Ground Beef Gyro Meatball Lettuce Wraps (Video)
Ground Beef Gyro Meatball Lettuce Wraps have all the flavors of Gyros without the pita bread, and these are delicious with Tzatziki Sauce!
PIN Ground Beef Gyro Meatball Lettuce Wraps to try some later!
This recipe for Ground Beef Gyro Meatball Lettuce Wraps is for everyone who loves the complex flavors of Greek Gyros, but it’s especially for my brother Mark who’s such a lover of Greek food. It took me quite a few tries to get the seasoning for the Gyro meatballs just right, but since then I’ve made this regularly, so it’s definitely worthy of recommending for a Friday Favorites pick this week!
It was the Homemade Gyro Meat recipe from The Spice House that helped us get these meatballs perfectly seasoned. We used slightly less Greek seasoning than that recipe called for, since it’s salty, but the combination of flavors was fantastic.
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
- ground beef
- onion
- Greek Seasoning (affiliate link)
- ground Cumin (affiliate link)
- Garlic Powder (affiliate link)
- Olive Oil (affiliate link)
- iceberg lettuce
- Tzatziki Sauce
- cherry tomatoes
What if you don’t have Greek Seasoning?
Greek Seasoning is an herb and spice blend that’s available in most stores. But if you don’t want to buy it, is usually contains salt, garlic powder, Oregano (preferably Greek oregano), Marjoram, and dried lemon peel. Some brands also contain onion, parsley and black pepper. The most essential ingredient is Oregano; if you have that just add a pinch of the other ingredients you do have.
What tips can make the Gyro Meatball Lettuce Wraps easier to make?
If making meatballs seems labor intensive, you can also just brown the ground beef and season it with the spices. And feel free to use purchased Tzatziki Sauce too if that will help you get this on the table. (Or remember my trick that I shared when I posted Greek Salmon with Tzatziki Sauce and ask your favorite Greek restaurant if you can buy some Tzatziki!)
How to make these lettuce wraps with Greek Meatballs:
(Scroll down for complete printable recipe including nutritional information.)
- Coarsely chop 1/2 of an onion and then chop it in the food processor until it’s finely chopped.
- Add the Greek Seasoning (affiliate link), ground cumin (affiliate link), and garlic powder and buzz a couple more times so the seasonings are well combined.
- Mix the onion-spice mixture into the lean ground beef.
- We used a plastic tablespoon to scoop out the meat and rolled it into 20 smallish meatballs.
- We cooked the meatballs in a stove-top grill pan over medium-high heat.
- While meatballs cook, chop up some cherry tomatoes to go in the lettuce wraps.
- You’ll also need Tzatziki sauce, which you can buy (or use my recipe and make the Worlds Greatest Tzatziki Sauce.)
- We used iceberg lettuce, two leaves together for each wrap, and put three meatballs into each one.
- Then put a generous amount of Tzatziki sauce and some chopped tomatoes over the meatballs, fold over the lettuce and eat!
Want More Lettuce Wrap Dinner Ideas?
If you’re a fan of lettuce wraps for an easy low-carb dinner, check out my collection of Low-Carb Lettuce Wraps!
More Recipes with Greek Flavors:
- Roasted Lemon Chicken and Green Beans Sheet Pan Meal
- Greek Lemon Chicken
- Baked Greek Meatballs with Feta
- Greek Lemon Rice
- Greek Air Fryer Chicken Wings
Ground Beef Gyro Meatball Lettuce Wraps
Ground Beef Gyro Meatball Lettuce Wraps have all the amazing flavors found in Gyros, without the pita bread.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped in food processor
- 1 T Greek seasoning (see notes)
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. olive oil, for brushing grill pan
- 1 large head iceberg lettuce
- 3/4 cup Tzatziki Sauce (see notes)
- 1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
Instructions
- Coarsely chop the onion; then put it in the food processor and pulse until onion is finely chopped.
