Greek Lamb Wraps (Leftover lamb Recipe) (2024)

Leftover lamb is heated with Greek spices then served with creamy tzatziki and a refreshing tomato salad in these delicious Greek lamb wraps. On the table in under 20 minutes these wraps make a simple family dinner or lunch.

Whether we’ve had roast lamb or slow cooker lamb, using up lamb leftovers is a favourite way to keep costs down. From leftover lamb shepherd’s pie to Greek lamb pastit*io, or super quick crispy lamb wraps, you can transform leftovers into so many different dinners!

Why we love this recipe

• It is an easy leftover lamb recipe – ready in 20 minutes, these wraps are perfect for busy weeknight dinners. You can even prep the tomato salad and tzatziki the day before, meaning all you have to do it heat the lamb, and the wraps and serve.
• Family friendly – both kids and adults love these wraps. Assembling them at the table is a fun way of serving dinner, and everyone can get to choose exactly what they want in their wrap, great for picky eaters especially.
• You can also add leftover roast potatoes to your wrap – fry them up until crisp and add to the wrap.

Ingredient notes and substitutions

• Leftover lamb – these lamb wraps can be made with leftover roast lamb or slow cooker lamb; lamb leg or lamb shoulder, or the meat from leftover lamb shanks.
• Pitta bread – or use your favourite flatbread or wraps.
• Onion – I like to use a red onion as it is milder and sweeter than brown onion in the salad. Only a third of the onion is used and the rest goes in with the lamb. If you don’t have red onion, use a small brown onion in with the lamb and a finely chopped spring onion in with the salad, or leave out of the salad altogether.
• Tomatoes – fresh tomatoes, quartered cherry tomatoes or larger cubed tomatoes both work in the salad.
• Red wine vinegar – or use sherry vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
• Spices – ground cumin and ground cinnamon
• Cucumber – one Lebanese cucumber or ½ an English cucumber.
• Greek yogurt – plain Greek yogurt or plain yogurt.
• Olive oil
• Fresh mint – if you don’t have mint you can substitute with fresh dill or parsley, dried mint, or leave it out altogether.
• Lemon juice – use white wine vinegar if you don’t have fresh lemon juice.
• Garlic powder – I prefer to use garlic powder rather than fresh garlic in my tzatziki sauce, but you can use half a clove of crushed fresh garlic if you prefer.

How to make wraps with leftover lamb

1. Make the tomato salad: Chop ⅓ off the red onion and finely chop, leaving the rest of the onion for the lamb.
2. Mix the onion with the diced tomatoes, red wine vinegar and salt. Leave to one side.

3. Roughly chop the rest of the onion and cook in the olive oil over a medium heat for 3 minutes, until starting to soften. Add the crushed garlic and cook before adding the cooked lamb, ground cumin and cinnamon and heat over a medium heat, stirring occasionally until heated through – this should take around 7-10 minutes.
4. Whilst the lamb is cooking, make the tzatziki: Grate the cucumber and place in kitchen towel then squeeze as much of the liquid out of the cucumber as possible.

5. Put the grated cucumber into a bowl and stir in the Greek yogurt, olive oil, chopped mint, red wine vinegar or lemon juice, garlic powder and salt.
6. When the lamb is heated through take off the heat and assemble the wraps.

7. Warm the pitta bread. Take ¼ of the lamb and place in the middle of the wrap, spoon ¼ of the tomato salad and ¼ tzatziki and then roll up.

FAQ

My recipe tips

• Make the tomato salad first, so that the flavours have time to develop.
• If you have leftover fat from the lamb, you can use this to cook the onions and then the lamb instead of olive oil.
• Some pitta breads and flatbreads roll up better than others. As you will see from the images, this particular make cracked as soon as I rolled them, despite warming them. If this happens to you, you can always cut them into pieces, drizzle with oil and bake, grill or air fry until golden. Then spoon the cooked lamb, tomatoes and tzatziki over and serve as lamb nachos.

Serving Ideas

• Greek salad, spinach caprese, or crunchy Malfouf salad.
• If you don’t have any leftover potatoes, add these Parmentier potatoes to the wraps or serve on the side.

Make ahead/storage

As the recipe already uses reheated leftovers I do not recommend making these wraps ahead of time or freezing them. However you can prepare the tomato salad and tzatziki the day before, store in the fridge and bring them to room temperature before serving.

Variations

Lamb wraps with feta – crumble a little feta over the lamb before folding up the wrap.

Garlic yogurt sauce – if you don’t want to add tzatziki to your lamb wrap, they are delicious with this Turkish yogurt sauce.

If you don’t want to make the tomato salad, but want to sprinkle over some onions, these sumac onions are delicious with the lamb!

Add your favourite vegetables to the wrap: sliced cucumber, bell pepper / capsicum, some lettuce, even a few slices of avocado!

Why not try…

You may also like these other easy family friendly recipes using leftovers: