Kebabs – Bit of the Good Stuff

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Today I’m sharing my veganized version of the Turkish doner kebab. This kebab is one of my family’s favourite ‘easy weekend’ meals and we love tucking into them while we’re watching a movie, or sitting in the garden on a warm summer’s evening. The kebabs are highly versatile, so feel free to switch the filling components to suit your own personal tastes.

Doner kebabs are a popular fast food here in the UK. Traditionally, they are made with processed lamb meat, heavily seasoned with spices. Apparently it’s hard to tell what kind of meat is actually in the doner kebab, and tests by UK Trading Standards have revealed that doner meats sometimes contain a mix of animals, such as chicken, beef and pork.

Since the key thing with the doner meats is the seasoning and texture, they’re easy to replicate using plant-based meat alternatives. I like to use home-made seitan (my current favourite recipes are this Easy Seitan ‘Chicken’ and Basic Home-Made Seitan) as it tends to work out a lot cheaper, plus it gives me the flexibility to flavour it exactly how I wish. However there are also a range of store-bought alternatives now available, including these…

The Dutch company Vivera‘s Veggie Shawarma Kebab is now widely available in the major UK supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. You’ll find it on the veggie/vegan chiller aisle.

The Swedish brand Oumph has recently made its way into UK health food shops and Tesco. As its name suggests, the Oumph ‘Kebab Spiced’ is just perfect for kebabs. You’ll find it in the veggie/vegan freezer cabinet.

The South African family business Fry’s also sells Thick Cut Chunky Strips that work well in kebabs. (In the UK, these are available in health food shops, Morrison’s and Ocado in the freezer section).

Doner kebabs can be served in large flatbreads (such as flour tortillas) or pittas. Lately, my family has been making home-made flour tortillas as they taste so much nicer than the shop-bought ones (plus they literally cost a few pence to make).

Alongside the doner meat, the kebab contains a variety of salad vegetables. We tend to use romaine lettuce, red cabbage, carrot and sometimes red pepper and pickles, all of which adds beautiful colours and textures to the kebab.

The final, important step is to add some kind of dressing or sauce. Our current favourite condiment for these kebabs is the home-made sweet chilli mayonnaise, which I posted earlier this week. It takes less than five minutes to make, is super cheap and tastes delicious (just as good, if not better than store-bought mayonnaise).

Recipe Card

Vegan Doner Kebabs

These kebabs are quick and easy to prepare, making them perfect for busy weeknights and lazy weekends. They also make a great take-away lunch option, wrapped in foil or parchment paper to keep the filling neatly packed inside. They are highly versatile, so feel free to switch up the filling depending on what you desire or what needs using up in your fridge.

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Hands-on time 20

Total Time 20

Course Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine Turkey

Servings 6 kebabs

Ingredients

▢ 6 large flour tortillas, home-made* or shop-bought
▢ 350 g / 12 oz home-made basic seitan** or shop-bought kebab meat alternative e.g. Oumph! Kebab Spiced or Fry’s Thick Cut Chunky Strips
▢ 1 romaine lettuce head thinly sliced into ribbons
▢ 1 packed cup red cabbage finely sliced
▢ 1 large carrot peeled and grated
▢ home-made chilli mayonnaise*** or shop-bought e.g. Vegenaise

Instructions

Pan fry the strips of seitan (or other meat-free alternative) in a little olive oil. Add seasonings, to taste. For kebabs, I like to flavour the home-made seitan with smoked paprika and ground cumin. I sprinkle 1 tsp of each spice over the seitan, a little at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon until evenly coated. If using shop-bought meat-free strips, cook according to the instructions on the packet.
Pre-heat a hot frying pan (skillet) and add one tortilla at a time, flipping onto both sides until warmed through and pliable.
Coat the tortilla in a thin layer of mayonnaise.
Arrange the lettuce, red cabbage, carrot and vegan kebab 'meat' along the centre of the tortilla. Leave a border on one side (about 2 inches) which you can tuck in to form the bottom of the kebab (to prevent the filling falling out). Add a touch more mayonnaise on top of the filling.
Fold in the tortilla along the border, then roll the tortilla as tightly as possible, holding in the filling with your fingers as you do so. Press down the edge seam of the tortilla to seal it. If you wish, you can wrap the end of the kebab in foil to keep it securely wrapped.

