Turkey Pitta kebabs with Tashi sauce (Cypriot style)

When it's so hot, you don't fancy cooking over a hot stove, perhaps the BBQ is calling you. This is a quick and very easy dinner to make. Perhaps you are having a BBQ and would like something different to serve that's simple to prepare ahead and guests can serve themselves.

Basically, you need pitta bread or flatbread, meat or sausages to chuck on the BBQ (or halloumi for vegetarians), the salad and some Tashi sauce.

As we now focus on turkey and chicken in our family, I've adapted the original recipe to use turkey steaks. You can use any meat suitable to be barbecued, even sausages work well and are great for the kids.

Whilst my husband was in Cyprus, they used white cabbage in their salads instead of lettuce and we love the difference. He has created his own sesame sauce (fondly known as Tashi sauce in our family), it is slightly different to the normal Tahini Salata as it contains Greek yoghurt, but is really scrummy).

Depending on your appetite, you will need for each person:-

• large appetite = 2 pittas, 
• small appetite = 1 pitta each.

Start by making the Tashi sauce, this will then have time for the flavours to develop. It can be made ahead and kept in the fridge.

Start to marinate the meat.

Then create the salad and pop it in a sealable tub in the fridge.

Pitta bread (gluten-free is great) or Flatbread

Turkey kebab (makes 4 pittas)

Turkey steaks (1 for each pitta)

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice half a lemon

1 tsp dried oregano

Pop all ingredients into a resealable bag and mix around, pop in the fridge until ready to cook.

Tashi sauce

1 garlic clove - crushed

2 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)

Juice of 1 lemon

4 tbsp greek yoghurt

a pinch Maldon salt

Place the garlic and sesame paste in a bowl and mix, add the lemon juice and continue mixing. There is a strange chemical reaction and the sesame paste gets very thick, keep stirring until thoroughly mixed, add the greek yoghurt and salt, stir until combined. Check seasoning. Cover and pop in the fridge.

Greek Kebab Salad

1/4 small white cabbage, finely sliced

2 large tomatoes, cut into small chunks.

1/2 cucumber, remove the seeds (see tip) and then chopped into small chunks

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

1/2 red onion, finely sliced

A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Mix all the ingredients together, cover and pop in the fridge.

Assembling the kebabs

When you are ready to start cooking, just pop the meat on the BBQ or in a non-stick frying pan. Warm up the pittas (check instructions on the packet).

I normally slice the meat into strips once cooked, pile this onto a serving plate, then everyone can help themselves.

Hold the hot pitta in a clean tea towel and using a small sharp knife, slit down one long edge. Open out the pitta to make sure it can be filled.

Take one pitta, open the pocket and add the turkey steak (one steak's worth of slices). Spoon over a couple of tablespoons of the Tashi sauce, then fill the rest of the pitta with a large handful of the salad.

Serve and enjoy.

Tip - if you need to deseed a cucumber (it's the seeds that can cause indigestion), simply slice the cucumber in half, then using a teaspoon, scrape out the seeds. I loosen the edge of the trench first, then scoop out the middle. This also gets rid of a lot of the water too.