sophisticated.kitchencomfort food recipes

Paraguayan street foodTenderloin after dark

Lomo · fried egg · cool sauce

Lomito Árabe

Paraguayan tenderloin, warm spices, crisp cabbage, cool lettuce, tomato, fried egg, and a bright yogurt sauce rolled into flatbread.

Build the lomito
A toasted flatbread wrap cut open to show meat, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and creamy sauce.
Lomito árabe belongs to the broad family of griddled meat wraps, but the tenderloin, cabbage, fried egg, and creamy spiced sauce make the Paraguayan version its own.Photo by Sikander Iqbal · CC BY-SA 3.0
Season
1 hr
Cook
10 min
Build
Hot + cool
Makes
3 wraps

In Asunción, “árabe” points to the bread; “lomito” tells you what is prized inside. The Paraguayan street wrap takes the familiar grammar of shawarma—warm flatbread, griddled meat, vegetables, creamy sauce—and answers it with tenderloin, wilted cabbage, and a fried egg whose yolk becomes part of the dressing.

Wonderfully Normal’s version remembers the sandwich as food after soccer: fast, handheld, saucy, and eaten while the grill is still hissing. The pleasure depends on contrast. Cook the beef hard and quickly, keep the tomato and lettuce cold, and do not warm the bread until the filling is almost ready.

“Lomito arabe is a Paraguayan street food wrap made perfectly with grilled tenderloin, fresh vegetables and Mediterranean sauce. Quick recipe that you can make in under 15 minutes.”

Plancha pace

Tenderloin and onion brown first; cabbage joins only for the final two or three minutes.

Two temperatures

Hot beef and egg meet chilled lettuce, tomato, and yogurt sauce only at assembly.

Soft bread

A short warm makes flatbread flexible. Cover it immediately so the edges do not crack.

Mise en placeCold side hot side

Four moves before the skillet hisses

The actual cook is ten minutes. Give those minutes to the skillet by doing every slice, shred, and sauce whisk first.

Lomo + pan árabeThe essential pair

Prized beef, soft bread, and the griddle between them

Raw beef tenderloin portions arranged on butcher paper.
Tenderloin keeps this fast skillet filling tender; thin, cross-grain strips give every bite a clean pull.Photo by Stu Spivack · CC BY-SA 2.0
Slice for the bite

A wrap should pull away cleanly. Thin strips cut across the grain keep tenderloin tender without dragging the filling out behind them.

Warm pita flatbreads stacked in a paper-lined basket.
Warm the flatbreads only until pliable and lightly toasted, then keep them covered so they roll without splitting.Photo by Jbcurio · CC BY 2.0

Cook roadmapSkillet to paper

Ten hot minutes, then fold

Onion, beef, and cabbage share one fast pan while the flatbread and egg finish alongside.

  1. -1:00

    Season + sauce

    Refrigerate the salted tenderloin and the finished creamy spice sauce.

  2. 0:00

    Heat both stations

    Set the oven to 400°F and bring the large skillet to medium-high.

  3. 0:02

    Onion, then beef

    Soften the sliced onion briefly, then brown the tenderloin in a broad layer.

  4. 0:06

    Cabbage joins

    Toss just until flexible with a faint crunch; verify the beef and rest it for three minutes.

  5. 0:10

    Egg + roll

    Fry the eggs, layer hot and cold fillings, sauce generously, and fold while the bread is supple.

Eating cuesTender supple cool dripping

The wrap works in four contrasts

Lomito árabe is less a single texture than a sequence, from toasted bread to cool sauce to hot beef.

01

Tender

Thin cross-grain strips let prized lomo stay easy to bite through inside the wrap.

02

Supple

The cabbage warms in the beef skillet but stops before losing every trace of crunch.

03

Cool

Lettuce, seeded tomato, and lime-bright sauce sharpen the rich beef, butter, and egg.

04

Dripping

A fried yolk and a second spoonful of sauce turn the rolled sandwich gloriously messy.

Lomito árabe

Paraguayan tenderloin wraps with cabbage, fried egg, fresh vegetables, and a cumin-curry yogurt sauce.

ParaguayanStreet FoodBeef TenderloinFlatbreadSandwichFried Egg

Ingredients

Creamy spice sauce

  • 1/2 cup whole-milk plain yogurt
  • 1/4 medium white onion, finely diced
  • 2 tablespoons minced cilantro
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon curry powder
  • Garlic powder, to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Tenderloin and flatbreads

  • 1 pound beef tenderloin, cut across the grain into thin strips
  • Rock salt and black pepper, for seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3 large Mediterranean flatbreads or thin pitas

Vegetables

  • 3/4 medium white onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 cups finely shredded green cabbage
  • 1/4 cup finely shredded lettuce
  • 1 medium tomato, seeded and thinly sliced

Directions

  1. Season the tenderloin strips generously with rock salt and black pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.
  2. Whisk the yogurt, diced onion, cilantro, lime juice, mayonnaise, melted butter, cumin, curry powder, garlic powder, fine salt, and black pepper until even. Cover and refrigerate while the beef seasons.
  3. Seed and slice the tomato; shred the lettuce and keep both chilled. Have the cabbage and sliced onion ready beside the stove. Heat the oven to 400°F (205°C).
  4. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the sliced onion until it begins to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the tenderloin in a broad layer and cook, turning, until browned and nearly done, 3 to 4 minutes.
  5. Add the shredded cabbage and toss over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until the cabbage bends but retains a little crunch and the beef reaches at least 145°F (63°C). Take the skillet off the heat and rest the beef mixture for 3 minutes.
  6. While the filling cooks, warm the flatbreads on a sheet pan in the 400°F oven just until pliable and lightly toasted, 2 to 4 minutes. Wrap them in a clean towel. Fry the eggs in a nonstick skillet to your preferred yolk doneness.
  7. Spread each warm flatbread with sauce. Add one-third of the tenderloin-cabbage mixture, then lettuce, tomato, and a fried egg. Spoon over more sauce, fold the sides inward, roll tightly, and serve at once.

Image credits

Photography is used under open licenses with attribution: Sikander Iqbal, Stu Spivack, and Jbcurio.