Calories in shawarma

Information on Shawarma

Shawarma is among the most popular Middle Eastern dishes. It is a wrap commonly served with pita bread, cucumber, lavash bread, tomatoes, tabouli salad, taboon bread, and fattoush salad. The stuffing for the wrap consists of beef, turkey, chicken, goat, or lamb, but it may also include a mixture of different types of meat. The meat gets placed on a spit, and it is commonly grilled there, sometimes even for an entire day. The most common shawarma toppings include amba, pickled turnips, hummus, and tahini.

Shawarma Preparation

The Greek version of shawarma is called gyro, while its Turkish counterpart is known by the name of doner kebab. In both cases, the dish includes striped chicken, lamb, or beef stacked on a stick and topped with tomatoes and onion. The spit needs to keep rotating slowly so that the meat gets equally roasted on all sides.

Ancient times called for wood fire, but nowadays people use gas flame. The sandwich wrap consists of pita bread, which is filled with meat and different types of dressings and vegetables. The most common ingredients of shawarma include cabbage, French fries, cucumber, tomato, eggplant, pickled gherkins, lettuce, pickled turnips, parsley, and onion.

The most common types of dressings used for shawarma include tahini which is a sesame paste, skhug, which is a hot chili sauce, amba sauce with chilbeh and pickled mango, pomegranate concentrate, toum which is a garlic sauce, garlic mayonnaise and hummus which can be spiced up with vinegar, nutmeg, cinnamon or cardamom.

Different countries use different kinds of meat for the preparation of shawarma, so Middle Eastern countries prefer chicken, Saudi Arabia prefers goat, while Turkey prefers beef. Some rare cases may also include fish instead of meat. Sometimes, people use baguettes or hot dog buns instead of pita bread as well.

Shawarma Nutrition Facts

Shawarma is an excellent source of proteins, potassium, vitamin A, sodium, vitamin B6, iron, vitamin C, magnesium, thiamine, calcium, niacin, and folate. It also contains certain amounts of cholesterol, fats, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, and sugar.

Shawarma Calories

A serving of chicken shawarma contains 403 calories, while each shawarma sandwich may contain up to 503 calories. Each ounce of beef shawarma contains approximately 70 calories, while 4 ounces of turkey shawarma may contain up to 180 calories. A serving of chicken shawarma with kebab and mezza contains up to 600 calories.