Most people associate gyro sandwiches (aka doner kebabs) with a heavy meal at a Greek restaurant with lamb sliced off of a massive rotisserie or a late night grab from a food cart on the street.
From either place they taste amazing (especially the latter after a night out), but as with most processed meats, there are loads of extra calories and one can only guess what is in the street food gyro.
From the wrap and the meat to the tzatziki sauce we usually douse it in, there is a lot of room for improvement in the nutritional content of the traditional gyro sandwich by substituting a few of the main ingredient with healthier alternatives without compromising taste.
Here’s a tasty and low calorie chicken gyro recipe that takes only minutes to prepare:
Cooking Directions: Healthy Chicken Gyro With Tzatziki
You can find all of the ingredients for this at Whole Foods and many health food-oriented markets and delis
| Ingredients: | Seasoning: |
| Belinski’s Spinach-Garlic Chicken Sausage | Ground cayenne pepper |
| 1/4 large onion sliced | Olive oil |
| 1/2 cup 0% Greek yogurt (Fage/Chobani) | Dash salt |
| Flaxseed Wraps | Lemon Pepper seasoning |
| 1/2 cup Kale | Garlic powder |
| Olive oil | |
| 1/3 cucumber | |
| 1/3 red or green pepper | |
| 1/2 medium lime | |
| 1/4 cup diced cucumber | |
| 2 slices avocado (mashed for spread) |
| The Wrap: | The Yogurt: | The Sausage: |
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Grill
The gyro is best suited for a grill but can be done in a frying pan if you don’t have access to one.
- Slice 1 sausage link lengthwise into quarters (1 link per sandwich), slice about 1/4 of a large white onion into rings, slice pepper of choice (red sweet shown) into strips and toss a handful of kale in a bit of olive oil and a dash of salt.
- Grill everything, but it’s best to start with the peppers, then onions, then sausage followed by the kale (kale should take about 1min).
Tzatziki
Mix 1/2 cup 0% fat Greek yogurt, chopped cucumber, dash olive oil, 1/2 squeezed lime and a nice healthy shot of garlic powder & cayenne pepper.
Wrap
Lay out 1/2 of a flax wrap, spread the avocado in first (using the back of a spoon or butter knife to mash it to a guacamole consistency, which helps to hold the sandwich together), lay ingredients in and add tzatziki. Toast briefly on grill if desired and enjoy.
Nutrition Info: Healthy Chicken Gyro vs. Lamb Gyro
| Chicken Sausage Gyro | Traditional Lamb Gyro* | |
| Calories | 262 | 722 |
| Fat | 8g | 15g |
| Saturated fat | 1g | 7g |
| Cholesterol | 55mg | 120mg |
| Sodium | 690mg | 1000mg |
| Carbohydrates | 21g | 75g |
| Sugar | 6g | 8g |
| Protein | 30g | 45g |
| *On pita with tzatziki source |
The organic/natural trend influencing the inventory at your local city delis and markets is making it is easier and inexpensive to achieve your dietary goals without feeling like you have to sacrifice eating what you want. “You are what you eat” does not mean that what you eat has to taste bad…you may just have to walk an extra block to get it.
The bottom line is that cooking these dishes with nutrition in mind has become an easy and available alternative to commonly prepared meals from restaurants and vendors.
Hope you enjoy it and let me know if you have any questions!
