What peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are to kids, collard wraps are to us. These little handheld meals make us feel well-taken care of, from the fresh and easy prep to the boost of natural energy we get from eating one.
In her new cookbook, More With Less, professionally trained chef and food blogger, Jodi Moreno shares three ways to rock a wrap and we’re sharing each brilliant idea through the coming months. Try out her arugula pesto-enhanced collard green wrap recipe below, and keep an eye out for the other two here on TCM…
Wraps are an ingenious way to enjoy any leftover veggies in the fridge (both cooked and raw), as well as grains and sauces. They’re great for a snack or a lunch on the go, one you can eat with your hands. These can be stuffed in countless ways. Collard wraps are best stuffed with crunchy raw veggies, or lightly roasted ones with some quinoa for protein, and an herb-forward sauce such as a pesto.
How To Make Collard Wraps
Ingredients:
for the wraps:
collard leaves, deribbed
veggies or fruit (raw or lightly roasted): carrots, beets, shiitakes, scallions, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, apples, pears
herbs: basil, cilantro, parsley
grains: quinoa, wild rice, brown rice, black rice, millet
beans or legumes: chickpeas or lentils
sauce: pesto*, hummus, miso mustard, tahini
*for the arugula pesto:
1/3 cup raw walnuts
2 cups arugula, lightly packed
1 small clove of garlic, minced
zest of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1 Tbsp)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Directions:
To make the pesto: Put the walnuts in a dry frying pan and lightly toast over low heat for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Put the walnuts, arugula, garlic, lemon zest and juice, and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times until everything is coarsely chopped. Add the olive oil in a slow stream while the food processor is running until emulsified.
To make the collard wraps: Blanch 2 large collard leaves in water for 1 minute, dunk in an ice bath, and dry on a paper towel. Use two overlapped leaves to wrap, placing 4 to 5 thinly sliced veggies along with any other topping you like – herbs, a grain, or a sauce – toward the bottom. Take the bottom of the wrap and fold it up and over the veggies, then fold in the two sides, and roll away from you until it’s completely wrapped.
From More with Less: Whole Food Cooking Made Irresistibly Simple by Jodi Moreno © 2018 by Jodi Moreno. Reprinted in arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.
