These are really good and super-quick to make. Just grab some spices, mix them in with ground meat, stuff the meat into pita-halves and cook. Super easy.
If you don’t have Baharat spice available to you, it’s made with everyday spices that you most likely have in your spice rack. You can find the ratios of these spices for the mix at a variety of websites.
- ground black pepper
- ground coriander
- ground cinnamon
- ground cloves
- ground cumin
- ground cardamom
- ground nutmeg
- paprika
These crispy sandwiches are served with a tahini-yogurt sauce, but we used a basic tzatziki sauce we had in the fridge. It’s similar in taste, and it’s a great accompaniment to these sandwiches.
What you’ll need
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2T tomato paste
- 0.5 cups fresh parsley, chopped
- 0.75 cups onion, roughly chopped
- 1t ground cumin
- 1T Baharat spice
- 0.5 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1t salt
- 1 lb. lean ground meat, in order of preference: lamb, beef, chicken, or pork
- 1 full piece of pita pocket bread for each sandwich
- Olive oil for brushing on the pitas before cooking
What to do
Put the garlic, tomato paste, fresh parsley, onion, ground cumin, Baharat spice, cayenne pepper and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times until everything is chopped. No need to make a paste out of it. There should still be chunks of onion, garlic and parsley in it.
Add the chopped mixture to a large bowl and mix it into the ground meat with your hands until it’s thoroughly mixed. Don’t over-mix it, though.
To stuff the pitas and prepare for cooking, cut a pita bread in half across its face, giving you two half-moons of pita. Using a soup or other large spoon, carefully open the bread layers and put the meat mixture into the pita pocket, being careful not to tear the bread. Gently smoosh the bread to even out the stuffed meat inside, which should be about 0.5 to 0.75 inches thick.
To cook, heat a cast iron frypan or grill pan over medium-high heat to about 350 degrees F. Brush olive oil over both exposed sides of the pita bread. Place each half of the pita into the frypan and let it cook until the bread is browned and crispy—4 – 6 minutes. Flip the sandwich over and cook for another 4 – 6 minutes or until the meat is fully cooked to 145 degrees F.
Serve hot with your favorite middle-eastern-style sauce.
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