned with pepper, thyme, coriander and sumac and grilled over coals, served on lavash: in Diyarbakır people even eat it for breakfast.

Dish · Edirne

Edirne tava ciğeri

Beef liver sliced into very thin sheets, dusted in flour and fried briefly, served with fried dried red peppers: the best-known dish of Edirne, near the border with Greece and Bulgaria.

Dish · Erzurum

Cağ kebabı

Lamb meat seasoned with onion, salt and black pepper, stacked on a horizontal spit that turns before a wood fire and served on skewers (cağ): the kebab of Erzurum and Oltu.

Dish · Eskişehir

Çibörek

Half-moon pastry made from very thin dough, filled with raw minced meat and onion that cooks during frying and remains juicy inside: the çibörek of the Crimean Tatars, which became Eskişehir’s signature dish.

Dish · Esmirna

Boyoz

Small round roll of puff pastry made from stretched dough, oil and tahini, baked in a hot oven: boyoz is İzmir’s breakfast, eaten with a boiled egg and tea.

Sweet · Gaziantep

Antep baklavası

Ultra-thin layers of phyllo pastry with Antep pistachio and butter, drenched in syrup: Gaziantep baklava was the first Turkish product protected as a geographical indication in the European Union.

Sweet · Hatay

Antakya künefesi

Two layers of kadayıf dough in threads with butter and unsalted fresh cheese in the middle, golden on both sides and poured with hot syrup: Antakya's künefe, a hot dish with the cheese stretching.

Dish · Istambul

Eminönü balık ekmek

The fish sandwich of Istanbul's historic center: grilled fillet, usually mackerel, inside bread, with lettuce, onion and lemon, sold at the Eminönü piers beside the Galata Bridge.

Sweet · Kahramanmaraş

Maraş dondurması

Ice cream made from goat's milk, sugar and salep, dense, elastic and slow to melt: Maraş ice cream, from Kahramanmaraş, that stretches and is chewed.

Dish · Kars

Tandırda kaz çekmesi (kaz asması)

Goose raised on the Kars plateau, salted at the start of winter and roasted in the tandır, with wheat pilaf (bulgur) cooked directly beneath in the fat dripping from the bird: Kars's winter dish.

Sweet · Kocaeli

İzmit pişmaniyesi

Very fine threads of hand-pulled sugar and wheat flour toasted in butter, with a cotton-like texture that melts in the mouth: İzmit pişmaniye, a sweet memento of Kocaeli.

Dish · Konya

Konya etliekmek

Very thin dough, nearly a meter long, topped with minced meat, tomato, pepper and onion and baked in a wood-fired stone oven: Konya etliekmek is served cut into pieces.

Dish · Mardin

Mardin kaburga dolması

Lamb rib opened like a pocket, stuffed with rice, meat, almonds and spices, sewn up, cooked for hours and browned in the oven: Mardin's celebration dish.

Dish · Nevşehir

Nevşehir testi kebabı

Meat and vegetables cooked inside a clay pot from Avanos, sealed with a flour dough; at the table the pot is broken when served. It is the best-known dish of Cappadocia.

Dish · Rize

Rize muhlaması

Cornmeal toasted in butter, cooked in water until it becomes a creamy porridge, with melted kolot cheese on top that stretches: Rize muhlama, made in a copper pan with a wooden spoon and served hot.

Sweet · Safranbolu

Safranbolu lokumu

Lokum (the Turkish delight) cooked for hours in a copper cauldron, rolled in coconut and filled with hazelnut; the saffron version, in cubes, recalls the name Safranbolu, an Ottoman town listed by UNESCO.

Dish · Şanlıurfa

Urfa patlıcanlı kebabı

Small meatballs of hand‑chopped lamb alternated with pieces of eggplant on a skewer, grilled over charcoal: Şanlıurfa eggplant kebab, served with grilled pepper, onion and bread.

Dish · Siirt

Siirt büryan kebabı

Young lamb steamed, hung inside a pit-oven about 3 meters deep, served early at dawn: büryan is Siirt's breakfast.

Dish · Tekirdağ

Tekirdağ köftesi

Small cylindrical beef meatballs made with day-old bread, red onion, cumin and pepper, grilled over charcoal and served in portions of ten, with spicy sauce and roasted pepper.

Dish · Tokat

Tokat kebabı

Lamb, tail fat, eggplant and potato on a skewer hung in a dedicated oven, with tomato, pepper and roasted garlic alongside, served on thin bread: the Tokat kebab, born in vineyard houses.

Dish · Trebizonda

Akçaabat köftesi

Flattened beef meatballs, day-old bread, garlic and salt, grilled over charcoal and served with grilled pepper and tomato: the Akçaabat köfte, on the shores of the Black Sea in Trabzon.

All the flavors of Turkey