Vegan Gyro with Tzatziki

Anybody eating any kind of plant-based diet has surely been asked something along the lines of "don't you miss bacon? What about sushi? Surely you miss cheeseburgers!" Most of the time we can honestly explain that we've moved past it - after that initial detox, your body quits asking for these things, and instead, you begin to crave other, plantier options. When I nixed meat, the only thing that really hung over my head was a craving for gyros. It was a bit odd because I had only discovered the dish in college, but I was so hooked on the savory, salty, complex goodness. Naturally, I soon decided that I needed to find a way to approximate it to fit my new diet. Lo and behold, it was done! I've been using this recipe for years, and only when I made it recently did it occur to me that it would be worth a share!

This recipe may look a bit more complex than many of my recipes to date - lots of ingredients, lots of pieces, lots of steps - but let me promise you that it is not nearly as daunting as it looks. The majority of the ingredients are spices and herbs that you can probably find in your kitchen already, and if not they're things you'll probably end up using more frequently than you may think. This is one of my go-to "I don't want to cook today" recipes because it is so easy and so fast. Any leftovers keep very well, too, and it's incredibly easy to scale up or down as necessary.

The below recipe makes enough vegan gyro for about 3 sandwiches, while the tzatziki yields a bit more. I ended up just finishing off the tzatziki with some hummus and veggies for a light but filling lunch.

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Ingredients for the Tzatziki

• 1 cup (5.3 oz) unsweetened, un-flavored vegan yogurt (I used Forager cashew milk yogurt)

• 0.25 cup cucumber, small diced

• 0.75 tsp onion powder

• 0.75 tsp garlic powder

• 3 tbsp fresh dill (or 1 tbsp dry)

• Juice of about half a lemon (around 1.5 tbsp)

• salt to taste

• Water to thin it out

Ingredients for the Vegan Gyro

• 1 package or about 8oz of your favorite seitan, cut into thin slices, about 2 inches long and half an inch thick (if your seitan is pre-sliced, no worries. It'll still work.)

• 0.5 tsp ground cumin

• 0.5 tsp dried thyme

• 0.5 tsp dried mint

• 0.25 tsp cumin seeds

• 0.25 tsp ground cinnamon

• 0.25 tsp dried marjoram

• 0.25 tsp dried oregano

• 0.25 tsp paprika

• 0.25 tsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp olive oil

Recommended Ingredients for making it a sandwich

• One pita for each sandwich (maybe consider trying out my fresh pita recipe!)

• Hummus

• Thinly sliced cucumbers

• Sliced tomatoes or quartered cherry tomatoes

• Whatever other add ons you may want!

Instructions for the Tzatziki

1. In a small bowl, mix all of the listed ingredients, from the yogurt through lemon juice. Make sure it's mixed up really well.

2. Taste a little bit of the sauce and salt it to your liking - I used about a teaspoon, but I'm also a bit of a salt fiend.

3. Slowly mix in water about a teaspoon at a time until you reach the consistency you want. I used about a tablespoon when it was all said and done.

4. Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Instructions for the Vegan Gyro

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat (note: you can use more olive oil here if you wish, it won't damage the integrity of the dish, I just like to try and keep things fairly low on oil). Once warm - not hot - add in all of the herbs and spices, cumin through coriander. Alternatively, if you have a gyro spice or mix that you already like, toss that in instead. (Pro tip: Mix all of the spices in a small bowl before you start cooking. This will keep things from burning as you measure out the numerous spices).

2. Mix the spices around in the oil while they meld and moisten for about 30 seconds.

3. Add the seitan to the pan, and mix to coat all of it in the herby oil mix.

4. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently, until all sides of the seitan are browned. Then remove from the heat.

Building the sandwich

1. Lay a pita on top of a strip of aluminum foil, so that about half the pita is sticking out over the edge, and there's an inch or two of foil sticking out under the bottom edge of the pita. You can skip the foil if you want, but it makes it much easier to eat, as these can be pretty messy.

2. Smear hummus all over the pita, leaving about a half-inch around the sides that are hummus-naked.

3. Along one edge, layer the cucumber slices, about two slices deep and one slice high (you'll basically have two rows of cucumber). Next to the cucumber rows, lay down a single row of sliced tomato or a couple of rows of quartered cherry tomatoes. This step is pretty forgiving - add however much you like, but be aware that if you add in too much, that'll make this very difficult to eat. At this point, about half the pita should be covered.

4. Lay down about a third of the vegan gyro on the remaining half of the pita and top with around a quarter of the tzatziki sauce. If you want more, go for it! But be sure to have some extra napkins nearby.

5. Fold two edges of the pita up towards each other taco-style, bringing the edges of the tin foil up and around to help keep the sandwich together. You may need to tuck the edges of the foil under on one side, and wrapped around on the bottom of the opposite side - it should look a bit like a burrito at this point. It may not look super pretty, but who really cares, ya know? Finally, fold the bottom part of the foil up to help close off the open side of the sandwich. This will also keep all the good stuff in place as you chow down.

I usually just serve these with some extra tomatoes and salted cucumbers as they're super filling, but the would also pair very well with a light greek salad or some herby french fries!