This is by far one of my best recipes yet (in my opinion.) Lots of fresh veggies and love go into this dinner that puts a quick spin on traditional gyros. In this recipe, you’ll be walked through the steps on how to make a few different things: homemade tzatziki, cucumber salad, and the meatball gyros themselves.
Tzatziki Sauce
To start off, I like to make my homemade tzatziki sauce because you can make it ahead of time. You can prepare it the day before, morning of, or even just before you prep everything else. As long as it’s in the fridge, give it a quick stir before serving and you should be good to go!
Now, if I’m being honest, I usually just eyeball the measurements for the sauce and base it off of taste and adjust accordingly. Tasting what you’re making is super important to ensure the flavor is correct. So, in this recipe, I’ve provided the amounts I believe I’ve used for seasonings, etc. but I’m basically just eyeballing it. So taste, and adjust accordingly.
To start, you’re going to grate all of the sides of a cucumber on the smallest holes of a box grater. Make sure you stop when you reach the seeds and then rotate to the next side. After grating, you want to strain as much liquid as you can out of the grated cucumber by placing it inside of paper towels and carefully ringing the water out into the sink. After you’ve done this, you’ll end up with cucumber that looks like the second picture. From there, you’ll add whole fat plain Greek yogurt, lemon juice, fresh dill, fresh garlic, and then salt, pepper, and a tiny bit of sugar. Stir everything together and then make sure you taste test it. Cover the finished product with some saran wrap and put it in the fridge to stay cold.
Cucumber Salad
The next thing I make is the cucumber salad. This salad is super refreshing. If I’m making this at the same time as the gyros, this is when I preheat the oven. By the time the oven is preheated and I’m ready to focus on the gyros, I’m done with the prep for the salad.
The main ingredients are pretty simple: cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions. Dice your cucumbers into 1/2 inch chunks. You can leave them with or without seeds, it doesn’t really matter. The tomatoes are a matter of personal preference, but I prefer them without their slimy little seeds, blegh. Then, you want to thinly slice your red onion. While this recipe is delicious, you don’t want to make it right before a hot date. The onion breath is real.
After you do all of the prep, plop everything inside of a big salad bowl. You’ll then create your own dressing! To do this, I use a couple tbsp of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a tiny bit of sugar. Mix it all up and you’re done! I would put this in the fridge too, especially if you’re making it ahead of time.
Gyro Prep
The gyros themselves are actually very easy, especially if you bought premade, frozen meatballs. You are more than welcome to make the meatballs yourself, but I prefer to be lazy, haha! The meatballs we use are the Italian style meatballs from Costco found here. They have zero prep at all, which is nice. Just preheat the oven and pop them in! You will have already made the salad and the tzatziki, so your work for the gyros is done.
After the meatballs are done, I assemble the gyros! For ours, I used 4-5 meatballs per pita, then shredded lettuce, tzatziki, the cucumber salad, and, lastly, feta cheese.
Some people prefer to toast their pita bread, but in my opinion, this is an optional step, which I didn’t do. Again, I’m lazy.
After you assemble your gyros, you can have them by themselves, with gyro fries, or with rice like we did! You can also serve them with any leftover cucumber salad. Oh, I almost forgot! In case you’re wondering how we adapted this meal for our toddler, we modified his dinner into a gyro bowl instead of eating it in the pita.
Meatball Gyros with Fresh Tzatziki and Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
Tzatziki Ingredients:
- 1 Medium-large cucumber, grated and strained of all liquid
- 1 Cup Full fat plain Greek yogurt
- 1 Tsp Lemon juice
- 2 Tsp Fresh dill, removed from stems and finely chopped
- 5 Cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 Tsp Pepper
- 1 Tsp Garlic salt
- 1/2 Tsp Sugar
Cucumber Salad Ingredients:
- 2 Medium-large cucumbers, cut into 1/2 inch chunks Removing seeds optional
- 2 Roma tomatoes, seeds removed then diced
- 1/2 Red onion, thinly sliced julienne style
- Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
- 2 Tbsp Olive oil
- 1 Tsp Garlic salt
- 1 Tsp Pepper
- 1/2 Tsp Sugar
Meatball Gyro Ingredients:
- 16-20 Precooked, frozen meatballs
- 4 Pitas Toasting is optional
- 1 Bag Shredded lettuce
- 1 Batch Tzatziki sauce Included in recipe
- 1 Batch Cucumber salad Included in recipe
- 1 Small container Feta cheese We used Athenos Garlic Herb feta.
Instructions
Tzatziki Instructions:
- Mix all tzatziki ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Taste flavors and adjust seasonings accordingly. Store covered in fridge until ready to serve.
Cucumber Salad Instructions:
- If starting your salad directly before making the gyros, preheat your oven according to the meatball package instructions or meatball recipe instructions.
- Mix all salad ingredients together in a large salad bowl. Taste flavors and adjust seasonings accordingly. Store covered in the fridge until ready to serve.
Meatball Gyro Instructions:
- Cook meatballs according to package instructions or use your favorite homemade meatball recipe.
- When meatballs have finished, assemble gyros by putting 4-5 meatballs in each pita. Follow this by adding shredded lettuce, then tzatziki, then the cucumber salad, and finally the feta cheese.
- Serve gyros alongside any favorite side dishes like rice, Greek fries, extra salad, etc.
Notes
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