Topik

1. 1A vegan Lenten dish containing no meat, dairy, or egg
2. 2An outer shell of mashed chickpeas and potato
3. 3An inner filling of slow-cooked onions, currants, pine nuts, and warm spices (cinnamon, allspice)
4. 4Dressed and served with a tahini, lemon, and cinnamon coating

Slow-cooking onions until soft and sweet

Builds the deep, sweet-savory filling that defines topik

Wrapping the filling in a chickpea-potato shell

Creates the dish's signature stuffed, enclosed form, traditionally shaped in cloth

Served

Sliced and plated, coated with tahini sauce and dusted with spices

Temperature

cold

Portion

Appetizer / meze

Pairs with

Lemon wedges · Flatbread · Other Lenten meze

• Pine nuts → Omitadmissible

  Acceptable; the onion-currant core remains

• Tahini → Yogurt dressinginadmissible

  Breaks the Lenten (vegan) identity of the dish

• Chickpea-potato shell → Wheat-flour doughinadmissible

  Destroys the dish's defining legume-and-potato form

• Adding dairy or egg, which violates its Lenten/vegan identity
• Underseasoning the onion filling, which should be rich with cinnamon, allspice, and currants
• Making a coarse shell; the chickpea-potato exterior should be smooth

A traditional Armenian Lenten dish, especially refined within the Istanbul Armenian community, eaten during Great Lent when animal products are forbidden.

Claimed by: Armenia

1. 1.Armenian culinary tradition

Confidence: high