What Do You Stuff in Pita Bread?

Halved pita bread loaves have a stuffable pocket.

Pita bread, also called pocket bread, invites many filling options. These breads are perfect for filling with salads or sandwich fillings without worrying about creating a mess when you eat them. As a pita bread cooks, a giant air pocket inside the bread is formed. Cut the loaf in half to expose this air pocket for filling. Choose one filling or set out several fillings with pita bread halves for guests to fill their own pita bread.

Falafel

Chickpea patties or balls called falafel are a traditional filling for pita.

Falafel are chickpea fritters traditionally used to fill pita bread. Think of this as a vegetarian version of meatballs. Prepare the falafel from a recipe or purchase them premade from a deli or Middle Eastern grocery store. Three or four fritters should fit into a 6-inch-diameter pita bread half. Add chopped peppers, pickles, radishes and tomatoes to the falafel-filled pita, as suggested in "A Taste of Lebanon."

Chicken Salad

Chicken salad can be made with lettuce or chopped with a mayonnaise base.

Prepare your favorite recipe for chicken salad or purchase a prepared salad from the deli and stuff it into a pita bread. Unlike a sandwich made with two slices of bread where the chicken salad pieces tumble out of the sandwich, in a pita bread the chicken salad will stay inside the pocket as you eat it. Egg salad, tuna salad or grain salads, such as tabbouleh, could be substituted for the chicken salad for stuffing a pita bread.

Curried Cauliflower

Cooked cauliflower spiced with curry powder is a meatless filling option.

In "The Reluctant Vegetarian," Sharalyn Pliler offers a non-recipe suggestion for filling pita breads. She recommends cooking cauliflower florets and green peas separately until both are tender. Combine the two together, add Indian curry powder spices to taste, and use the resulting mixture to fill a pita bread for a vegetarian option. Substitute diced potatoes for the cauliflower or add diced, cooked chicken if desired.

Ice Cream

A child with a towering ice cream cone invites accidents. Serve dessert in a pita instead.

Pita bread is the solution for serving ice cream without the mess. Scoops of ice cream falling off cones are a regular occurrence, especially with children, but a pita bread safely holds the ice cream inside its pocket for eating. In "Hot Off the Grill," a dessert recipe fills pita wedges with raspberry jam and chocolate chips and tops the dessert with ice cream. Instead of cutting the pita into wedges, halve it across the diameter and spread your favorite flavor of fruit jam or chocolate syrup on the inside of the pita. Add a small scoop of ice cream and chocolate chips or sprinkles and serve.

References

• "A Taste of Lebanon"; Mary Salloum; 1999
• "The Big Book of Chicken"; Maryana Vollestedt; 2008
• "The Reluctant Vegetarian"; Sharalyn Pliler; 2009
• "Hot Off the Grill"; JoAnna M. Lund et al.; 2004