Homemade Donairs

Yesterday, after a week of extremely clean eating, my husband and I were craving pizza or a donair. Nova Scotia happens to produce the best donairs and we live around the corner from a great little pizza/donair restaurant called J3. It seemed to be calling our name, but in an effort to stay strong, we decided to compromise. What if we made it all from scratch? That way we would have control over all of the ingredients.

So, after a little research I found a recipe (mmmisformommy.com) to make donair meat, which I altered, of course.

Donair Meat

• 3.5 to 4 lbs pounds lean ground beef
• 2 tsp spelt flour
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1.5 tsp cayenne pepper
• 4 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 4.5 tsp garlic powder
• 1.5 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt

Combine all ingredients, either in a food processor or by kneading and smashing it on a clean surface. Separate mixture in half and form two chunky logs of meat. Bake on a cooling rack (this works great because all of the fat drains off), on top of a foil-covered cookie sheet at 325F for 1.5 hours. Once cooked, you can either slice and eat it as is (slices will be thicker) or let it cool completely first. This will make it significantly easier to have thin slices. Note: This recipes yields roughly 12 medium donairs.

For a first effort, the meat turned out really great! I should have let it cool longer, but it tasted perfect! To improve some of the other components of the meal, I replaced doughy, white pitas with thin whole wheat pita. I also replaced cow cheese with a sprinkling of goat cheese and used lots of cut up tomatoes and onions. You could also add a variety of lettuce, mushrooms or peppers. The one part, and actually the worst, where I stayed true to a "real" donair was the sauce. It is incredibly high in sugar, but the donair seemed dry without it. If you use the sauce, use it sparingly. The recipe I used was simply to combine a 300 ml can of condensed milk, 1.3 cup white vinegar and a tsp of garlic powder and refrigerate while the meat cooks. The sauce should be enough for all of the meat in the above recipe.

Sometimes it's better to give in to a craving. If you're anything like me, you'll end up eating all kinds of things while trying to avoid the craving, which usually ends up being worse than the thing you actually wanted. 

Best of luck turning your unhealthy cravings into something a little healthier. I encourage you to share your ideas below!