One Pan Beef Kebab Platter with Za’atar Oil (Gluten-Free, Paleo)

My love and obsession with both Greek and Middle Eastern flavors and cuisines show in this meal. Having lived for eight years in the Middle East (Dubai), both my husband and I want to experience those amazing flavors in our Dallas home regularly, and every now and then we put together a meal like this one. This one-pan beef kebabs platter will probably become one of our favorite home-cooked meals.

First shopping, then meal planning

Does this sound weird? The idea of this meal started with me seeing and buying grass-fed beef kebab meat from Burgundy’s Local, the Dallas store where I buy most of my meat. I get this question a lot, how you plan your meals? Well, I usually plan my meals around available ingredients and produce. I check what’s available in my local stores or markets, I buy what inspires me and looks good, and then think of what I can create with those ingredients. I find this way much easier, partly because I shop in small stores and I don’t want to get disappointed when I don’t find anything. For example, my local Whole Foods was out of organic celery for one week, for some reason, and it happened to be the week I really wanted some celery. Well, bad luck, I had to think of something else.

But let’s get to this recipe already. You will need grass-fed, grass-finished kebab meat, usually, top sirloin, cut in bite-size cubes (or a little bigger). You need to marinate the meat for a few hours (the longer the better), so plan this meal in advance. You can start marinating in the morning if you are making this for dinner. You also need to make the Za’atar oil and marinated onions in advance; you can make them the same morning or a few hours before to give the flavors some time to infuse with the oil. All these three steps are super easy, it won’t take you longer than 15 minutes.