We sat down with the kids this month to decide which Chef'd meal to review, and, frankly, it was tough. There's a lot of good stuff on there! If you missed our full intro review to Chef'd last month, you can read it here. We decided we wanted to try something new, that none of us had ever eaten before, so we settled on...shawarma! Now, historically shawarma could have been a tough sell, at least for our 9-year-old and 4-year-old, but thanks to Marvel and the Avengers, shawarma is a decidedly known quantity with a very high cool factor (if you don't know what we're talking about, you need to fast forward to the post-credits scene in The Avengers...or just watch the YouTube clip below!).
So, settled on shawarma, we chose our delivery day and awaited the arrival of the big orange box. The kids actually get pretty stoked about seeing it show up, run out on the porch to get it and haul it inside, and immediately want to tear in. We like to see them get excited about food, so this is all fine by us!
As before, the ingredients were beautifully packaged, extremely fresh, and high quality brands that we are familiar with. In addition to the fresh lemons, onion, cucumber, tomatoes, and herbs, this box included cute little packages of Pearls' kalamata olives! We have a thing for good olives in this family, and Pearls is our favorite brand.
Better yet, the meal comes with Stonefire's incredible naan, another brand we love! Stonefire makes amazing flatbreads, and we've been eating their stuff for years. Needless to say, it was great to see their naan included in the box. Plus, naan is just...well, heaven!
We found the recipe extremely easy to follow. As the recipe card and website warn, there's a decent amount of cutting and chopping to do, but none of it is difficult. Pantry ingredients you'll want to have on hand are salt, pepper, and olive oil...which you absolutely ought to have on hand, of course!
Our little ones were initially put off when they saw how big pieces of the yellow onions were, but once we got them to taste the roasted veggies, they were instantly won over. And dipped in tahini sauce...wow. How could you not be? We put everything on one big platter, gave everyone a piece of naan (Eden and Christian split theirs, which stretched this four person meal to five servings), and let each person eat as they saw fit. The younger ones mostly ate the naan by itself (yum!) and then dipped the veggies in tahini, while the rest of us piled chicken, onions, and cucumber tomato salad on our naan, drizzled with tahini, and devoured. Admittedly, it is a messy meal, but absolutely delicious.
While roasting shawarma over a rotisserie in the traditional way may not always be the most practical weeknight dinner idea, this oven-roasted version is simple, approachable, and absolutely packed with Middle Eastern flavors. We love meals that can be served on a platter, and the sides of naan and tahini really make the meal feel complete! Our entire family, adults, teens, and little ones, gobbled this up in record time!
Chef’d made no stipulations about the content or length of this review, the recipes chosen, or the photos taken. Beyond the recipes and ingredients shipped to us, no additional compensation was made for this post, and all of the opinions here are our own.
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