The Greek-Style Upgrade That Transforms Taco Night With Bold Mediterranean Flavor

Classic tacos are popular for a reason, but it's normal to get bored with the same-old, same-old. There are fun taco tortilla swaps you can try, but that may be a bit too simple. For those looking to take a delicious step out of the ordinary next taco night, it could be time for a little food fusion from the Mediterranean. Giving your tacos a Greek makeover is incredibly simple to do and works so well you'd think this would have caught on way more by now. Basically, you're just combining the warm tortilla and hot sauce of a taco with the savory, herbaceous meat, fresh veggies, and creamy tzatziki sauce of a gyro. Neither set of flavors is too overpowering that it'll consume the other, and both already usually come with lettuce and tomato anyway.

The really cool thing about gyro-style Greek tacos is that, honestly, there's not really a wrong way to do them, and you can do as much or as little as you like with injecting that Mediterranean flavor. You could simply top classic tacos with a dollop of tzatziki for a small yet still very tasty Greek twist, or you could go all out on piling gyro ingredients in tortillas; both corn and flour pair well, by the way, and it also works with hard taco shells. 

Because there are so many ways you can merge tacos and gyros, this is one dish you may want to keep revisiting in a new way each time. There are quite a few different styles of Mexican tacos out there, after all, so you could play around with your favorites and swap out some of their traditional ingredients with Mediterranean ones. The world's your oyster, er, Greek taco. 

There's also the fact that gyro meat itself is typically a blend of different meats — usually lamb and beef — at North American Greek restaurants. In Greece, it's more traditionally made with pork or chicken. The other ingredients used, like lettuce, tomato, onions, and tzatziki, are highly versatile and will therefore work with a variety of proteins, including taco meat. So, if you prefer ground taco meat to gyro meat, there's no reason you can't stick with that. You could even ditch the tortilla entirely and fill some pita bread with taco ingredients.

You don't even need to limit yourself to just tacos! Another thing that makes taco and gyro flavors naturally harmonize is the fact that both tend to get messy pretty fast. To savor the mess, you could grab some extra corn tortillas and make your own oven-baked tortilla chips to help scoop up that excess gyro meat or sauce. Or, hey, line a bowl with a large tortilla and pile it high with meat, fresh veggies, sauce, and any other Mediterranean or Mexican ingredients of your choice for the ultimate Greek-style taco bowl.