Arayes with yogurt sauce from Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food (page 20) by Julia Turshen

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Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

  • Eat Your Books

    Can substitute ground lamb or ground turkey for ground beef.

  • colleen_f53upm on March 17, 2026

    These are so delicious we've made them more times than I can count- and when it's too cold to use the grill or we don't want to take the time to heat it up they also bake really well and work heated in a saucepan too. We make with ground turkey and they are still to die for!

  • anya_sf on May 01, 2024

    Easy to make and pretty good. I used lamb and agree that the spices should be dialed up. Cooked on a gas grill, I feared the arayes would burn, especially spots where the pitas tore so the lamb was peeking through, but the charred bits (yes, there were some) tasted fine. I did have to turn the flame to low. I added lemon juice and sumac to the yogurt sauce for more flavor.

  • Babycarrot on June 05, 2023

    I made these on my cast iron grill pan as I couldn’t muster the energy to fire up the charcoal grill. I added a teaspoon of za’atar to the spices based on the comments. These were tasty. I only had large pitas so a pound of meat made about two pitas (cut in half) worth of arayes instead of four. I topped with Ottolenghi’s sumac yogurt sauce. I used beef but these would have been great with lamb. Yum!

  • snoozermoose on May 31, 2022

    Agree with darcie_b that these need more spice and seasoning. Even with the yogurt sauce, they were bland and needed a lot of lemon juice to liven them up. I would probably double the spices and increase the salt to 1.5 tsp next time. Since I don't have a grill, I broiled them on low for about 5 minutes total (totally burned my first batch broiling on high).

  • darcie_b on March 27, 2022

    I enjoyed the texture of the grilled pita, but next time I would use more spice or a different spice blend. These would be great for a cookout because you could form them ahead of time and they cook quickly.

  • bernalgirl on July 09, 2021

    Such an easy and delicious summer weeknight dinner, perfect with Israeli salad or an array of salatim. I worried they would be greasy but they’re not. I substituted homemade shawarma spice that needed using but I’m sure it’s great as written. I’ll definitely be making these again and again.

  • Zosia on July 01, 2021

    Really tasty. I baked them at 400F for 20 minutes.

  • Leahspitzer on June 19, 2021

    Delicious with Beyond Meat

  • dc151 on May 21, 2021

    Super easy to put together. The hardest part was cutting the bread without ripping it open. Good base recipe, think I might want to zhuzh it up next time. I think I little braised red cabbage might be just the thing! I made these with a vegetarian version from Sababa with mushrooms, and used that yogurt sauce.

  • jimandtammyfaye on April 30, 2021

    Flavorful and delicious, casual recipe. I assembled the Arayes in the morning and kept them covered in the fridge until evening. Served as main part of the meal with yogurt sauce and sliced, salted cucumbers. I was worried that the beef would not cook completely in the 7-minute grilling period, but it was thoroughly cooked. This will be added to my recipe rotation. It will be fun to experiment with different meats, seasonings, and fillings!

  • Rradishes on March 08, 2021

    Made with ground beef, served with roasted pepper sauce and cucumber salad+yogurt dressing. This is a fun recipe to serve, very portable. Make sure the grill is not too hot though, a few pitas got burnt. This is a great alternative to a burger (not as many carbs). I love the general idea - stuffed and grilled pita pockets, genius! Would be fun to experiment with the filling, add cheese, herbs, do ground chicken ...

  • j.va on March 03, 2021

    Made with ground turkey. Made on the grill and they took the 7 minutes listed. Great success. Only change would be to experiment with using the same volume of lebanese 7-spice or palestinian 9-spice in place of the spices listed here. Great make-ahead potential, and can use the Yogurt, Tahini + Parsley Sauce (pg 154) in place of the yogurt dip.

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