This Vegan Gyros is made with roasted oyster mushrooms and all the trimmings, including a vegan tzatziki! Get the recipe below.
Vegan Greek recipes
What's gyros?
Gyros is essentially Greek fast food. You might think it sounds like a Turkish kebab and there are some similarities.
Gyros is made by slicing thin strips off meat off of a vertical rotisserie. The meat might be pork or chicken but is sometimes beef or lamb.
They meat is often served inside a pita bread alongside fried potatoes, vegetables, tzatziki, and lemon.
What's the difference between souvlaki and gyros?
Unlike gryos, souvlaki is made up of small pieces of meat (often pork but sometimes chicken or lamb) which is grilled on a skewer. Like gyros it is also usually served with vegetables, fried potatoes, tzatziki, a lemon wedge and pita bread.
Although not authentic, I think my recipe has more similarities with gyros.
How to make vegan mushroom gyros
Now we know more about gyros, you might be wondering how we can make it vegan given the "star" of the shower is the rotisserie roasted meat.
You could use seitan to replace the meat, just like I did with my vegan shawarma but for this recipe I prefer to roast mushrooms.
My preferred mushrooms for this recipe are oyster mushrooms. I like them because they are frilly, creating lots of spaces for the spices to cling to and the edges get really crisp in the oven.
All you need to do is rub the oyster mushrooms with the olive oil and spices then place into the centre of the oven to roast for about 20 minutes.
When you roast mushrooms the water in them evaporates and they have a more intense flavour. It also gives them a much meatier texture making them perfect for a recipe like this..
Check out my guide to meat substitutes here.
All the trimmings
Alongside the roasted mushrooms which I've stuffed inside a pita, I serve cherry tomatoes, cucumber and thinly sliced red onion.
You could also add vegan feta if you wished.
How to make vegan tzatziki
On top of the veggies I add tzatziki. Tzatziki is sauce made from Greek yogurt, grated cucumber, garlic, salt, olive oil, a little lemon juice and mint.
To make vegan tzatziki all we have to do is replace the Greek yogurt. More and more brands are bringing out Greek style plant based yogurt but if you can't find any then plain soy based yogurts would do. I'd avoid plain yogurts made of coconut as I find you can still taste the coconut even if they say you can't!
Once you've grated your cucumber all you need to do is mix the ingredients together. You can decide on the consistency you like by adding more yogurt to make it thicker. It's up to you!
Once we've got our roasted mushrooms, our salad veggies and tzatziki it's time to eat out Vegan Gyros!
The recipe
Greek Mushrooms Gyros
Ingredients
For the vegan gyros
- 250 g oyster mushrooms
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1.5 tablespoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 0.5 teaspoon cumin
- 0.25 lemon juice only
- 8 cherry tomatoes halved
- 0.5 small red onion thinly sliced
- 2 inch cucumber thinly sliced
- 2 pita bread
For the vegan tzatziki
- 4 tablespoon vegan Greek yogurt
- 2 inch cucumber grated
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 0.25 lemon juice only
- 1 teaspoon dried mint
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
For the gyros
- Pre-heat your oven to 180 C / 356 F / gas mark 4.
- Rub the oyster mushrooms with the olive oil and slices.
- Place in a roasting tin and put into the centre of the oven for 20 minutes or until they have become brown and crispy around the edges.
- Stuff the mushrooms inside the pita along with the salad vegetables.
- Squeeze over the lemon juice.
For the tzatziki
- Stir together the tzatziki ingredients then spoon over the gyros.
Nutrition
More recipes inspired by the flavours of Greece
Would you like to see more Greek recipes?
Leave a Reply