Qistibi is a popular traditional dish in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. It is roasted unleavened flatbread with various fillings inside. The most popular filling is mashed potato but can also be made using millet’s or herbs & cheese or meat’s. The filling is placed on one half of the flat bread and is covered by the other half. It is then shallow fried on a pan with a dollop of butter. This recipe is similar to Turkish Glozleme, which I have prepared earlier and hence I decided to skip the herbs this time, but would definitely love to try the one with millet’s. Infact I read on net that Qistibi is an ancient flour product in the Tatar cuisine (The Turkish-speaking people living in the central regions of the European part of Russia). (Source Wikipedia )
The dish is very simple and can be made in no time. Generally it is served hot and goes well with tea, but we enjoyed this as a dinner along with some Tomato Chutney. Since I made this for our dinner and after coming from office, I did not plan out and hence decided to do the most common filling of potatoes. I referred the recipe on Mayuri’s blog and she has added some shallow fried onion’s, which I did like as it adds to the crunch. The consistency of this potatoes is like mashed potatoes, so that we can spread it out nicely.
So check out my version of Qistibi here.

Qistibi
Ingredients
For the flatbread:
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 tbsp butter at room temperature
- ¼ tsp salt
- a generous pinch of soda bicarbonate
- ¼ tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp plain yogurt (1 can replace with 1 egg)
- 4 tbsp milk
For the Filling of mashed potatoes
- 2 medium potatoes boiled and mashed
- ½ tsp salt
- 3-4 tbsp milk
- 1-2 tbsp butter
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- Butter for Shallow Frying
- Flour for Dusting while rolling
Instructions
Preparation of the dough:
- Sift the flour, salt, sugar and baking soda in a bowl.
- Add in the butter and gently rub it in the flour mixture.
- Add the yogurt and milk to the flour and make a smooth dough.
- Let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes.
Preparation of the mashed potatoes:
- Stir fry the chopped onion in little butter or oil.
- Add salt, pepper, milk and butter to the finely mashed potatoes.
- Add the onion to the potato mix and mix everything and let it cool.
Preparation of the FlatBread
- Divide the dough into equal parts. No of parts depends on the size you want to roll in. I was able to make 8-9
- Roll each ball into a thin circle around 7-8 inches in diameter, like a tortilla (as thin as possible)
- Heat a pan on medium and cook the flatbread's for a min or two on each side until you see some bubble.s
- Keep the cooked flatbread in a clean kitchen towel.
- Repeat the above steps with the remaining dough balls.
Assembling and Preparing the Qistibi:
- Heat the pan again over medium heat.
- Divide the mashed potato mixture into as many parts as you have the flatbreads.
- Take one flatbread and spread the mashed potato on half side of the flatbread. i.e. a half circle. Spread the mix as evenly and as thinly as possible.
- Flip the other half on top of this like a quesadilla.
- Heat a pan and lightly grease it with butter or oil
- Shallow fry on the side on slow to medium heat until golden brown or cooked from bottom.
- Apply some butter on the top , flip and cook it on the other side too until golden brown.
- Repeat the above steps for the remaining flatbread.
- Serve Qistibi warm with some tea or sour cream or some tangy chutney.
Recipes in this series of A-Z International FlatBreads
B- Boxty – Irish Potato FlatBread
F-Farinata Genovese : Ligurian Chickpea Flatbread
G- Gözleme (Turkish Flatbread with Potato, Spinach, Mint and Feta Cheese)
H- Harcha (Moroccan FlatBread)
I – Injera (Ethiopian FlatBread)
K-Knäckebröd – Swedish Multi-Seed Crispbread
L- Lachuch (Yemenite FlatBread)
M-Manakish Za’atar (Levantine Flatbread)
N-Noni Afghani (Afghan Flatbread)
O-Omani Maldouf – A FlatBread made with Dates
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Day 17- International Flat Breads – Letter Q
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 92
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code2cook
Monday 22nd of October 2018
fabulous search Renu, amazing that you got qistibi bread for letter q that too under International flatbread. with filling mashed potatoes it would be so flavorful. You rocked in this BM.
Sandhya Ramakrishnan
Sunday 21st of October 2018
The qistibi looks so flavorful and this was my first choice for the alphabet but made something else later. Love the creamy potato filling.
Ritu Tangri
Sunday 21st of October 2018
This bread resembles with our very ow aloo ka paratha, though with little variations.
Padmajha PJ
Tuesday 16th of October 2018
You have found such a nice recipe for the Alphabet! So much like our aloo paratha but a differently flavored one!!
Srivalli
Friday 12th of October 2018
I had also made this for previous edition for Q and enjoyed the crispy flatbread. Though we shouldn't compare we end up doing it and I felt this a crispy paratha. Your plate looks so inviting.