Each country boasts its traditional pastries. There are less well-known and widespread ones, but there are those who, because of their taste, have long left the borders of their countries and become known around the world. One such product is pita bread.
What is pita bread?
Pita bread is a traditional bread in the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus; it is a wheat flour tortilla without any rich additives. This is, in fact, unleavened bread that goes well with any dish.
Lavash looks different in different countries. It all depends on the method of baking. It can be baked in a tandoor, or can be fried in a pan. Both methods make the cake very tasty and fragrant, despite the simplicity of the recipe. The composition of traditional pita bread includes only a few ingredients: wheat flour, water and a little salt. After mixing, the dough is rolled into thin sheets and baked. During frying, the dough bubbles, and golden crusts form in the places of swelling.
In countries where pita bread has long been used as bread, it is served with vegetables, meat dishes, and even pilaf.
In Armenia, pita bread is made thin, but, for example, in Georgia it is made thick puffy. In Italy, there is a semblance of pita bread.
In stores you can find one and the other. Both of them are made from wheat flour, but baked using different technologies. Both types of pita bread are in demand, because they can be used as the basis for various snacks, casseroles, rolls, pizza. Lavash casserole is a space for the hostess's imagination. From one base, you can cook several different dishes to taste. One has only to look at the photo of the pita casseroles, as soon as you want to cook something delicious and fragrant.
Calorie content and nutritional value
All losing weight know that bread during the diet is excluded. It is too high-calorie, and you can eat it discreetly more than a hundred grams.
Lavash can come to the rescue. This is not to say that this is a low-calorie product and you can eat it without restrictions, but there are much fewer calories in it than in ordinary bread, especially bun.
Lavash contains from 236 to 274 kcal, depending on the type. Armenian is slightly less high-calorie than Georgian. The bulk of calories are carbohydrates. Fat in pita bread can contain no more than 1-2 g, because it is not in the recipe, and it is also baked without oil.
It should be remembered that it is necessary to take into account the caloric content of all components in the dish. If you cook a casserole of pita bread, then the calorie content will be completely different and much higher. Most often, casserole is made with the addition of high-calorie foods: cheese, mayonnaise, minced meat.
Despite the fact that the composition is not very rich, in pita bread there are all the basic vitamins and minerals necessary for a person. There are vitamins of group B and PP, as well as copper, selenium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, sodium.
It is also indicated for people with stomach diseases, because it has a low acidity due to the lack of yeast.
Tasty diet snacks
All losing weight regretfully admit that bread, especially white, is forbidden on a diet. For those who can’t completely refuse bakery products, but it’s very necessary to lose weight, there is a way out - thin pita bread. You can make rolls with chicken, you can also casserole from pita bread in the oven, and you can also low-calorie dessert.
Calorie roll with chicken breast is only about 100 kcal. But an appetizer with cottage cheese and herbs can be eaten every day, it is not only tasty, but also healthy. And to make it easier than ever. You just need to mix the cottage cheese with herbs, add a little salt. Put the mass on a sheet of pita bread, previously greased with a little sour cream, roll up, put in the oven for 25 minutes.
Apple strudel is very suitable for dessert . The well-known dessert is quite high-calorie, but made from pita bread is suitable for losing weight. Fry the peeled apples in vegetable oil with cinnamon. Smear a little butter on pita bread and put apples on it. Roll up and put in the oven at a temperature of 180 degrees for 30 minutes. After baking, wrap the roll in a towel and leave to cool. After the strudel has cooled, it can be served by sprinkling a little sugar powder.
Oven pita casseroles
From pita bread it is very simple to prepare a light snack, and you can also have a full-fledged aromatic dish, which is suitable for lunch and dinner. Such a dish is a pita casserole, the recipes of which are as many as the hostesses cook it. For the filling, both vegetables and meat are suitable. Delicious casseroles are obtained with cheese, cottage cheese, minced meat, mushrooms, tomatoes. You can vary the components.
Meat casserole
In order to cook a pita casserole with minced meat, you need very simple products that can be found in the refrigerator of every housewife: pita bread, minced meat, onion, tomato, hard cheese, mayonnaise, eggs, herbs, salt and pepper to taste.
Pre-fry 2 small onions with 400 g minced meat. Then put fried minced meat on pita bread , put slices of tomato on top, sprinkle with grated cheese and season with herbs and spices, pour a little mayonnaise for juiciness. Roll the resulting base into a roll and lay it in a circle. So make another pita bread and also lay it next to the first one. The form must be completely filled with rolls. Before putting the casserole to bake, it must be covered with a beaten egg mixed with sour cream. For two eggs, you need to take about 200 g of sour cream. Now you can send the casserole to the oven for 20-25 minutes. After it is baked and slightly cooled, it can be removed from the mold and served.
Lavash casserole with minced meat in the oven can be supplemented with other ingredients, for example, mushrooms are very good for minced meat. They can be added during the frying process.
Cheese casserole
Lavash casserole with cheese is cooked very quickly. Here you need only a few ingredients: pita bread, cheese (300 g), garlic (2-3 cloves), 3 eggs and milk. Cheese should be grated, add garlic to it and mix well. Beat eggs separately and mix them with milk. Mix these two mixtures to make it look like dough. Pita bread should be placed in a deep pan and put the filling, cover with a sheet of pita bread, then again the filling. Layers can be done several. But the last must be pita bread. Bake for about 15 minutes at a temperature of 180-200 degrees.
This casserole can be served at breakfast and as a cold appetizer.
Homemade pita bread
Buying bread has become a habit for everyone. Given that even chemical mixtures are being added to it, some begin to bake at home. Ordinary bread and loaf is quite difficult to make, it is easier to bake pita bread.
The recipe is very easy to translate into reality. To do this, you need only 400 g of flour and 400 ml of water, salt is added to taste. Hot water slowly flows into the flour. It is hot so that the dough acquires elasticity. It should turn out to be moderately dense, so that it can be rolled out. The finished dough is divided into equal parts, each is rolled into a pancake and fried in a pan until a golden crust appears. Pita bread should be stacked and covered with a towel so that they do not become brittle. Now they can be eaten like bread, and can be used for pita bread casseroles.
You can buy cakes, you can bake yourself, but you must definitely try to make a delicious snack or casserole.