Lamb gyro is a Greek dish, cooked and served like shawarma or donair. Gyro is traditionally cooked on a vertical spit, but this recipe miniaturizes it into individual portions, which are cooked on bamboo skewers. The gyro skewers are served with rice, salad and a wedge of lemon, making it a perfect lunch or light dinner.
Jump to:
If you enjoy Greek food, this bowl is a great place to start. The lamb skewers pair beautifully with a garlic aioli that borrows from classic Mediterranean flavours. For a similar bowl-style meal with a completely different profile, have a look at my Smoked Mackerel Sushi Bowl.
Lamb Gyro Skewers
Mixing the Meat
The lamb gyro ingredients are ground lamb, garlic, black pepper, cayenne, onion powder, oregano, and kosher salt. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Prepping the Pan
To cook the gyros in the oven, line a broiler pan with foil, then put the broiler rack in place. If you don't have a broiler pan, a sheet pan and a stainless steel cooling rack will work just as well. If you'd prefer, you can grill the gyros, but make sure to soak the skewers in water for at least an hour before skewering the meat. This will help prevent them from catching fire on the grill.
Skewering and Roasting the Meat
Divide the meat in half, then split those two halves into three. Take one of the pieces of meat and squeeze it around a 12-inch bamboo skewer. Leave an inch or two of the skewer uncovered to use as a handle once the lamb is cooked. Put the lamb in a 400°f oven for 10 minutes, flip and cook for 5 more minutes.
Tip: Wear gloves or wet your hands with cold water while forming the meat around the skewers, so the meat doesn't stick to you.
Recipe
Equipment
- 6 12-inch long bamboo skewers
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients well.
- Divide the meat into six evenly sized portions and wrap around the bamboo skewers leaving two inches of the bottom of the skewer exposed to act as a handle.
- Put the skewers on a rack set above a broiler pan and roast in the oven on 400°f for 10 minutes. Flip the skewer and cook for another 5 minutes.
Garlic Sauce
The sauce for the salad is a very loose garlic aioli. When you see aioli on a menu at a restaurant, it is most often just flavoured mayonnaise. A true aioli is made with only garlic and oil. The garlic and oil are emulsified to create a mayonnaise-like texture. When making a large batch of aioli, like a cup or more, a food processor works really well. You puree the garlic, then slowly drizzle in the oil while the blade spins around. Really though, you do not need to make that much, and it isn't something you want to keep around for very long.
You can make aioli in a mortar and pestle, as I demonstrate in the pictures below. To do so, put three cloves of garlic in the mortar with a half teaspoon of kosher salt and mash it into a pulp with the pestle. Mix in three tablespoons of oil. As I said, this is a loose aioli. It is meant to be a dressing rather than a spread, but you will see how creamy it gets as you make it. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, puree the garlic as I demonstrate in this video, then whisk it with the oil in a small mixing bowl.
Recipe
Equipment
- Mortar and Pestle
Ingredients
- 3 cloves garlic
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
Instructions
- Crush the garlic and salt together and mash to a pulp with the pestle.
- Slowly add the oil while mashing the garlic.
The Salad
The salad combines halved grape tomatoes, sliced dill pickle, thinly sliced red onion, chopped parsley, and aioli. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Cucumber and green bell pepper make good additions to the salad. If you want to take this in an even more Mediterranean direction, try adding some of the ingredients from my Mediterranean Chickpea Salad.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 dill pickle, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup thinly sliced red onion
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- ¼ cup garlic gressing
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Combine the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and serve.
Making the Lamb Gyro Bowls
To assemble the bowl, start with a half cup of cooked basmati rice, topped with a quarter cup of sliced iceberg lettuce, half the salad, a lamb gyro skewer, and finally, a wedge of lemon to squeeze over the bowl before eating.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked basmati rice
- 1 batch gyro salad
- ½ cup thinly sliced iceberg lettuce
- 2 lamb gyro skewers
- 2 lemon wedges
Instructions
- Divide the rice among two bowls.
- Top the rice with the iceberg lettuce, and the gyro salad.
- Lay the skewers across the salad with the lemon wedges on the side.
Final Thoughts
I'm really happy with how these lamb gyro bowls came out, and I think you will love them. If you don't like lamb, that's not a problem -- you can switch it out for beef or bison and follow the same method. The garlic aioli and fresh salad make it feel like a proper Mediterranean meal without much fuss.
Leave a Reply