Notes

* Easy Home-Made Tortilla Wraps

** Home-Made Basic Seitan

*** Quick & Easy Vegan Mayonnaise

Keyword Plant-Based, Vegan Kebab

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Big thank you to Suma for supplying me with their vital wheat gluten, spices and oils which I used to create my vegan doner ‘meat’!

If you make these Vegan Kebabs, I’d love to hear your feedback and any suggestions for adaptations. Tag your photos with #bitofthegoodstuff on social media – I always love to see your creations! You can also connect with me on my social media channels here: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest.

With love,

Sharon xx

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Seitan is one of my favourite meat-free alternatives. Cooked right, it has the most succulent, chewy texture which makes it perfect for adding to any kind of meal where meat typically takes centre stage, like kebabs and steak. Store-bought seitan can be expensive and not so easy to come by here in the UK, so I choose to make my own. In this post, I’m sharing my favourite basic seitan recipe. It’s really easy to prepare and takes only 15 minutes hands on time.

Seitan (also known as ‘wheat meat’) is made with vital wheat gluten, which is the protein part of the wheat seed, milled into flour. Per 100g, vital wheat gluten flour contains a whopping 75g protein. It’s also low in fat and contains zero cholesterol, making it a healthier alternative to animal products.

Here in the West, seitan’s had somewhat of a resurgence in the past couple of years (thanks to the explosion of plant-based lifestyles), but it’s been popular for centuries in Asian countries such as China and Vietnam. You may have seen ‘Mock Duck’, ‘Mock Beef’ and similar on the menu in your local Chinese restaurants and take-aways, or the canned varieties in Chinese supermarkets. These products are typically made with wheat gluten.

There are a variety of ways to prepare seitan. You can boil, steam, bake and pan fry it. Each method produces a different texture. How you choose to prepare your seitan comes down to personal preference, so I highly recommend trying a few recipes and seeing what works best for you. A couple of years ago, I first tried my hand at making seitan, but I wasn’t keen on the flavour. The recipe included a fair amount of chickpea (gram) flour and this is what I could detect in the final product. Since then, I’ve chosen to omit the flour and I find the seitan tastes much more palatable.

While steaming is probably the most popular cooking method, I personally prefer to simmer it in a pan of broth. I don’t even wrap it in any foil. Boiling it direct in the broth, I find the seitan takes on a lovely flavour and soaks up the broth, leaving it succulent. When I’ve steamed it or wrapped the seitan before simmering, it does stay a neater shape, but it’s a bit drier and chewier. For me, the taste and texture is the most important features of seitan so I don’t mind it looking a bit ugly and bumpy on the outside. It doesn’t stay whole for long anyhow as I slice it into strips for kebabs or sandwiches

You can flavour seitan in myriad ways using different combinations of herbs and spices. The basic seitan I’m sharing today can be eaten as it is, without any additional flavouring, however pan-frying it in a little olive oil will enhance its flavour.

When making my vegan version of doner kebabs, I like to spice up the seitan strips with smoked paprika and ground cumin, which I sprinkle in as I’m pan-frying it. I’ll be sharing my doner kebab recipe very soon, so I’ll link to it here once it’s ready… here it is

If it’s your first time making seitan, I would recommend making a half batch of the recipe below (no need to split the dough into two pieces; keep it as one) and see how you get on. (This is what I did for the first handful of times I made it, then I started to double the quantities). I tend to make one batch of seitan each week, which I store in the fridge in an airtight container. I have heard that seitan is freezable but I’ve yet to try it as ours never hangs around for very long!