Vegetarian Gyro with Homemade Tzatziki
Every word I type right now is one less word that is going into my research paper. This blog is a lot of things for me – an outlet, a collection, an experiment – but it’s also an excellent tool for procrastination, alongside my guitar, my dog and the rest of the internet.
I bounce between them in order to stretch my homework in to the early morning hours, which is something I regularly do, but wouldn’t recommend. It’s difficult going back and forth, too. As I typed that last sentence, I questioned whether I should be writing this post in AP style or APA format, which is probably as depressing to read as it was to type.
Grad school isn’t for the faint of heart, I guess. It’s Saturday afternoon, and I’ve got another 15-2o pages of research paper to knock out before Tuesday at 5 p.m., and all I can think about is making a milkshake.
So, here I am, boring you and unclogging my writer’s block.
Brave New Food, ever a bountiful source for good ideas, recently sent me a link to a post about vegetarian gyros at Curvy Carrot.
CC’s recipe looked good, so I stuck to it pretty close, with the exception of two pretty big diffs. I made my own tzatziki sauce and instead of seitan, which I had none of, I used Gardein brand fake chicken breasts (which, for the record, taste pretty much like whatever you season them with – and they’re BOGO at Publix this week).
Traditional gyros use lamb, but if you’re veggie, seitan or any other meat sub would work nicely. Also, I know of those who make them with broccoli, instead of a meat-less sub.
Wanna complete the deal with homemade pita? Check out My Diverse Kitchen’s recipe here.
Without further ado.
Easier to make than it is to spell - Tzatziki
Here’s what you need (for the tzatziki): (makes more than you will use for two gyros, by the way)
- 8 oz plain Greek yogurt
- 1 cucumber
- 1/2 lemon
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Here’s what you need (for the gyros):
- 2 warm pitas
- 1 tomato, diced
- lettuce
- 2 fake chicken breasts, or 1 package of seitan strips, or 2 cups of broccolli
- 1/4 red onion, diced or cut into strips
- Cumin (two shakes)
- Cinnamon (one shake)
- Cayenne pepper (one shake)
- Nutmeg (a pinch)
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Here’s what to do:
Step 1) To make the tzatziki, peel and seed (scoop out the seed junk with a spoon) the cucumber. If you don’t seed the cucumber, your tzatziki will be unecessarily runny. Once prepared, dice the cucumber into pieces roughly the size of peanut M&M’s (that’s the best I’ve got today)
Scoop those seeds out!
Step 2) Mix the cucumber into the Greek yogurt, and add in two to three minced cloves of garlic, depending on how spicy you like things. Add in the olive oil, most of the juice from half a medium sized lemon, and some salt and pepper. Fold it all together, but don’t beat it to hard or the yogurt can begin to break down.
Step 3) Place the tzatziki in the fridge for a while, so it is nice and chilled when it’s time to serve. Oh, and don’t leave the cucumber out for too long after it’s been peeled. It’ll start browning like an apple.
Step 4) Place your fake chicken/seitan strips in a pan with a little evoo and cook according to package directions (plus a few minutes if you like it a little crispy like me). Once it is cooked through, season with the cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Let the flavors cook in for a minute or two, then remove.
Step 5) Place the chicken/seitan in a warm pita, and top with diced tomatoes, onions, lettuce and a generous helping of tzatziki sauce. Wrap it up in foil like they do on the mean streets of Greece.
If you’ve got leftover tzatziki sauce, which you will unless you are a tzatziki glutton, try them out as a topping on these Greek-inspired homemade spinach veggie burgers.