Don’t Pinch My Blog, I’ve Got a Green Recipe!
As mentioned in my last post, we are on week one of our first CSA. It was like Christmas pulling out one surprise veggie after another … until I got to the final item, the lump of coal at the bottom. “What’s this?” I said. It didn’t quite look like kale or chard, but similar. I went to the inventory sheet and my fears were realized – collard greens.
My first and only experience with collard greens was purchasing them in a bag on sale at a mega-grocer about seven years ago. Terrible, terrible, terrible. But determined to polish off that entire CSA box and give every veggie a fair trial, I headed to one of my favorite healthy cookbooks, Whole Life Nutrition. I was confident that Alissa (gotta love her name) would have a recipe to turn those greens into something good. In fact, she had two. One was for Apple-Spiced Collard Greens, which sounded rather tasty, but I didn’t have any apple juice on hand. The second was for Collard Green and Hummus Roll-ups. Now hummus, that is something I almost always have on hand!
My version is more of a guide / idea than a recipe, but let me tell you, it really worked to turn those nice big collard leaves (perfectly flat and excellent to work with, unlike kale or stiff chard leaves) into a tasty large snack or small meal – however you view it. And I realize Collard Greens don’t exactly shout “St. Patrick’s Day,” but hey, they are GREEN!
Now it is quite possible that there will be more of these collard greens in today’s CSA box, so please do tell … Do you have any ideas or favorite recipes for using Collard Greens?
Collard Green and Hummus Mini-Wraps
Adapted from The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre. This recipe is Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free, Sugar-Free, and optionally Vegan.
- Collard Green Leaves, nice full healthy ones
- Hummus, your flavor of choice
- Carrots, for shredding
- Avocado, sliced (optional – I didn’t have any)
- Leftover Chicken (optional – omit for a vegan option)
- Olives (optional – my hummus was kalamata olive hummus so I could resist)
- Other Veggie Toppings of Choice (go wild!)
Lay the leaves flat, and cut them in half, carefully cutting out that thick stem. Spread each leaf half with your favorite hummus (I was using an olive hummus, hence the darker color), and sprinkle with grated or shredded carrot.
Okay, get ready, this is my first ever step by step photo – except it is just one step …
Now, simply roll them up tight for a very light snack (I did this once, and they were tasty just like this!), or top them with your choice of toppings. The second time I made them I had some leftover chicken and olives, so I went with this, which made thicker rolls.
Yields as many as you like
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
15 thoughts on “Don’t Pinch My Blog, I’ve Got a Green Recipe!”
Alisa- These look wonderful!
I love that cookbook. They have the best recipes for deserts.
We like collard greens cooked the Southern way: chopped up and simmered with bacon or ham. This meatless recipe is good, too: http://doghillkitchen.blogspot.com/2009/11/smoky-collard-greens-no-meat-version.html
Looks good. Hmmm, the collards we’ve been getting in our CSA are not that big. But, I did just use them inside my rice paper wrapper for spring rolls! Worked really well. And I suppose with leaves the size of yours, you could omit the rice paper entirely and just use the collard leaf as the wrapper.
Also for dinner I’ll just be boiling the collards and serving them with a tempeh recipe I found recently (also on my blog). I’m always excited about what’s going to be in MY CSA box for the week!!
While I love hummus on anything, I have a hard time believing that raw collards would actually be good. Aren’t they really tough to chew?
Thanks for the recipe ideas ladies!
Claire, nope, they aren’t the least bit hard to chew – just like lettuce really. Much easier than nori or rice paper to bite into so they definitely work well as wraps.
I can honestly say that collards are just about the only green I didn’t like, but spreading them with a flavorful hummus and rolling them up did mask most of the bitter taste and the two flavors melded pretty well.
I absolutely LOVE raw collard wraps! I enjoy collards cooked, too, but find they are so much milder when raw. These wraps look great! 🙂 (And so GREEN). . .
They look great. I love making simple wraps with the collard greens in my CSA. I often use quinoa cooked in curry and veggies in them, but have even stuffed them with taco meat and fixins.
your veggie wraps look healthy-delicious! Thanks for this wonderful idea…I will definitely try it!! 🙂
Your rolls sound great! I tend to use collards in about the same way I would kale or chard – sauteed, used as wraps like you did, juice, etc. If you want to go traditional southern you could braise them for a long time and add some liquid smoke or other savory spices. They’re good in soup, too.
Nice! I don’t believe I’ve ever had collards (and I live in South Carolina!!!!)- but I like the idea of these roll ups- nice work chicky
can you believe I never use collards to wrap food with…I use cucumbers or zukes sliced on the mandolin but never collards as I fear them being tough. Ok yours dont look tough at all or vein-ey. Hey, and I eat raw kale so really, I shouldnt be too worried 🙂 great job!
the spraying oil bottle. there’s one called Misto that is popular but I have never used it. The prob w/ coconut oil is of course that it solidifes at room temps and so it just wouldnt work which is why i just skipped it and break down for the spray can. 4.99 per can at WF’s. If you find a spray bottle, LMK!
Alisa, you have done it…you can even make collard greens look good! Great looking recipe. Thanks.
Thanks for linking these up to Friday Firsts!
I’ve never had collard greens raw! That’s really interesting. These look great for one of those refreshing meals in Summer when the last thing you want to do is turn on a stove or oven to cook. Just smear some stuff on, or pack in some leftovers and roll em up! 🙂
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