Sweden's ubiquitous pizzeria 'kebab plate': shaved doner meat heaped beside fries or rice with iceberg salad, pepperoncini, and both mild (yoghurt) and hot sauce. Served with knife and fork, it converted the Turkish street wrap into a sit-down grill-bar meal found in virtually every Swedish pizzeria.
Also known as kebabtallrik med pommes, kebab plate Sweden.
Ingredients
- 800 g fries
- 500 g doner-style seasoned lamb or beef, shaved or sliced thin
- 1/4 iceberg lettuce, shredded
- 2 tomatoes, in wedges
- 1/2 cucumber, sliced
- 8-12 pickled pepperoncini
- 100 ml crème fraîche, 50 ml mayonnaise, 1 crushed garlic clove and a squeeze of lemon, for the vit sås
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise, 2 tsp sambal oelek and 1 tsp ketchup, for the stark sås
How to make it
- 1
Whisk the two sauces first — vit (garlic-crème fraîche) and stark (chili-mayo) — and chill them.
- 2
Bake the fries at 220°C for 25-30 minutes, or deep-fry at 180°C for 3-4 minutes, until deep gold, then salt them.
- 3
Crisp the shaved meat in a dry, very hot pan, letting the edges frizzle.
- 4
Build each plate pizzeria-style: fries on one side, meat heaped beside them, salad and pepperoncini around the rim.
- 5
Stripe both sauces over the meat, not the fries, and serve with a knife and fork — no bread.
Pro tip: A Swedish pizzeria never makes you choose: both sauces, always, striped over the meat so the fries stay crisp.
Where Kebabtallrik comes from
The Swedish pizzeria is its own institution and the kebabtallrik is its most-ordered non-pizza item.
How Kebabtallrik is cooked
The plate is composed rather than layered, which distinguishes it from the boxed variants. Fries or rice occupy one part of the plate, meat another, salad a third, and the sauces are drizzled over the meat rather than over everything — so each component stays distinct and can be eaten separately with cutlery.
That composition is a genuine design decision. A snack pack or a kapsalon is meant to be eaten as one mixed mass; a kebabtallrik is meant to be navigated. Keeping the fries dry on their side of the plate is the practical consequence and the thing a good pizzeria gets right.
Ingredients and shopping
Doner meat shaved and crisped. Fries, or rice cooked plain. Iceberg lettuce, tomato, cucumber and pepperoncini — the mild pickled green peppers that are near-universal in Swedish kebab service.
Two sauces: a mild garlic-yoghurt sauce and a hot chilli sauce, and Swedish pizzerias always offer both. Some plates add a feta-style cheese or a dollop of the salad dressing used on the pizzeria's salad bar.
How Kebabtallrik is served
On a plate with a knife and fork, at a table in a pizzeria, with a soft drink or a light beer. It is a full sit-down meal at a low price point, which is precisely its function in Sweden — it is what a hungry person orders on a weekday evening.
Common mistakes
Piling everything into one heap
It is a composed plate eaten with cutlery, not a mixed box. Keep the components separate.
Sauce over the fries
They go soggy. Sauce goes on the meat.
Skipping the pepperoncini
They are a fixture of Swedish kebab service and supply the acidity the plate otherwise lacks.
Serving it lukewarm
The meat should be hot and the salad cold. That contrast is most of the appeal.
Kebabtallrik: questions and answers
Fries or rice?
Both are standard and it is a matter of preference. Swedish pizzerias offer either.
What are the two sauces?
A mild garlic-yoghurt sauce and a hot chilli sauce. Both are offered as a matter of course.
Sources and further reading
- Kebabtallrik — Wikipedia (Swedish)
- Allting på? Introducing the kebabtallrik — Truly Swedish
