This week for some reason I have been wanting Greek food. Don't know why, could be something to do with making insane amounts of Tzatziki sauce at work. Anyway, this Greek craving prompted the making of turkey gyros Monday night. I had never made them before but had made the Tzatziki sauce (obviously) and had seen coworkers make gyros so I figured I could wing it. Luckily, I was right! So here is the recipe. . .it was a little difficult to write because I just made it up as I went along. Hopefully it makes sense: )
Whitney's Turkey Gyro Pita Sandwich Thingys
Ingredients:
1 lb thin sliced turkey (I used just plain oven roasted turkey from my grocery's deli)
4 pitas
2 or 3 teaspoons Greek Seasoning (buy from store or see below)
Tzatziki sauce (see below or buy from store: )
Spinach (enough for 4 pita sandwiches)
Feta cheese
Yield- 4 pita sandwich things
Method:
Preheat oven to 300. Place a skillet over medium-high heat (or use a griddle set to 200-250) and add about 2 or 3 teaspoons olive oil to the pan. Here you could either season the turkey with the Greek seasoning then add it to the hot pan or add the turkey to the hot pan and toss with seasoning. I chose the latter, but I'm pretty sure it will turn out the same either way. While turkey is cooking, stick pitas in the warm oven. It should only take a couple minutes to get the pitas warm. Toss turkey a couple times while cooking. Cook until turkey is slightly browned.
When turkey is done it is time to assemble the pita sandwich thingys! Put warm pita on the plate, spread desired amount of tzatziki sauce on the pita. Layer spinach, turkey and feta cheese over sauce.
You can either eat them open-faced with a fork like this:
(Sorry for the awful picture and the shadow of me holding the camera)
Or you can fold it taco style and eat it like a sandwich thingy: ) Like this:
(I made a rather large pita sandwich and had to hold it down: )
Okay now for the Greek Seasoning.
Note: This is just what I use as Greek seasoning. There are many different spice combinations that will work for Greek style seasoning. Google is an excellent resource if you would like to play around with your own combinations. Also, zatar seasoning is another type of Greek seasoning that would work great.
Greek Seasoning
Equal parts: Onion powder, cumin, pepper, oregano and garlic salt. I probably added a little more oregano and garlic salt than the other spices. You can either make this in bulk ahead of time by mixing everything together and storing in an airtight storage container (great seasoning mix for other dishes, btw) or just sprinkle the different seasonings on the turkey in approximately equal amounts. I, again, chose the latter: )
Tzatziki sauce
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup very finely diced red onion
1/4 cup very finely diced cucumber
1.5 teaspoons dried dill
.5 teaspoons dried basil
1.5 teaspoons lemon juice
Mix all ingredients together and let chill for an hour or so before using. You can use it right away, but the flavors fully combine and it tastes a little better after chilling for a while.
It may be worth making extra tzatziki sauce and Greek seasoning. I definitely made way too much tzatziki sauce and therefore needed something to make to use the leftovers. Because I was still craving Greek food, Tuesday night I made Gyro burgers. Add Greek seasoning (as much or as little as you want, depending on how much you want to flavor the burger), 1/2 cup finely diced red onion, 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 1-2 cloves of garlic, 1-2 tsps crushed red pepper flakes and some finely crumbled feta cheese (how much, again, depends on how much you want) to 1 pound ground beef or turkey. Form into 1/4 pound patties and grill (I used my griddle because it is WAY too cold outside for the actual grill). When patties are close to being done, top with a slice of mild cheese, I used swiss, and cook until melted. Top with tzatziki sauce and spinach and sandwich between two whole grain buns. Excellent!
You can also add other vegetables and/or cheeses to your gyros or gyro burgers. Romain or iceburg lettuce (or just about any other leafy green) would work instead of spinach. You could add diced tomatoes or peppers as well. Its up to you!
Again, let me know if you have any questions: ).
