🌯 Beef shawarma in saj bread

Name: Beef shawarma in saj bread
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Levant · Lebanon and Syria
Ingredients: 600 g beef sirloin or topside, very thinly sliced; 4 large saj breads; Marinade: 3 tbsp vinegar, juice of 1 lemon, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 3 garlic cloves, 2 tsp shawarma spice mix (allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin), salt; Tahini sauce: 4 tbsp tahini, juice of 1 lemon, 1 small garlic clove, about 4 tbsp cold water, salt; 1 onion, thinly sliced, mixed with a handful of chopped parsley and a pinch of sumac; 2 tomatoes, sliced; Pickled cucumbers and turnips, sliced

Origin: Levant · Lebanon and Syria

612kcal

per serving · 250 g

245kcal

per 100 g

38 gProtein15 g / 100 g

28 gFat11 g / 100 g

55 gCarbs22 g / 100 g

Beef shawarma saj is a Levantine street wrap: thin slices of marinated beef shaved from a slowly turning spit and rolled tight in paper-thin saj bread with tahini sauce, onion with parsley, tomato and pickles. The meat is spiced and slightly crisp at the edges, the tahini adds a nutty, lemony creaminess and the pickles bring crunch and tang. The roll is often pressed on the hot saj dome so the bread turns crisp.

Diets

✓

No porkfor halal, the meat must be halal-slaughtered

✓

Dairy-freeno milk, cheese, butter or yogurt in a typical recipe

Not vegetarianbecause of: beef

Not veganbecause of: beef

Contains glutenbecause of: saj bread

Not keto22 g carbs per 100 g

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Gluten ⚠ Sesame

What it is made of

beefsaj breadtahini sauceonionparsleytomatopickles

Recipe

4 servings60 min

Ingredients

600 g beef sirloin or topside, very thinly sliced
4 large saj breads
Marinade: 3 tbsp vinegar, juice of 1 lemon, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 3 garlic cloves, 2 tsp shawarma spice mix (allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin), salt
Tahini sauce: 4 tbsp tahini, juice of 1 lemon, 1 small garlic clove, about 4 tbsp cold water, salt
1 onion, thinly sliced, mixed with a handful of chopped parsley and a pinch of sumac
2 tomatoes, sliced
Pickled cucumbers and turnips, sliced

Method

Mix the marinade, coat the beef and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
Whisk the tahini with the lemon juice, crushed garlic and salt, adding water a spoon at a time until smooth and pourable.
Sear the beef in a very hot dry pan in small batches for 2–3 minutes until browned and slightly crisp at the edges.
Spread each saj bread with tahini sauce, lay the beef along one side and top with the onion-parsley mix, tomato and pickles.
Roll up tightly and toast the roll seam-side down in a dry pan for 1–2 minutes per side until crisp. Cut in half and serve.

How to make it lighter

Spread the tahini sauce thinly — tahini is energy-dense, about 90 kcal per tablespoon.
Choose a lean cut like topside and cook it without extra oil in a very hot pan.
Load up on tomato, onion, parsley and pickles, or eat half a wrap with a large salad.

History

Shawarma descends from the Ottoman tradition of roasting stacked meat on a vertical spit, and its name is usually traced to the Turkish word çevirme, 'turning'. Saj bread is a thin flatbread baked on a domed metal griddle, long used in the rural Levant. Wrapping shawarma in saj is a familiar street-food style in Lebanon, Syria and across the Gulf today.

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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →