These are an awesome weeknight meal since they are quick, delicious, healthy, and lastly makes enough for leftovers for lunches!! My recipe that I made uses a mix of ground beef and lamb but if you only can find or prefer just beef , you can just replace the lamb with more ground beef. This creates tasty gyro patties all wrapped inside of a warm toasted pita and topped with tart dill tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, and onions! This is a perfect fast meal that is a complete meal in one but can also be served with a light salad too!
Ingredients:
GYROS MEAT:
1/2 lb lean ground lamb
1/2 lb lean ground beef
2-4 cloves garlic (depends on size), grated
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/4 teaspoon salt + 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
TZATZIKI SAUCE:
1 cup greek yogurt
2 clove garlic, grated
2 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon dill
TO SERVE:
Pita bread
Thinly sliced onions
Thick Sliced tomatoes
Lettuce
Instructions:
1. In a bowl combine the ground lamb, beef, garlic, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Mix and make sure well combined, you can either use your hands if you'd like but for some people that are squeamish about raw meat you can just use a spoon! Shape the meat into 10-12 small patties. However, you can also just shape them into 4-5 larger ones if you'd want to. Then set aside to rest and let the flavors marinate.
2. Finely chop the dill and then in a small bowl combine the ingredients for the tzatziki sauce. Add salt and pepper to your liking. As well, set aside for serving.
3. In a non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of non-flavored oil (I prefer to use canola or vegetable since olive oil tends to have a lingering taste) and pan fry the patties for around 3-4 minutes (small ones) and 6 minutes (large ones) or until they are cooked to desired doneness.
TO SERVE:
Toast the pita bread in a dry pan
Then layer with gyro patties, sliced onions, tomatoes, and lettuce. Top with tzatziki sauce and serve. Like in my pictures you can also take wax or parchment paper and wrap the base of them tightly so they stay together while you eat them!
Also I forgot if you want to make the sauce less tart, you can grate 1/3 of a cucumber, squeeze out as much liquid from it that you can, and mix into the sauce. This will help dilute the tartness and level it out if you would like!
Lastly and most importantly, this was Teija approved so it works for even the pickiest eaters! :)