Gyros are a classic Greek sandwich that you don’t often think of when you think of vegan food. After all, gyros are quintessentially a meat-eaters meal, but it turns out that the ever-versatile jackfruit makes a fantastic vegan sub.
If you’ve never experienced the real thing, traditional gyros are a Greek dish made of pork or chicken, typically wrapped in a soft pita with tomato, red onion, cucumber and tzatziki sauce. For this version, I followed the same formula, but obviously substituted the meat component and made a vegan tzatziki sauce to match. I also replaced the pita with my favorite Siete Cassava flour tortillas as I wanted to keep it both grain and gluten free, but you can totally use gluten free pitas if you would prefer. Jackfruit has such a similar texture to pulled pork or chicken, so it is a fantastic meat replacement that I use quite often. The only thing you need to make sure of when using jackfruit for a savory recipe is to use the canned jackfruit in brine. Sometimes you will find it in syrup, but that version will not work, so just be sure to grab the cans in brine.
Since traditional tzatziki sauce isn’t dairy free, I decided to switch to a base of cashews. If you’ve never used cashews in a sauce before, you don’t know what you’re missing! When blended with water and the traditional tzatziki spices and garlic, cashews create a creamy tzatziki sauce that comes wildly close to the original. The recipe will make a good chunk of sauce leftover (as well as the Greek seasoning blend), so if you want less, just halve the ingredients.
Jackfruit Gyros With Vegan Tzatziki Sauce
Author: The Lean Clean Eating Machine
- 2 cans jackfruit in brine; drained and rinsed
- 1/2 large yellow onion; finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic; peeled, smashed and minced
- 1.5 teaspoons liquid smoke
- 2 tablespoons greek seasoning blend
- Drizzle of avocado or olive oil
- Cucumber slices for topping
- Thinly sliced red onion for topping
- Quartered grape tomatoes for topping
- Spring mix or romaine for topping
- Siete tortillas or gluten free pitas
Greek Seasoning Blend:
- 1½ tablespoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1½ tablespoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Trader Joe’s Vegan Chicken-less seasoning (optional)
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1½ tablespoons paprika powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Tzatziki Sauce:
- 1 cup cucumber; peeled and grated
- 1¼ cup raw cashews
- 3/4 cup water
- 1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2½ teaspoons Bragg’s apple cider vinegar
- 3 cloves garlic; medium size
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- pinch ground black pepper
- 1½ tablespoons fresh dill
Instructions:
- In a large mixing bowl, shred rinsed and drained jackfruit with hands into pieces. You can even do this with harder stemmed pieces and seeds. Set aside.
- In a large frying pan, sautee diced yellow onion on medium/high heat until translucent, or about 4 minutes. Add in your minced garlic and sautee until fragrant, or about 30 seconds. When finished, remove contents of pan to a separate small bowl.
- Add a small drizzle of oil back into the pan and put your shredded jackfruit in. With a potato masher, mash the jackfruit up slightly more so it resembles pulled pork or pulled chicken. Let jackfruit cook on medium/high heat, until edges start to turn slightly golden brown, then add back in your onion, garlic and liquid smoke and stir to thoroughly combine. Turn heat to low.
- In a small dish, combine all of your spices for your Greek seasoning blend. When finished, add in approximately two tablespoons to your jackfruit and stir to evenly coat. Use more to taste if desired. Place remaining seasoning in a bag for use for another time.
- Keep jackfruit on low heat, or remove from heat completely.
- Make your tzatziki sauce. Grate your cucumber and place the pieces in a paper towel or thin dish towel, squeezing out the excess water until mostly dry. Set aside.
- In a high speed blender (I used a Vitamix), blend all ingredients, except the cucumber and dill, and puree until completely smooth.
- Add cucumber and pulse until completely mixed, then add in dill and pulse until finely chopped. Place sauce in a dish in the refrigerator for 10 or so minutes to thicken it up a bit more.
- To assemble your gyros, warm up your Siete tortillas or gluten free pita bread, then add in spring mix or romaine lettuce, jackfruit, thinly sliced red onion, cucumber and quartered grape tomatoes.
- Top with tzatziki sauce and serve immediately.