- Add the Greek Seasoning (affiliate link), ground cumin (affiliate link), and garlic powder and pulse a few more times until the seasonings are well blended with the onion. (You can also do this by hand, but it’s easier in the food processor.)
- Put the ground beef into a bowl, add the onion-spice mixture, and use your clean hands to mix the spices into the meat.
- Then use a tablespoon-sized measuring spoon to scoop out the meat and form into meatballs. (I got 20 meatballs.)
- Brush a stove-top grill pan or frying pan with olive oil, then heat the pan over medium high heat and cook the meatballs, turning often, until they are well browned and completely cooked through (about 10-12 minutes.)
- Cut out the core of the lettuce and cut the lettuce head into two halves, then break the leaves apart, making each lettuce cup out of two leaves.
- Put three meatballs into each lettuce cup, top with Tzatziki sauce, and sprinkle over chopped tomatoes.
- The Gyro meatballs were great after they had been in the fridge overnight.
- I wouldn’t recommend microwaving them; I just heated them in a mini-frying pan on the stove.
Notes
Greek Seasoning Note: The Spice House Greektown Billygoat Seasoning contains “coarse flake salt, granulated garlic powder, Tellicherry black pepper, onion powder, Greek fancy oregano and powdered lemon peel.” I particularly love this blend, but I think most brands of Greek Seasoning (affiliate link) have similar ingredients.
I love my homemade Tzatziki but purchased Tzatziki Sauce is also fine.
This recipe for the meatballs adapted from the Gyro Meat recipe from The Spice House.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
7Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 220Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 5gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 60mgSodium: 764mgCarbohydrates: 4gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 19g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
When these lettuce wraps are made with lean ground beef, this is suitable for any phase of the original South Beach Diet. It’s also suitable for other low-carb eating plans, which would prefer beef with more fat and maybe slightly fewer tomatoes.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Lettuce Wraps to see more recipes like this one! Use the Diet Type Index to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
52 Comments on “Ground Beef Gyro Meatball Lettuce Wraps (Video)”
being greek, there's nothing like a good gyro. i can't wait to try these! i don't care much about the charred edges, so i'm going to make the meat into a meatloaf for convenience. this way, i'll just have to slice a bit for each portion and EAT. there's nothing more arduous than rolling meatballs.
Hope you enjoy the recipe, and if you don't like rolling meatballs I think making a meatloaf is a good idea!
I made this for dinner and it was just want I wanted. So delicious!
I've been a big fan of your Greek meatball recipe for years, but I like this just as much, and it's a little bit less of a fuss to cook. ALSO, I was thinking about what gives it that gyro flavor, and I definitely think it's the addition of cumin and lemon!
A few tips/changes:
I do not have a grill pan, but I cooked the meatballs in my regular cast iron skillet, and still got a nice char. I made the meatballs more nugget-shaped for easy flipping.
I didn't have a Greek seasoning mix, so I added salt, pepper, lemon zest, a bit of lemon juice, and a dried Italian herb mix that had a lot of oregano. Turned out great!
Those look so good!
I made the Greek meatballs with tzatziki the other night. So good!
What a great healthy twist on the traditional gyro! I love it 🙂
Lydia, I absolutely love this recipe; hope you enjoy!
I'm definitely going to try these with turkey meatballs. I love that Greek seasoning from The Spice House, too. (I'm so glad we discovered it when we visited Chicago years ago.)
These were great! I baked them at 350 and served them with a greek salad. My husband and son loved them! This will be a great easy and quick week night supper. Oh, I added a bit of cayenne pepper for some extra spice.
Kalyn, these were so delicious! My husband and I loved them, just made them for lunch. I had them in the lettuce cups and he had his in pita bread. It's a winner.
These were delicious….I baked mine @ 400 degrees for about 20 min. Thanks for the wonderful recipe !
You can definitely use lamb. I used beef to keep the saturated fat lower.