10-Minute Collard Green Wraps
By Amie Valpone
There’s something so simple about summer meals. They seem to be soaring with flavor yet they only need a few ingredients because everything is fresh and ripe with juiciness. These collard wraps are no different. They’re easy to whip up for a late summer lunch or a quick summer dinner and they have the perfect combination of summer flavor with sweet red cabbage, ripe avocado, juicy tomatoes, and sweet orange juice and zest.
I wanted to create a meal for you that would hold up to the summer heat yet also keep its flavor if you needed to store leftovers for tomorrow. These wraps take no more than ten minutes to whip up and they’re ideal for kids, as well, which is a plus for busy moms in the summer.
Now, as always, I know we all live in different areas of the world with various different produce sections so I’m always keeping that in mind for my versatile recipes. If you can’t find collard greens in your store, I highly suggest using Swiss chard or romaine leaves instead. You can easily use any nut or seed that you’d like--no need to use almonds if you prefer chopped walnuts or macadamia nuts.
These wraps are super simple yet there are two tips I want to share for an extra tasty bite. I suggest purchasing a really brightly-colored orange because the deep orange oranges have the most flavor, in my opinion. And for the tahini, I suggest finding a brand that has really thin tahini (sesame seed paste) that has the consistency of peanut butter to make your life easier when spreading it on the base of these leaves. And that’s it. Enjoy!
10-Minute Collard Green Wraps
Serves 2
Ingredients
2-4 large collard green leaves
¼ cup thinly sliced red cabbage
1 large avocado, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
¼ cup grape tomatoes, quartered
1 Tbsp. sliced almonds
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp. fresh orange zest
Large pinch sea salt
Large pinch freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup well-stirred tahini, divided
Directions
To blanch the collard greens, bring a large pot of water to a boil on the stovetop. One at a time, hold the stem of each collard green leaf and dip it into the boiling water for 10 seconds or until the leaf turns bright green, then immediately dip the entire leaf into ice-cold water and set the leaf aside on a paper towel to dry. Repeat this process for the remaining collard green leaves.
Lay the blanched leaves face up on a flat surface. Spread 1 Tbsp. tahini in the center of each leaf and use the back of a spoon to spread the tahini across the surface of the leaf, leaving a 1-inch border on the edges. Add the cabbage, avocado, tomatoes, almonds, orange juice, orange zest, sea salt, and pepper and wrap up the leaves like you would wrap a burrito. Transfer the wraps to a serving platter and add any leftover almonds, orange zest and cabbage on top for garnish. Serve with the remaining tahini as a dipping sauce.
