Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki

This Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki is delicious, speedy and super family friendly. It’s actually a bit of a cheat recipe, and that’s because it includes a few shortcuts to really keep the time from start to serve right down at just 15 minutes. 

Those shortcuts are:

1. You don’t HAVE to marinade the pork. If you don’t have time earlier in the day, you can just stir the marinade ingredients through the pork right before you cook it and it will still have great flavour.
2. We aren’t using skewers! This really helps keep prep and cook times right down. 
3. Of course we are cooking the pork in the air fryer so it naturally cooks quicker as well and saves energy and money.

I find this meal is great for sharing with younger kids and fussy eaters as they can pick and chose their favourite toppings to go along with the Pork Souvlaki in their flatbreads. If you have a toddler, weaning baby or fussy eater and are wondering how to adapt this recipe for your family, see here >

What Is Souvlaki?

Souvlaki is Greece’s most popular street food. I remember first falling in love with it on the first holiday away without my parents at eighteen. Each night on the way home we would stop to get Souvlaki, yummmm!

Traditionally, the marinade used for Souvlaki is simply olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and oregano. In other non traditional recipes you’ll find other warming spices and herbs, I do add a few extras in myself like paprika, cumin and a little dried thyme.

Making a Jar of Souvlaki Spice Mix

If you think you’ll make this more than once, it might make sense to make up a Souvlaki spice mix to keep for the next 6-12 months and use as you need. If you want to do this, I would recommend using 3 or 4 times the amount of herbs, spices, salt and black pepper and storing it in an air tight container or jar. 

Then, when you come to cook, shake the container very well and use 2 tablespoons of the spice mix per 500g / 17.64oz of pork and 1 tablespoon each of lemon juice and olive oil. I’d also recommend noting the earliest use by or best before date of all the herbs and spices you’ve used on the storage container. That way you’ll know by when you should use your homemade spice mix by.

All the Extras

I like to serve this Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki with Greek flatbreads and a good selection of toppings so each family member can load into it what they prefer. You can also serve this Soulvaki with pitta bread. I’ve added my serving recommendations below. You don’t have use to all of them of course and you might like to serve something completely different! 

• Hummus (we spread it onto the flatbread then top with the other fillings)
• Tzatziki (we add this last)
• Thinly sliced red onion
• Sliced lettuce
• Cucumber, quartered and sliced
• Quartered cherry tomatoes
• Thinly sliced red pepper
• Green chillies (chiles) in brine from a jar
• Lemon wedges

FAQ’s For My Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki

Can I prepare this Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki in advance?

It’s actually better if you can prep the pork earlier on in the day, cover the bowl and refrigerate until ready to cook. That will allow the marinade to infuse even more flavour into the meat.

Can I feed more people with this recipe?

Definitely! You can make as much pork as your air fryer will hold, just if you are stacking pork in layers, it will need a little longer to cook.

How can younger children help make it?

They can add all the herbs and spices to the pork and stir them in. Let them compile their own Souvlaki flatbread too, adding their favourite toppings.

Can I Store Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki leftovers?

You can store any of the pork leftovers in an air-tight container or resealable food bag in the fridge for up to 3 days (cook day + 2). Leftovers can also be frozen, just defrost for 24 hours in the fridge and reheat in the microwave, stirring halfway, until steaming hot all the way through.

For more on safe food storage and reheating read here >

What diets is this recipe suitable for?

My Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki is egg and nut-free.

Adapting My Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki For Your Family

Eating together is beneficial for families of all ages and stages, for a multitude of reasons; nutritional, behavioural, psychological and for healthy family functioning. This section will show you how to tweak this Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki recipe for sharing with a weaning baby, toddler or a fussy eater, which will help make it easier to eat together as a family.

Keeping Picky Eaters Happy

Any meal where fussy eaters can customise their own serving is usually a win.  By adding the toppings they want to eat and not what you want them to eat, allows them to control their mealtime to some extent. Even if they only choose one vegetable, that’s fine! Also, your child might prefer a deconstructed version, with the elements separate on their plate, this is fine too.

See more from me on fussy eaters here >

Add On’s for Adults

If you like to add heat to meals wherever you can, I would recommend you serve these with a bowl of pickled green chillies (chiles) on the side, to eat with the Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki. If you’ve not had these before you’ll find them in a jar and they might say green chillies ‘in brine’ if not ‘pickled’.

Making My Air Fryer Pork Souvlaki Suitable for Baby Weaning  

The spices I have added are just gentling warming, there is no heat there, so the spice mix will be just fine for weaning babies of any age. You will need to omit the salt though. Once you remove their pork you can add salt and toss it through the rest. Make sure you have a way of keeping track of their pork pieces through the cooking process.

If sharing with babies under 9 months I would recommend you use a pack of stir-fry pork instead of diced pork. Stir-fry pork will be finger size strips of pork, perfect for palming. If you do that however, the pork will cook quicker in the air fryer, so I would check it at 7 minutes instead of 9. If you can’t get pre-sliced stir fry pork, you will need to buy pork loins and slice them into strips yourself.

How to Serve to Babies & Toddlers 

BABY-LED WEANING 

6-8 months

Serve the pork strips (as above) along with strips of flatbread and salad vegetables cut appropriately for their age and stage.

9-12 months

Can serve the same way as for 6-8 months, or can shred the diced pork into bite-size shreds using forks. Again serve with flatbread strips (or cut into quarters) and salad veggies prepared for their weaning stage.

Toddlers

Chop the pork into bite-size pieces, serving with flatbread cut into finger size strips or quarters. Serve with bite-size salad veggies.

I’ve also added these notes to the bottom of the recipe so you have them to hand when you come to cook. For more info on how I keep my family meals suitable for baby weaning, read here >

You Might Like…

Together to Eat is reader-supported. I may earn a small commission from anything bought through links found here.