Three Marinades for the Best Stuffed Pitas of Your Life
Warning: these are seriously addictive
The Capsule Pantry in one sentence: Save money, time, and food waste by adopting a Capsule Pantry approach — a small number of ingredients that form the basis of thousands of different, highly flexible recipes.
Is there anything better than grilled meat (or veggies) wrapped in bread shoved in your face hole?
I think not.
Luckily for me (but perhaps not for my gut) I’ve recently spent a few weeks in Albania — a country with an excellent food scene (it surprised me too).
And they have Gyros. Lots of Gyros.
Gyros is the Greek name for pita bread smeared with tzatziki (cucumber and garlic yogurt), packed with tomatoes, slices of pork (or chicken), and even a couple of fries. It’s to be eaten frequently and with gusto, ideally at 2 am after a couple of beers (but I’ve been known to scoff them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner).
These wraps — meat, yogurt, and vegetables — can be found anywhere the Ottoman Empire had an influence, from the doner kebab to the shwarma to the souvlaki.
And they are the inspiration for today’s article. Three marinades that you can use on chicken, pork, vegetables, or whatever floats your boat.
Wrap them in flatbreads, serve them with tzatziki, hot sauce, quick pickled onions, salad…the world here is your oyster.
Each of these marinades are designed for 500g / 1lb meat which will serve around 4 people. You can use pork, beef, chicken or lamb. Cut your meat into 1/2-inch dice.
Substitute for vegetables such as courgettes, aubergines, onions, and bell peppers if you want a vegetarian alternative.
The first dish is less of a marinade, more of a recipe.
The second two are marinades that can be made in advance. The meat / vegetables should marinade for at least an hour.
You can skewer them and grill them on the BBQ or if you don’t have one to hand, fry them in a hot frying pan with a little bit of oil until they’re cooked through and slightly charred on the outside.
Key: Bold = Capsule Pantry ingredients
Marinade no. 1: Shwarma
1 medium white onion, cut thinly into half moons
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground (or use ground cumin)
1 large tomato cut in half
1/2 lemon, squeezed
1 tsp chili flakes
Fry your vegetables / meat until they’re cooked.
Take them out of the pan, turn down the heat and add the onion (you may need to add more oil at this point), frying until softened.
Throw in the garlic and fry for a minute or two, being careful not to catch it.
Return the meat / vegetables to the pan, then add the cumin and chili flakes. Fry on medium heat for a minute or so until the cumin becomes fragrant.
Take each half of the tomato and squeeze out the contents into the pan as if it was a lemon.
Add the lemon juice.
Bubble the mixture for another couple of minutes, add a tiny splash of water if the mixture becomes too dry.
Marinade no. 2: Pincho Moruño
These are found extensively around Spain and are typically made with pork but you can use any vegetables you like or even chicken breast.
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp each smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, turmeric (omit the tumeric if you don’t have it to hand)
Juice of half a lemon
Marinade no. 3: Greek Souvlaki
2 cloves of crushed garlic
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp red wine
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp oregano
To serve
Make a quantity of basic flatbreads.
Make a quantity of tzatziki
Quick pickle onions by marinading thinly sliced half moons of white onion with lemon juice, a tiny splash of olive oil, a pinch of salt and sugar.
Reimagine any leftover meat or vegetables as a salad. Mix in with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, or whatever salad ingredients you have to hand.
Flatbreads can be easily batched. Make plenty in advance and freeze them. Defrost by heating them in the oven wrapped in tin foil.
Leftover tzatziki can form the basis of Turkish eggs for next day’s breakfast.