Vegan Döner Kebab: Taco Edition!!

When we lived in Germany I got very acquainted with something that I now love; döner kebabs. They are very similar to gyros in the United States except that instead of tzatziki there are all kinds of yummy veggies and spicy pepper sauce if you want. Some places also offer a crumbly feta-style cheese with it and though it’s not my jam, I had been known eat a döner or two…per week.

Now that I’m off of animal products, I’ve made a döner with crimini mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and there was even one terrible attempt at making my own with seitan and soy flour but I’d rather not think about that right now.

Then one day we were walking around our neighborhood in Stetten (just outside Stuttgart for those interested) and we found a Bio Store which is just a German way of saying organic, but we loved it because they had a solid selection of vegan products.

Enter, Wheaty, courtesy of Veganic.

I am a big fan of this product because it is tasty with all the right döner flavors and it has a meat-like consistency. What I love most is that it has all the good things about meat without that greasy aftertaste. Take a look at the ingredients and the nutritional content and then when your eyes go back in your head, see if the Wheaty brand is available near you.

We visited 3 different markets in search of large döner wraps but they were nowhere to be found. Tortilla wraps were abundant so I improvised with döner kebab tacos, vegan style!

Start with your vegetables of choice. My favorite döner always had onions and peppers so I kept it simple with half of a green and yellow bell pepper and two small yellow onions. I sauteed them in water because there’s a fair bit of oil in the vegan döner.

I did add a few slices of garlic during the last couple minutes because garlic tastes good and has tons of health benefits, immune booster being my absolute favorite!

Now that you’ve got the inside of the döner taco, it’s time to talk about the other fun stuff! I forgot to take photos of my take on the creamy veg offered at döner kebab shops all around Germany but you can see it on the tacos! It’s thinly sliced onion, red cabbage, grated carrots and zucchini tossed in vegan yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, tahini and diced celery.

As you can see, I heated some of the tortilla shells a bit too much but they were still tasty and we scarfed them up in an attack of the munchies. Out of deference to my hubs I kept the spicy factor low but I add Sriracha to my “döner tacos”.