Collard Green Wraps

Weekday meals are a constant struggle– you want to make something that is relatively healthy but quick and easy. Well, collard green wraps to the rescue! If you’re looking for a meal that makes for great left overs the next day, this is it. You can easily scale this recipe to make a lot of wraps. You know how much I love a recipe that is flexible too and you can definitely riff on this one. I’ve made this with my favorite combination of ingredients, but you can always swap them for whatever you have around. The key is to use a good mix of fresh vegetables that have good crunch and texture and proteins. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to finally make collard green wraps but I’ve made them 3 or 4 times in the last month, they’re that good– and good for you!

COLLARD GREEN WRAPS

Ingredients:

• 1 bundles of collard greens (pick the largest leaves you can find)
• 1 cups of shredded carrots
• 1/2 english cucumber, julienned
• 1 package of hummus (about 10 ounces), or homemade hummus.
• 1 package of extra firm tofu
• alfalfa sprouts
• 1 large avocado
• 1/4 head of red cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 cup of tahini
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 lemon
• Braggs amino acid or tamari
• sea or kosher salt

Directions:

• Make the tahini dipping sauce by combining the tahini, garlic, lemon and a pinch of salt in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Add a tablespoon of water and blend, keep adding a tablespoon of water at a time until the sauce is runny but still thick. Season to taste.
• Make the tofu by draining the tofu on paper towels and gently pressing the tofu to dry it out as much as possible. Let the tofu rest on layers of paper towels for 1/2 hour. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut in into thick 1/2 inch sticks and continue to pat the sticks to get rid of excess moisture and pour some grapeseed oil (or other neutral oil) on a baking sheet. Place the tofu sticks on the baking sheet and pour a little more oil and turn the tofu so that they’re coat lightly in oil. Drizzle a good amount of Braggs amino acids or tamari over the tofu and turn so that the tofu is coated. Sprinkle the sticks with just a little more salt. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until the tofu begins to brown and get crispy around the edges.
• Run the collard greens under boiling water. I have an automatic hot water spout but if you don’t just boil a large tea kettle of water and slowly pour the hot water over the leaves. Pat leaves dry.
• Run a pairing knife along the sides of the stem, removing the white stem. Be careful not to cut the collard green all the way in half.
• Flip the collard green leaf so that the dull side is facing up.
• Spread hummus down the collard green on both sides of the cut and then place a small handful of the carrots, cucumbers, avocado, alfalfa sprouts and cabbage in a short row across the middle of the leaf (lay them across where the stem was). Add a stick of tofu. Roll the collard green up like a burrito folding the edges in and then rolling the green up. If the leaf is too small you can just roll them up without folding in the sides. Cut the roll down the middle along where the leaf is already split.
• Serve with the garlic tahini sauce.

(images by HonestlyYUM)