Beef Shawarma with Peanut-Butter-Hummus

After the whole Monday buzz I am usually not in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen to produce a tasty dinner.  This Monday was no exception.  After having to do an extra trip to the dentist today for my seven-year old daughter I was só not in the mood for cooking and barely  had anything planned.  Luckily I had some unfrozen steak at hand and as I was craving a good shawarma  for quite some time now, I decided to put it to good use!  Yes,  I know about meatless Monday and all that, but spare a thought for the mom who just did not have enough time to go all out on the vegetarian meal!

Anyhow, I am not having one ounce of regret as this was really super tasty!  I made my own hummus but substituted the tahini with some peanut butter(yes, that is what I had in my pantry at five this afternoon) and it was absolutely delicious! It is the first time I got my children to eat hummus! I think it is because the peanut butter tends to lend a much less intense flavor than the tahini! It is really creamy and smooth with a mild garlicky flavor.  I also used some lemon infused olive oil which added more lemony undertones to the hummus.   Furthermore, I made up my own Moroccan spice mix to flavor the meat, which I had quite a bit left of so placed it in a glass jar for later use.  I have recently discovered that if you roast cumin seeds till they are smokey and then grind them down with a mortar and pestle they reward you with the loveliest nutty aroma!  You can of course just use already ground cumin but I promise it is worth the trouble to roast them first! Also do serve with some tzatziki.  All the flavors blend to a lovely harmony.

Anyhow I really whipped this up in less than three quarter’s of an hour!   This served 2 adults and 2 kids.

Recipe:

You will need: 

• 4-5 pita breads
• 1 chopped tomato
• 1/4 cup chopped cucumber
• some chopped lettuce
• 1/2 avo chopped
• 4 Tbsps sprouts

Hummus:

• 1 can of chic peas
• 1 garlic clove peeled
• 3 big Tbsps peanut butter
• 3 Tbsps lemon infused olive oil
• 1/2 small lemon juice squeezed
• 1 good pinch of salt (I used a chilly and garlic flavored salt)
• 3 Tbsps Greek yogurt
• 2 t of cumin seeds (roast them by placing them in a pan and heating  the pan until the seeds get smokey and have a nutty flavor,  then remove them and place them in a heavy mortar and pestle and grind fine)

1. Place all of the above in a food processor and process until smooth

1. 1 Tbsp ground coriander
2. 2 t cumin seeds (roasted as above)
3. 1 t turmeric powder
4. 1/2 t paprika
5. 1/2 t  flavored salt 
6. 1 Tbsp of lemon infused olive oil
7. 600g thinly cut steak strips

Mix all the spices and salt together in a mortar and pestle by grinding them down.  Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan and season meat according to taste, (don’t over season) and fry until the meat strips are brown and cooked through.  Remove from heat

Tzatziki:

• 1  good hand full of chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup finely chopped cucumber
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• Freshly ground salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together

To Compile:

Heat pita bread for 30 seconds each in the microwave and gently cut open at top.  (I usually drip a drop of water in a plastic sandwich bag and place the bread in so that it would not dry out while microwaving it in the bag.)  Fill with all of the above by first smearing the pita with the hummus, spooning in the veg, meat and tzatziki.

Enjoy!