Sauce plays a significant role in the taste palette of shawarma, but many of the recipes of this dish include only mayonnaise and ketchup in different proportions, sometimes supplemented with mustard or garlic. Because of this, the taste of shawarma may seem monotonous. In fact, the sauce for shawarma at home can be made much tastier and healthier, with many recipes for its preparation. Usually they are based on dairy products, fresh vegetables and herbs, and not mayonnaise, although it can be included in the composition. If done correctly, homemade sauce will be thick, fragrant, with a spicy or delicate flavor.
Cooking Features
By how tasty the sauce turns out for a cook, one can judge his skill. Preparing a real shawarma sauce is also an art, but it can be mastered by any hostess who is not deprived of culinary skills. The secrets of experienced chefs will help her in this.
- Sour milk products are the basis for real shawarma sauce, and only the freshest of them are suitable. At the same time, their fat content should not be too low: from low-fat kefir the sauce will turn out to be too thin.
- If you want to make the sauce thicker, while not increasing its caloric content, you can add more chopped vegetables and greens to its composition.
- In order for the shawarma sauce to turn out fragrant, greens, it is necessary to grind it in a mortar along with salt and spices before adding it to the main composition.
- The sauce will become even more fragrant and thicker if you let it brew. However, to leave the sauce for a long time or to prepare it in advance is not worth it, since it may include perishable foods.
- Seasoning (paprika, curry) and fresh greens will help to give new shades to shawarma sauce at home.
- Shawarma sauce should be uniform and tender. Therefore, the vegetables used for its preparation must be cleaned of coarse pelts and seeds, thoroughly chopped to a puree state. The same rule applies to other ingredients.
One cannot say that a truly delicious shawarma sauce at home can be prepared as easily and quickly as when mixing ketchup with mayonnaise, but the result is worth the effort.
Classic Shawarma Sauce
Composition:
- Ryazhenka - 0, 2 l;
- mayonnaise - 0, 2 l;
- sour cream - 0, 2 l;
- lemon - 1/4 of the fruit;
- garlic - 3 cloves;
- sugar - a pinch;
- salt, black pepper and other spices to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Put sour cream and mayonnaise in a bowl, pour in the baked milk. Mix the fermented milk products thoroughly. The mass should be completely homogeneous.
- Wash, cut the lemon. Squeeze the juice out of a quarter of the fruit directly into a bowl of fermented milk products.
- Finely chop the garlic cloves with a knife, put them in a mortar.
- Add salt, sugar and seasonings to garlic. Mash the garlic with the pestle and place in a bowl with ryazhenka, sour cream and mayonnaise.
- Beat the resulting mixture with a mixer and put in a refrigerator for a couple of hours.
This recipe is considered a classic sauce. It is almost universal, and it can be taken as a basis by adding various bouquets of spices.
Shawarma sauce as in stalls
Composition:
- sour cream - 100 ml;
- mayonnaise - 100 ml;
- kefir - 100 ml;
- garlic - 5 cloves;
- salt, pepper, a mixture of dried herbs - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Garlic cloves, peeling, pass through the press.
- Add salt, pepper, dried herbs to garlic. Pound them with a pestle or spoon.
- Fill the spicy mixture with kefir, mix thoroughly.
- Add sour cream and mayonnaise, whisk well.
- Leave to infuse for half an hour at room temperature.
This sauce for shawarma is used in stalls and catering establishments, where they respect their customers and value their reputation. It does not differ much from the classical taste, although there is a difference, of course.
Yogurt shawarma sauce
Composition:
- white yogurt (unsweetened) - 100 ml;
- lemon juice - 10 ml;
- mustard (sauce) - 5 ml;
- a mixture of peppers - a pinch;
- coriander beans - 10 pcs .;
- oregano - a pinch;
- olives (green) without stones - 5 pcs.
Method of preparation:
- Chop coriander seeds in a coffee grinder or carefully grind in a mortar to a powder.
- Combine coriander with oregano and pepper, add lemon juice to them, add salt, add mustard, grind everything together.
