Greek Pita Bread Recipe (2024)

Here's the best homemade pita bread recipe, that's flavorful, and easy to make. It's soft and elastic perfect for wraps. Fresh pita bread is much more tasty than store-bought and frozen.

What is Pita bread? Pita bread is a Greek flat bread with a round shape cooked on a very hot surface like a frying pan, a grill, or a griddle. It is used to make wraps like Souvlaki wraps or Gyros wraps you may also know it as Gyros bread.

Ingredients

What is Pita bread made of? Pita bread is made of flour, yeast, water, sugar, salt, and a neutral oil such as sunflower or corn oil.

Instant dry yeast works best in this recipe but you can use fresh if you like as well. Substituting with 18 grams of fresh yeast instead of dry.

How To Make Pita Bread

Here's how to make Gyro bread / Greek Pita Bread:

• Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar)
• Dissolve yeast in water
• Add wet ingredients (water with yeast and the oil) to the dry ingredients
• Knead by hand until you get a soft dough (you may use an electric mixer if you wish)
• Rest dough until doubled in a warm oven
• Cut and separate the dough into small round balls
• Open each dough ball into a round flat disk, no need to use a rolling pin you can do it with your hands

How To Cook Pita Bread:

• Heat a non-stick frying pan, cast iron pan, griddle, or grill over high heat
• Brush the pan or the grates of the grill with oil
• Cook the flatbread for 2 and a half minutes to 3 minutes overall flipping it halfway once or twice to get even color on both sides

NOTE: If you don't want to make big flatbread to use for wraps you can make smaller ones 15 cm (6-inch) instead of 20 cm (8-inch). They'll be more like soft, round, mini breads to serve together with soups, stews, or dips.

Is Pita Bread Healthy?

Classic Greek Pita flatbread you can't say it's a healthy food. It's not unhealthy though either. It's neutral because it doesn't give much in terms of nutrition. The flour is refined white flour so one way Pita bread can be healthy is when made with whole-wheat flour that contains many nutrients, including fiber, which is missing from refined white flour.

If you're looking for a healthy Pita bread recipe you can try my Greek yogurt pita bread that's also made without any yeast.

Calories In Pita Bread

As for Pita bread calories, there are 373 kcal in each flatbread this recipe yields. The flatbreads are big enough though and turning one into a wrap is very filling. Especially with some low-calorie, high-protein pita bread fillings such as Grilled chicken, Chicken Souvlaki, and Tzatziki.

Recipes For Pita Bread

Here are a few recipes for using pita bread:

• Chicken Gyros With Tzatziki
• Marinated Pork Gyros Wraps
• Pork Souvlaki Pita Wraps
• Pita Chips

To Make A Greek Pita Wrap

Add the following ingredients to make a Pita bread wrap:

1. Protein ⟶ Gyros, Meatballs, Souvlaki (meat skewer), or Halloumi (for a Vegetarian version)
2. A sauce ⟶ Tzatziki (what's traditionally added), Tirokafteri (feta cheese dip), or Mayo Mustard sauce (another classic served in Greek grillhouses)
3. Potato fries (optional)
4. Veggies ⟶ Tomatoes, Onions (raw, sliced), Cucumbers, Lettuce (shredded)

Storing

Homemade pita bread freezes well. Just place it in a plastic freezer bag and freeze for up to 6 months. You don't need to reheat it after thawing just let it reach room temperature.

In the fridge, it will keep nicely for up to 4 days if you place it on a plate and cover the stack airtightly with plastic wrap.

What To Eat With Pita Bread:

In Greece, Pita bread is a favorite side to grilled meat. Especially to Souvlaki (skewers). Also, it goes hand in hand with Tzatziki or a spicy Feta Dip. A Greek salad is also a classic to serve together with Pita flatbread.

Recipe

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