Shawarma – The real kebab

shawarma, the Lebanese kebab

Can I have barbeque sauce, extra cheese and tabbouli with that? Certainly not!
Imagine the horror upon my first encounter with the Aussie kebab! I don’t want to dig deep and talk too much about frozen reconstituted meat made from God knows what, impersonating as a poor excuse for a kebab. In fact, I want to avoid that all together. This quick post is about shawarma, the real kebab, and mainly about what goes with it.

the perfect kebab, shawarma only needs tahini, parsley, sumac rubbed onions and tomatoes

Making shawarma is simple. Just marinate some lamb in red wine vinegar, oil, salt (yes), all spice, cinnamon, black pepper and a bit of cumin. Wait for a day or two, then you can oven roast or pan fry the meat. But how do you eat it? The answer is simple, and so it should be, as the flavour of the meat needs to shine through, along with a cleansing freshness that comes from only 4 other ingredients: finely chopped parsley, onions rubbed with sumac, tomatoes and a slightly thin tahini sauce (tahini, garlic, water, lemon juice and salt, whizzed up in a food processor, made to taste). That’s all it needs. Try this combination, and you will never turn back. And please, no cheese.