- Add yogurt to the mixture, mix everything well so that spices and herbs are evenly distributed.
- Crumble olives very finely with a knife, put them in yogurt, mix well.
Let the sauce stand for an hour in a cool place, stir again and use when cooking shawarma. This sauce can be called a diet, because its calorie content is low. It will appeal to those who follow the figure or just loves Mediterranean cuisine.
Shawarma Tomato Sauce
Composition:
- tomato paste - 50 g;
- tomato - 150 g;
- vegetable oil - 40 ml;
- Bulgarian pepper - 100 g;
- onions - 75 g;
- fresh coriander - 20 g;
- red pepper - a pinch;
- sugar - 5 g;
- salt - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Wash the tomato. At the top, make a cross-cut incision with a sharp knife. Boil the water. Dip a tomato in boiling water and blanch it for half a minute. Take out, cool and clean the skin. The tomato will cool quickly if it is briefly placed in cold water.
- Peel a tomato, remove the stem and the lump next to it. Cut the fruit into several pieces and gently remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Pulp cut into small cubes.
- Remove the husks from the bulb. Cut the onion into small pieces.
- Heat the oil in a pan, put the onion in it. Fry it over low heat so that it becomes soft and translucent.
- Add tomatoes to onions, fry them slightly with the lid open, then stew for 5 minutes under the lid.
- Put tomato paste in a pan with vegetables, add salt, sugar and hot pepper, put the mixture out until it thickens. Remove from heat and cool.
- Wash and clean the pepper from the seeds, cut a large piece of pulp (about half the pepper), cut the piece into several medium-sized pieces.
- Combine the peppers with the tomato sauce and grind everything together in a blender.
- Chop the greens with a knife as small as possible and mix with the resulting mass.
Tomato sauce should be used fresh, as it has a short shelf life (5-6 hours).
Cucumber sauce for shawarma
Composition:
- cucumbers - 0, 2 kg;
- mayonnaise - 120 ml;
- sour cream - 80 ml;
- garlic - 1 clove;
- fresh parsley - 20 g;
- lemon juice - 20 ml;
- ground paprika - 5 g;
- salt - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Wash cucumbers, cut noses and tails. If you have one large fruit, then it will have to be cleaned, removing the thinner layer of peel as much as possible with a peeler, and free from large seeds.
- Grate the cucumber pulp. If sour cream and mayonnaise are thick, you can not squeeze the juice, otherwise drain the juice, leaving only the cucumber pulp.
- Squeeze garlic through a special press directly into a plate of cucumber.
- Pour salt, paprika, add sour cream and mayonnaise, stir.
- Chop parsley very finely with a knife, remember it with a pestle, add to the sauce.
- Pour lemon juice into the sauce, mix thoroughly or even whisk together.
It is not worthwhile to insist on this sauce for a long time, it is better to apply it in 15-30 minutes after preparation. The sauce has a delicate flavor and fresh aroma. Especially nice to eat with him shawarma in the summer.
Shawarma Nut Sauce
Composition:
- walnut kernels - 50 g;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- sour cream - 150 ml;
- cilantro - 20 g;
- soy sauce - 5 ml;
- lemon juice - 5 ml;
- salt, hop-suneli - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Grind the nuts, turning them into a homogeneous mass. Grind them can be in a coffee grinder. Another option - crush in a mortar.
- Put the nuts in a bowl. Squeeze the garlic, add lemon juice and soy sauce, mix well.
- Finely chop fresh cilantro, add salt and hops-suneli to it, remember with a spoon or pestle.
- Mix greens with a nut mass.
- Add sour cream and mix thoroughly. If necessary, you can use a mixer, although, given the small amount of sauce, you can cope without the help of kitchen appliances.
- Let the sauce stand at room temperature for about half an hour.
If you make shawarma with a sauce prepared according to this recipe, then Georgian cuisine lovers will surely like it.
Home-made shawarma sauce is much tastier, more fragrant and healthier than its “street” competitors. If you make shawarma with him, you will almost certainly like it and not get bored.