Most anyone can follow a recipe. But what if you don't like certain aspects of the recipe? What if you want to make the recipe a little healthier? Altering a recipe can be daunting. It can be difficult to know which parts of the recipe can be changed without causing disastrous results. At least, it was for me when I first started cooking. Can I use a different meat, cheese, vegetable, amount or add in a different spice? Will those changes work with the other components of the recipe? Will changing one ingredient necessitate a change in or addition of other ingredients? Why even bother thinking about this? Screw creativity, I'm just going to cook the recipe as is! Maybe you don't have these thoughts when you want to change a recipe, but if you do...here is my advice: ).
My example recipe is from Campbell's kitchen. Here is the original. . .
Beef Taco Skillet
1 pound ground beef
1 can (Campbell's) Condensed Tomato Soup
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup water
6 flour tortillas (6 inch, cut into 1 inch pieces)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Brown beef over medium-high heat, pour off any fat. Stir in soup, salsa, water and tortillas, heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook 5 minutes. Stir in cheese and serve.
I made this recipe, as is, several times before I tried to change it. I think this is a good idea. Why? Making a recipe allows you to get to know the recipe and its flavor profile. I feel this makes it easier to alter, even if you just make it once. Anyway...back to the original recipe. It was great! Easy, quick and tasted pretty darn good too. Why did I want to change it? I felt it could be made healthier without losing flavor. Luckily, I was correct: )
First Alteration Attempt
I decided the first change that needed to be made was the meat. Ground beef has great flavor, but even extra lean ground beef isn't as healthy as ground turkey. At first, I tried just changing that and nothing else. Straight substitution. The result was fine, but the flavor was seriously lacking. I made a mental note of the lack of flavor for the next alteration attempt.
Second Alteration Attempt
I decided to use a taco seasoning packet to flavor the turkey. I made the taco meat as per the directions and then followed the rest of the original recipe. This version of the recipe was over-seasoned. The flavor of the salsa was completely overpowered by the taco turkey. Also, I realized that the flour tortillas could probably be substituted for whole grain tortillas.
Third Alteration Attempt
For the third alteration attempt I decided that I liked the idea of using taco seasoning for the turkey, but didn't want to use a whole packet of taco seasoning. Instead, I just used spices from my spice rack to make my own version of taco seasoning. I happened to know what spices are normally in taco seasoning because I make taco seasoning at work a lot. Had I not known, Google is an excellent resource for figuring out what is in different seasoning groups: ). Also, for this attempt at the recipe I used the whole grain tortillas instead of flour and I used half the amount of cheddar cheese. This version was a definite success. The meat was seasoned but the salsa and tomato soup flavor not overpowered. The whole grain tortillas were actually better than the flour ones because they didn't end up at all mushy. The missing cheddar cheese was not noticeable.
Directions for the Turkey Taco Skillet
1 pound ground turkey
about 2ish tablespoons homemade taco seasoning (proportions below)
1 can (Campbell's) Condensed Tomato Soup
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup water
6 whole wheat tortillas (6 inch, cut into 1 inch pieces)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Brown turkey over medium-high heat with taco seasoning, pour off any fat. Stir in soup, salsa, water and tortillas, heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook 5 minutes. Stir in cheese and serve.
Taco Seasoning
4 parts chili powder
4 part cumin
2 parts dehydrated onion (or .25 parts onion powder)
2 parts garlic powder
1 part oregano
1 part cayenne pepper
1 part salt
a little bit of black pepper
Note: You can use this taco seasoning recipe (which is similar to my work one) or you can do what I do, which is just shake different seasonings over the meat until it smells right: )
Another general note: If you want to just play around with spices in the kitchen and are a little intimidated, there is an easy way to figure out if a spice will work in a dish. It may seem (and look) a little ridiculous but I like to hold an open spice jar over the dish that I am making and smell them together. If they smell good, I add the new spice in (in small amounts, tasting as I go). If they smell bad, I skip that spice and try another one.
Questions? Let me know! I'll try to check the comments everyday: )
