Playing with Food - Veggie Gyro Prototype

My friend Becky recently helped make food for their local Greek Festival and talked a lot about Greek food, making me dream of Gyros. Of course, not eating meat throws a monkey wrench in those plans, and not eating dairy rules out the sauce.

But I'm nothing if not impulsive, and I decided I'd make myself some "beef" seitan and sort of kind of follow the recipe she gave us for a ground beef gryo. I used the seasonings you'd add to the ground beef to simmer the seitan. I also made the seitan not just with water but with a little soy sauce, per some other instructions I surfed up.

I made the Tzatziki (cucumber-yogurt) sauce with plain soy yogurt, and (more or less) followed her directions for the sauce.

Okay, okay, I admit, I had to kimodify the whole thing. After all, Gyros are not a plant-based meal. :)

I only made a little bit, in case it was awful. Soy Yogurt and I have a rocky history.

Here's my results, my prototype meal:

I have to admit I was somewhat surprised at how good it was. It wasn't phenomenal - wheat Flatouts are good, but aren't quite the same as fresh, warm authentic (made with oil) greek pitas -- uh, assuming I've ever had them. We had gyros once that we suspect were fresh and authentic. But in mid-Michigan, I can't assume most of the ones we have been served in restaurants are. But still, we like them. Can't blame us if we don't know better, right? And my tomatoes were a bit past their prime and not all that flavorful. And the "mock-mock-lamb-spam" seitan was a bit too salty, I'll have to use a lower sodium "beef" broth and maybe omit the soy sauce. And, lastly, the sauce I made was a bit sweeter than I would've liked, which might have been my loosey goosey sprinkle of unmeasured sugar or perhaps the plain soy yogurt itself. BUT! That being said, overall it was pretty good and I made short work of my little veggie meal.

So next time I'll make a little bigger batch of less salty mock-mock-lamb-spam, with fresh tomatoes and onions. Maybe I'll even make my own pitas. And if we like those, I'll post you a recipe.