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Vegan Shawarma Gyro Recipe
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen the parade of delicious vegan food I ate while I was in Tempe, Arizona for my recent Fascial Stretch Therapy certification course. I truly felt like I was eating my way through the vegan restaurants of Tempe. The last night I was there though, I went with my cousins Sonja and Ariana (who is vegan herself), to introduce them to my favorite, Green New American Vegetarian.
As we were standing in line scanning the menu before we ordered, Sonja mentioned that there was a special on the board. When I looked and saw it, I believe I actually started drooling right there.
Yes, they had a vegan shawarma gyro! I love shawarma so much that I thought that I’d died and gone to heaven! I’ve told this story before, but before I was vegetarian, Alan and I used to go to a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant called the Pita House once a week. We’d always order the Chicken Shawarma. I’ve made various copies over my vegan years, but this time I was inspired to create a shawarma gyro. Instead of vegan chicken though, I decided to use seitan. Feel free to use either, because they are both delicious with this dish.
- 1/2 teaspoon Garam Masala (usually used in Indian food, it is a blend of cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, cloves, coriander & black pepper)
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 cup tahini sauce
- 1/4 cup hummus
- 1 lemon
- 8 ounces seitan, cut into thin slices
- 1 cup quinoa (rice or freekeh will also work), cooked
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped and divided
- 1 medium tomato, chopped
- 1/2 cup cucumber, chopped
- ½ cup tahini sauce
- ½ cup hummus
- lavash or tortilla
- Blend the spices together. If you’re missing one, or if you don’t have the Garam Masala, use as many as you have.
- Combine the tahini, hummus, and the juice of ½ of the lemon. Stir in the spice mixture.
- In a small bowl, combine the tahini blend with the seitan. Set aside.
- Combine the cucumber, tomato, and half of the onions in a small bowl and set aside.
- Make the quinoa according to package directions.
- Preheat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the other half of the onions and cook, stirring frequently for about 2 minutes, or until the onion is starting to get soft.
- Add the seitan, allowing the marinade to drip off each piece before you add it to the pan. Brown on both sides. Reduce the heat and add the rest of the marinade. Allow to heat through.
- Tahini/hummus sauce: Combine the tahini, hummus and the juice of ½ lemon.
- Heat each lavash, either on a grill or microwave.
- Assemble the wrap: Place some quinoa, veggies, seitan, plus the tahini/hummus mixture on each lavash. Wrap up (you can hold it in place with foil).
Did you do anything special for the long weekend? Have you tried shawarma (or shwarma) before?
My weekly linkups! Please stop by and check out all of the great recipes, workouts, and information that all these awesome bloggers share every week!
Sunday Blog Hop with Jenn
Meatless Monday with Tina and Deborah
Meatless Monday with Annmarie
Inspire Me Monday with Janice
Anything Goes with Marilyn
Bonnie, the Pin Junkie
Tip Tuesday with Debbie in Shape
Wild Workout Wednesday with Annmarie, Michelle, Sarah, and Angelena Marie
Wednesday Wisdom with Nanna’s Wisdom
The Blog Booster Party with Kathleen
Friday Fitness with Jill
I have not tried it, but I love a good Gyro. Spent 4 months in Greece in my 20’s and have never had gyro as good stateside- but I try not to eat too much meat- maybe once or twice a month so this would be right up my alley.
I don’t know if I could keep up with an actual greek gyro :-). Plus these flavors are more middle eastern, based on my shawarma memories.
So interesting! I kind of want to make it with portobellos and freekeh 😀
Yes, that sounds good too. I’d make more meals like this with mushrooms, but my husband is not a super fan.
BTW, I made the leftovers, but they were a little thin, so I seasoned and added some mushrooms. Perfect!
OH YUM! I love gyros and this looks delicious!!!
Thank you. This is the first time I made this more gyro style. I’ve done bowls and pitas in the past. I think I like it this way the best!
I’m a huge gyro fan and the one’s we had this summer in Athens did not disappoint! These sound so great!
As I said above, I’m not sure I could keep up with a Greek gyro! They are good though 🙂
I do love Shawarma! I make mine with chicken. I don’t think the veggie version would go over well at this house! But it looks tasty to me.
Oh, just don’t tell them. Once you take mock chicken it a sauce it’s really hard to tell the difference. Even the texture is the same.
Well you know I am all over this! yum Thanks for linking up with us today have a great week
Thanks Deborah. I hope you get a chance to try it. Thanks for hosting the linkup.
I love all these flavors!
Me too. I really love the middle eastern spices.
I loooovee shawarma flavored things! Thank you for sharing, this sounds wonderful Debbie! So cool that jill won, Love her so happy for her and look forward to seeing her use it 🙂
Thanks Tina! The bag really is beautiful. I wish I could have won it 🙂
Yummy! Never had a gyro before because it’s not vegetarian, what a great way for me to try it.
It’s vegetarian if you make it vegetarian ;-).
This looks so delicious! I haven’t had greek food in a long time and this looks like a lot of fun to make. I always need new recipes for dinner, so I will have to try this.
YUM!!!
Thanks Natalie! I hope you enjoy it!
I love gyros! I especially love when restaurants put french fries in them! It’s totally not healthy but a girl can pretend!
I had fries with my gyro at the restaurant the other night but totally didn’t think about stuffing them inside! Missed opportunity!
Yum! This sounds like a fabulous dinner. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
Looks tasty. Thanks for linking up with me at http://www.runningonhappy.com. 🙂
Thanks for hosting the linkup!
I love Shwarma! I have never heard of Seitan though…what exactly is that?
Seitan is actually made from wheat gluten. It is usually steamed and seasoned and has a very meaty like flavor and texture. It’s fairly easy to make (you can buy the vital wheat gluten from Bob’s Red Mill and others), but I usually buy it because, well, lazy.
Gyros are always delicious! Yum yum yum!
They are! Delicious and messy 🙂
love that bag and love shawarma – that looks great!!
The bag is really nice. I wish I could have won it myself 🙂
Looks and sounds delicious. If i may ask what is setian ?
Seitan is wheat gluten. When it is prepared and seasoned properly it has a very meaty texture and flavor.
Hi Debbie,
Dropping by from the Sunday Blog Hop. Thank you for sharing this post on the linky!
I’m not vegan, but I would definitely try one of these! Love a good gyro.
Thanks again for sharing. Hope to see you on the link up again Sunday 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! I had the leftovers last night and they were even better 🙂
[ Smiles ] Great! I am for anything vegan!
Me too!
I’m not vegan but this looks delicious and I love this type of food Thanks for sharing the recipe with us at #WednesdaysWisdom.