Minced Meat Pie

Name: Minced Meat Pie (Roqaq)
Cuisine: Egyptian
Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil; 2 garlic cloves, minced; 1 yellow onion, diced; 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) minced (ground) beef; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; ½ tsp ground allspice; ½ tsp ground nutmeg; ½ tsp paprika; 50 g (1¾ oz) pine nuts; 100 g (3½ oz) butter, melted, plus extra for greasing; 250 g (9 oz) filo (phyllo) pastry; 50 ml (1¾ fl oz/3½ tbsp) whole milk; 1 egg; Sea salt and ground black pepper; Sea salt and ground black pepper

Roqaq

Preparation info

Serves
6-8

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Egypt

By Suzanne Zeidy and Rawah Badrawi

Published 2026

About

The Egyptian meat pie is a popular crowd-pleaser. Traditionally, Aswanis use roqaq dough - thin, dried sheets of dough that can be either homemade or store-bought. For ease and convenience, our recipe uses filo pastry as a substitute, and the result is a mildly spiced meat pie loved by all.

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, diced<

Africa
Egypt
Aswan
Dessert
Low carb
Spicy
Vegan
Mediterranean

Method

In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and sauté the garlic until fragrant. Add the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add the ground beef and stir to break it up with a wooden spoon. Add the cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and paprika and season with salt and pepper, then stir occasionally for 10-12 minutes over medium heat until the meat i