Greek Lamb Souvlaki

Name: Greek Lamb Souvlaki
Prep time: 3 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 135 min
Ingredients: 350 g diced lamb; 4 tbsp olive oil; 0.5 lemon (juice only); 1 tsp dried oregano; 1 tsp dried thyme; 2 garlic cloves (crushed); Flatbreads (to serve); Tzatziki (to serve)

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* This is a sponsored post for Try Lamb *
This homemade Greek Lamb Souvlaki tastes just like you would find down a side street in Greece. Tender chunks of lamb cooked on the grill after being marinated in a generous amount of olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and herbs. Serve with flatbreads, tzatziki and all the trimmings for a great recipe to feed a crowd.

Greek Lamb Souvlaki skewers on a wooden board with couscous, salad, olives and tzatziki.

This is one of my favourite food memories from when we were island hopping around Greece and something we have made regularly ever since coming home. If you are not too familiar with cooking with lamb, then this is a really good recipe to start with, as you just marinade the chunks of lamb, thread them on to a skewer and then grill them.

If you are having a dinner party with meat loving friends and family, then this recipe will go down a treat. You can just put everything on the table and your guests can build up their own meal of flatbreads, juicy lamb, salad and lashings of creamy hummus and tzatziki. If you want to serve it how we ate it in Mykonos, then you can add some fries in to the flatbread too.

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Step by step
Greek marinade
What lamb to use
BBQ souvlaki
What to serve with this
FAQs
Extra tips
More lamb recipes
Recipe

Step by step

One: Make the marinade by combining the oil, lemon juice, garlic, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper.
Two: Put the lamb in a bowl with the marinade and marinate for at least 2 hours.
Three: Thread the skewers with the marinated lamb.
Four: Place the skewers on a barbecue or under a grill.
Five: Cook for around 12 minutes, or until it gets to a temperature of 70°C/158°F.
Six: Serve in flatbreads with salad and tzatziki.

Greek marinade

The lamb itself has so much delicious flavour, but the marinade really brings the whole dish to life. We keep it all pretty simple, but with a definite nod to Greek flavours.

The marinade is mad up of a generous glug of olive oil (the best quality you can afford - you will really notice the difference), a squeeze of lemon juice, some crushed garlic, salt, pepper and dried oregano and thyme (this is where you will get a burst of Greek flavour).

What lamb to use

We used diced lamb leg for this lamb souvlaki recipe, which makes it super easy to just thread on to the skewer as it has already been chopped up for you. Lamb is such a great meat to use on the BBQ, but I don't think it is used enough and people tend to go for beef.

Try Lamb challenged us to come up with a lamb recipe that would be great for feeding a crowd at a BBQ and this is our favourite. Lamb is really good value (as it has such a strong flavour, so a little goes a long way), and it's versatile too. Have you tried our Lamb Burgers?

As part of the Try Lamb, Love Lamb campaign, myself and a group of other bloggers are creating recipes that show how easy lamb is to incorporate in the family friendly meals. You can find out more by visiting the Try Lamb website and following them on Instagram and Facebook.

Lamb Souvlaki skewers on a wooden serving board.

BBQ souvlaki

Summer is here (but occasionally it doesn't feel like it when you look out the window), so we are all about BBQing and cooking as much as we can on the grill. Lamb is great for BBQing, because you can serve it medium-rare, unlike say chicken, so you don't have to worry about if it is cooked or not. However, I think lamb skewers should be well done, to get that charred flavour.

Not only do you get that nice smoky flavour on the lamb, but it gives it nice charred and crispy edges whilst locking in all the flavour. You could cook these under the grill (broiler) or in the oven too if the weather isn't nice enough for a BBQ.

Greek Lamb skewer on a flatbread with tzatziki and salad

What to serve with this

We think this lamb souvlaki recipe is great for feeding a crowd. So you want to serve it with things you can just put on the table and let people help themselves, and build up their own meal.

We serve ours with a harissa couscous, some flatbreads and then some chopped salad, a tomato and cucumber salad, olives, hummus, tzaziki and feta. You could swap the couscous for some sweet potato wedges and really use any salad ingredients that you have that need using.

FAQs

Can lamb souvlaki be made in advance?

The kebabs need to be left to marinade, ideally overnight, so they are best made well in advance. You just thread the skewers before you are ready to cook them. You can cook them in advance and then reheat them in the oven with some foil over them for around 15-20 minutes. The skewers will be a little tougher once reheated though, so they are best eaten straight after cooking.

Does the lamb need marinating?

You don't have to, but it really does make a huge difference to how tender the meat is. The lemon juice in the marinade, which is acidic, breaks down the tissue of the meat and lets more moisture in. This means that once cooked the lamb is much more tender and has a more intense flavour

Can souvlaki be frozen?

You can take the meat off the skewers and put them in some Tupperware and then keep them in the freezer for up to 4 weeks. Then when you want to eat them, fully defrost them and follow the reheating instructions above.

Extra tips

Bring the lamb to room temperature before putting it on the grill. This will allow for it to cook more evenly.
Turn the skewers every couple of minutes to prevent them from burning. If they do start to burn, then move them to a cooler part of the BBQ
You can reheat the skewers by putting them in the oven under some foil for about 15 minutes.
The lamb freezes well if you take the chunks off the skewers and put in a container. Defrost thoroughly before reheating.

More lamb recipes

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