Sometimes, any child of Allah (or of God) is craving for a shawarma. I even saw Buddhists losing their heads and saying “make me one with everything”. Who am I to say you can’t have a shawarma every now and then, especially if it’s a pleasant and (pretty) healthy experience? Yesterday, for example, as I was heading home on my bike, I almost got killed (for the hundredth time) by a driver. In that moment, may entire life passed before my eyes. The movie stopped at “shaorma” and since I had nothing left in the fridge, I stopped at the neighborhood supermarket and bought what I needed: pita bread (by the way, if any of you has a good recipe for pita bread, please leave it in a comment to this post, thank you), a goat and buffalo yogurt, a box of chicken legs (they were plenty left to make a stew or some skewers today), a few mushrooms, a bell pepper, a bag of green salad mix and a can of beans. Apart from all of these, I had some cherry tomatoes, some green onions and cucumbers at home.
I made a sauce from yogurt, a tablespoon of extra virgin sunflower seed oil, a finely grated piece of cucumber, a pinch of salt and a few hot pepper flakes.
I mashed the white beans with one large tablespoon of yogurt and two tablespoons of tahini and a clove of garlic. I obtained a perfect cream for the flat bread. I added za’atar to the cream.
I cut the chicken legs into small pieces and I put them to brown in a non-stick skillet, without any fat. I cut the mushrooms into thick slices and the bell pepper into strips.
After the chicken was browned (ten minutes) I added the pepper and the mushrooms. I also added the spices and I kept the skillet on the stove for another five minutes.
By spices I mean sumac and a shawarma mix, a Lebanese product – you can find them in almost any supermarket.
I slightly heated the pita breads, to soften them, and then I filled them. A bit of bean paste, a bit of yogurt sauce, green onion, tomatoes, the mixture of chicken, mushrooms and bell pepper.
Since I prefer it spicy, for myself I added some harissa – chili pepper pasta.
Pickles are optional. French fries are a useless disaster, the only thing they do is add calories – that’s not necessary, as a shawarma has enough calories to keep you active for four-five hours.
If you’ve already prepared the chicken (sitting in the fridge two consecutive days, you can re-heated it), the rest is child play, so you can have your friends over for shawarma this weekend.
Stay healthy.
Special thanks to
Oana Bodnariuc, Authorized Translator
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