These vegan gyros have two options--seasoned and baked seitan or grilled Portobello mushrooms. Either way, they make for a delicious hearty meal bursting with flavor!
In a blender, blend onion, garlic, tahini, ketchup, soy sauce, and water.
In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
Pour the wet blender ingredients into the dry ingredients, and start to stir.
This will thicken quickly. Use hands and begin to knead together for approximately 3 minutes. If it's too wet, add more vital wheat gluten. If it's too dry, add a little water.
Line a baking dish with parchment paper and press seitan into it. Bake for 30 minutes.
Once cooked it will look like this.
Slice into strips.
Option #2 - Grilled Seasoned Portobello Mushrooms
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
Coat each mushroom with the mixture.
Grill on low heat until moist and tender. My opinion is that the lower heat and longer grill, the better for flavor. I didn't cook these slow or long enough, and the flavor was lacking, compared to the seitan.
Remove from heat and slice.
Tzatziki Sauce
In blender, blend all ingredients, except cucumber, until smooth.
Peel and deseed cucumbers. Scraping the center with a spoon helps a lot with this.
Dice them into tiny pieces.
Place on paper towel to drain excess water. Squeeze slightly, if necessary.
Combine ingredients from blender with diced cucumber, and whisk together.
Assembly
Spread a spoonful of tzatziki sauce down the center of one pita or naan wrap. Add a lettuce, diced tomato, onion, and either grilled mushroom slices or seitan. Then top it with another spoonful of tzatziki sauce. Fold the wrap and hold in place with a toothpick or wrap it in parchment/foil.
The grilled Portobello mushroom gyro was good but, as mentioned above, grill lower and longer to enhance flavor. The advantage of using mushrooms over seitan is time and effort. The mushrooms are quicker and require less involvement.
The seasoned baked seitan was by far the best, in mine and my husband's opinions. They take longer because you have to mix and bake the seitan, but the flavor and texture is wonderful and worth the effort.
Both are good, but seitan is the best!
Video
Notes
Detailed instructions, in-process photos, and my personal helpful tips can be found in the article above.I think these Vegan Gyros with Seitan or Mushrooms and Tzatziki Cucumber Sauce turned out terrific. Either way, you decide to go, I think you’re going to be impressed.