Greek Vegetarian Gyros
These Greek vegetarian gyros are made with vegan chicken, Greek fries, salty feta, crunchy red onion, plenty of fresh salad, creamy hummus, and an easy lemon garlic yogurt dip. They're ready in about 35 minutes (which includes marinading time) and are the perfect make-ahead lunch or light dinner.
I love to make these Greek vegetarian gyros with the fries from my loaded Greek fries recipe, which combines homemade Greek fries with diced feta, red onion, dill, and parsley. You could also add kalamata olives if you like!
If you want more gyro and flatbread inspiration, give these chickpea flatbreads with garlic feta sauce a try. You might also want to try these roasted chickpea gyros.
Ingredient Notes
Scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of this page for the exact quantities you need and the step-by-step instructions for this recipe. Below, I've added a few notes on the ingredients plus some potential variations/substitutions that will also work.
- Greek fries: I used my loaded Greek fries in this recipe because it's got everything you need to make a delicious gyro - but if you would prefer to skip this, just add oven-cooked fries, some crumbled feta, diced red onion, and your fresh herbs of choice.
- Vegetarian Chicken Pieces: This recipe uses marinated vegan chicken pieces (I like Quorn or THIS). You could use sliced tofu or even mushrooms instead if you prefer.
- Seasonings: This recipe uses a homemade souvlaki seasoning marinade which includes smoked paprika, cumin, cinnamon, dried oregano, ½ a lemon, and a drizzle of olive oil. If you prefer, you could also use a shop-bought blend to save you acquiring all the individual seasonings if you don't use them often.
- Flatbreads: I use shop bought flatbreads for this recipe - you could make your own flatbreads from scratch though if you like a challenge!
- Sauces: I would recommend using either a homemade tzatziki (you'll never buy it premade again!) or this creamy lemon tahini yogurt dip for this recipe.
- Salad: You can add whatever you like for the salad component of this recipe, but here we've used baby gem lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and red onion. Olives would also be a lovely touch!
- Spice: I love my flatbreads to have a bit of spice, so I drizzled mine in a green sriracha hot sauce. This is optional, but adding a hot sauce does elevate it!
Variations & Substitutions
Other variations that could work for this recipe include:
- Using tortilla wraps instead of flatbread
- Using a different meat substitute, like pulled "pork" or mince, to change the flavor profile
- Using tofu or mushrooms instead of fake chicken if you don't like meat substitutes
- Adding some crispy chickpeas to the flatbreads
How To Make These Greek Vegetarian Gyros
Again, the exact step-by-step instructions and ingredient quantities will be in the recipe card at the bottom of this page.
Below is an overview of making this recipe, plus some process shots to help you visualize how this recipe should turn out.
Step 1) Marinade The Vegetarian Chicken
Add all the seasonings, lemon juice, olive oil, and vegetarian chicken to a bowl, mix it together, and leave to marinade for 15 - 20 minutes. Use this time to get your other ingredients ready.
This step is optional but does enhance the flavor of the vegetarian chicken a lot!
Once the vegan chicken is marinated, cook it for 5 - 8 minutes in a frying pan until completely cooked through. This may vary depending on the brand you use.
Step 2) Assemble Your Ingredients
If you've made your Greek fries ahead of time, reheat them now so they're ready to use. If you're making the potato-component from scratch, put your oven fries in the oven to cook and dice your red onion, feta, and herbs.
Step 3) Make Your Sauce
Make the creamy cucumber tzatziki by combining all the ingredients in a bowl. Add some cold water a teaspoon at a time until it's your desired consistency.
Step 4) Assemble Your Flatbreads
Finally, assemble your flatbreads! Warm up your flatbread by popping it in the oven for 2 minutes, then slather it in hummus, the Greek fries, the vegan chicken, salad, lemon garlic sauce, and hot sauce if using!
Top Tips \ Chef's Notes
Wrap in parchment paper to avoid splitting
If you've overloaded your gyros (and who could blame you?!), wrap them in a strip of parchment (baking) paper or even some foil like you would with a burrito to keep them together!
Fries Are A Must!
In my opinion, a gyro just is not complete without the addition of some crunchy fries. You could make your own to make them a little healthier if that's a concern, but the fries really do complete the flavor profile!
Cut Your Salad Small
Keeping your salad vegetables small means you're more likely to get an even cross-section of all your components in each bite, rather than a big mouthful of just lettuce! It takes a little more time to dice everything, but it is worth it in my opinion.
Storage
If you want to prepare these flatbreads for the week, I would recommend storing the vegetarian chicken, fries and salad together, and the sauces separately. Then, assemble the flatbreads fully as close to the time you want to eat them as possible to avoid the flatbreads going soggy.
Your prepared ingredients should last up to 3-4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
How To Serve
Serve your gyros as is, but perhaps with an extra bowl of sauce to dip and enjoy!
Greek Vegetarian Gyros
Ingredients
- 1 serving of Greek fries OR
- 20 g cooked oven fries
- 20 g crumbled feta
- Half a red onion diced
- Diced fresh dill & parsley
- 50 g vegetarian chicken pieces
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 0.5 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ of lemon juiced
- 0.5 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 flatbreads
- 0.5 cup tzatziki dip
- 0.5 cup store bought hummus
- 1 head baby gem lettuce
- 0.5 cucumber
Method
- Place the vegan chicken and all seasonings, lemon juice, and olive oil in a bowl and coat the chicken fully. Leave it to marinade for 15 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.50 g vegetarian chicken pieces, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon cumin, 0.5 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ of lemon, 0.5 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Reheat your Greek fries if using, or place your oven fries in the oven to cook while you dice your onion, feta, herbs, and other salad ingredients.1 serving of Greek fries OR, 20 g cooked oven fries, 20 g crumbled feta, Half a red onion, Diced fresh dill & parsley, 1 head baby gem lettuce, 0.5 cucumber
- Make your homemade tzatziki dip and get your hummus ready0.5 cup tzatziki dip, 0.5 cup store bought hummus
- Cook the marinated vegan chicken in a frying pan (you shouldn't need more oil due to it being in the marinade, but add a little more if the vegan chicken sticks). Cook for 5 - 6 minutes depending on the brand you're using, until golden and crispy.
- Warm the flatbreads in the oven for 2 minutes, then assemble. Slather over the hummus, then top with the Greek fries, vegetarian chicken, salad, and tzatziki. Drizzle over some hot sauce if you'd like a bit of added spice.3 flatbreads
This was amazing! Couldn't rate b/c had to make changes; we only can get frozen Quorn bits that say "cook from frozen" - didn't seem like a marinade situation. So cooked up my full 12oz/340g bag of Quorn pieces using the no-oil directions, and added the marinade listed here in the last 2 minutes. It worked great! Obv would rather have marinaded, but wanted to report back for anyone else in my frozen-only boat. Amazing spice mix, I halved the cumin b/c family prefs, but was *delighted* by the end result! Thx so much for such a versatile, easy souvlaki-ish recipe.
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks so much for leaving such a detailed review 🙂