8 Quick and Easy Pita Dinner Recipes
Pita gets treated as the thing you tear up next to a dip, which I think is a waste of a very good bread.
It holds a whole dinner, it warms through in under a minute, and it is just as happy cold.
Once I stopped thinking of it as a side, about half my week changed.
There is no chicken in this one, by the way.
1. Lamb Kofta Wraps
Grilled lamb koftas with cumin, coriander, mint, parsley, garlic and chili, wrapped with red cabbage, cucumber, feta and a yogurt dip.
Twenty-five minutes, serves four.
Lamb has enough fat that the koftas baste themselves, so the grill needs no oil.
Shape them around the skewer, pressing firmly so they hold together when you turn them.
2. Falafel Pita Sandwich with Tahini Sauce
Falafel in pita with hummus, tahini, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, red onion, parsley and sumac.
Twenty minutes, serves four.
Falafel from scratch wants chickpeas soaked overnight, so on a weeknight the frozen or packaged kind is what makes twenty minutes real.
Sumac over the top at the end is worth buying a jar for.
3. Hot Honey Halloumi Flatbreads
Seared halloumi on flatbread with hot honey, cucumber, dill, mint, pomegranate seeds, garlic and lemon.
Fifteen minutes, serves two.
Halloumi squeaks and browns where other cheese would melt into a puddle, which is why it works here.
Get the pan properly hot and give each slice a minute a side without moving it.
4. Grilled Shrimp Souvlaki on Pita
Grilled shrimp skewers on pita with feta, cucumber, dill, mint, parsley, tomato, red onion, lemon and olive oil.
Thirty minutes, serves four.
Shrimp need two or three minutes a side and nothing more.
Thread them so each one is pierced twice, through the tail and the thick end, or they spin when you turn the skewer.
5. Beef Shawarma
Thinly sliced beef in shawarma spices, seared hard in a skillet and piled into flatbread.
Twenty minutes, serves four.
Freeze the beef for twenty minutes before slicing it.
Firm meat slices thin, soft meat shreds.
Get the pan hot and work in batches, because crowded beef steams and never browns.
6. Halloumi Gyro
A vegetarian gyro with griddled halloumi standing in for the meat, plus Greek yogurt, cucumber, lettuce, red onion, Roma tomato, oregano and lemon.
Fifteen minutes, serves two.
Two halloumi recipes in one list was not an accident.
The flatbread above is sweet and sharp, this one is the full gyro treatment, and they taste nothing alike.
7. Pitawurst
Bratwurst with sauerkraut, green pepper and onion stuffed into pita, with mustard and sour cream.
Thirty minutes, serves four.
German food in Greek bread has no business working and it does.
Drain the sauerkraut well and squeeze it dry before it goes in.
8. Turkey Pita Sandwich
Five minutes, no stove, one serving.
Sliced turkey, leaf lettuce, tomato, red onion, peperoncini and mayonnaise in a pita.
The peperoncini are what lift this above a plain cold sandwich, so do not leave them out.
Tips for Stuffing a Pita
Overfilling is the main cause of a split pocket, and most people overfill by about a third.
Line the inside with something thick, like hummus or yogurt sauce, before anything wet goes in.
Cut the pocket along the shorter edge so the opening is smaller and the sides stay strong.
For pocketless flatbreads, pile the filling in a line down the middle and fold it over.
Wrap the bottom half in foil or baking paper if you are eating standing up.
Notes on Swapping the Protein
Almost everything here takes a swap without changing the timing much.
Ground beef works in the lamb koftas, and lamb works in the beef shawarma.
Falafel or halloumi makes any of the meat recipes vegetarian if you keep the same sauces and vegetables.
Cooked fillings last four days chilled, and the kofta mixture freezes for a month.
Keep the sauce and the bread apart from the filling until you eat.