Greek Souvlaki 

Souvlaki are born as street food (more commonly called "street food"), a quick lunch, to be eaten with the hands, walking and directly from the wooden stick in which they are skewered. If you've been to Greece, chances of having tasted souvlaki pita or kebab (or both!) are very high. In the big cities, in Athens as in Thessaloniki, each neighborhood has a myriad of premises that can prepare and deliver home a portion at the speed of light. While pizza is perfect to be enjoyed on a relaxed evening at home, perhaps while watching a movie, souvlaki is also ideal to be picked up and taken anywhere. The souvlaki is on par with our national icon Greek salad and is a full part of the Greek culinary tradition. In fact, it can easily represent dinner, a lunch, or even breakfast after a night spent around the premises.

You can find this quick and easy meal everywhere, on the beach as well as in the mountains. It can accompany you during an evening walk, it is a real cure for children, a staple for students, a protagonist of Sunday barbecues. If you ever spot the Greek street food icon, it would be the souvlaki! It's juicy, yummy, super-simple to prepare and always ready to save you when you don't know what to cook.

Souvlaki is a dish that can perfectly adapt to your personal taste. Your souvlaki can in fact be filled with juicy and spicy lamb or meat balls. It can be stuffed with gyros, the classic slow-cooked spit that is usually made of pork or chicken.

Chicken souvlaki is one of the most common versions, usually garnished with different sauces than tzatziki, made from mustard or mayonnaise. Newer variations of souvlaki, whether pork, lamb or chicken include fries and salad inside the pita roll.

The easiest version to prepare for the barbecue are pork skewers, which are also the ones most adored by the Greeks. In the tradition the skewer has always been very simple to make, small cubes of pork skewered on a spit and cooked on the grill until a soft and juicy meat is obtained. Usually squeeze a little lemon and add a little dried Greek oregano.

Even in the case of the roll the preparation is very simple. The soft Greek pita is usually filled with onion tomatoes, a spoonful of tzatziki and for those who want fried potatoes. Obviously in the case of the roll with pita, as well as for any other sandwich, the only limit to creativity is represented by one's imagination. You can also add salad or any kind of sauce to have a satisfying meal.

When do Greeks eat souvlaki?

The simplest answer to this question is: always! And in fact for some this dish has practically become a religion. In Athens as well as in any village in Greece there is at least one active souvlaki delivery. It all starts with the famous souvlatzidiko. It is therefore a very simple solution for the evening: I pick up the phone and order a souvlaki for dinner. Comfortable, fast and above all delicious. Pork or chicken skewers, in fact, are the perfect food companion. Greek festivals with dozens of people usually end with a massive order of souvlakia, or for the more organized and eager to have a barbecue. Cooking souvlaki is very simple, just have a grill and you're done. The secret is to follow the steps of preparation correctly, from the marinade of the meat onwards. But let's go immediately to see the ingredients we need to try to make excellent Souvlaki from home...

Ingredients

800g of pork leg (or pork loin) cut into 2cm cubes

100 ml extra virgin olive oil

1/2 lemon for the juice that produces it

12 teaspoons mustard

1 teaspoon dried oregano

salt and pepper at will

8 wooden skewers

8 Greek pitas

1-2 red onions

1 sliced tomato

tzatziki sauce

Preparing Souvlaki

Cut the pork into cubes of about 2 cm. Put them in a bowl and add lemon juice, oil, mustard and oregano. Mix everything well, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Take the skewers and cut them exactly the size of your grid. Place the pork cubes in the wooden skewers and turn on the grid. Keep the temperature of the cast iron grill high and cook the souvlaki for about 8 minutes, turning them occasionally until they have taken on a golden color. On one side of the grill you can heat the Greek pitas. Pass them with a little extra virgin olive oil and season with salt, pepper and oregano. Pita needs only 1-2 minutes of cooking. Insert the pork skewers into the pita bread, add a generous spoonful of tzatziki and season to taste! Optional: You can also add fried potatoes and slices of fresh tomato and onion.