Vegan Avocado Peach Chickpea Salad Collard Wraps a perfectly green, perfectly healthy quick and easy lunch recipe.
We can file this one under “quick bites” right alongside my parmesan broccoli loaded baked potato. Lunchtime solved in a super quick fashion.
I've had this hankering for collard wraps lately. I know it's probably the oddest craving ever but I've learned to just go with what my body wants (after a good 18 years of working very hard on my relationship to food.)
Have you had a collard wrap before? They can be super yummy!
But here's the thing, I have really strong opinions about how to make a yummy collard wrap and the ways in which I think they stink.
First the basics, a collard wrap is simply using a collard green leaf in place of a traditional tortilla. The most common way to do this is to grab a raw collard green leaf, fill it with whatever you want, wrap that baby up and you are good to go.I don't like it that way and here's why:
Reasons You Shouldn't Eat Raw Collard Greens
- Collard greens are tough when they are raw, they are very fibrous (see my previous rants about kale salad) and not pleasant to eat.
- Collard greens are also quite bitter (hence the traditional collard green cooking method of about 120 hours)
- Collard greens have a VERY tough, very fibrous inner stem that is not pleasant to eat.
- I don't have very strong teeth so I can't bite into that tough inner stem, I also don't have a belly that likes raw collard greens so…
Introducing the Abra method of a collard wrap.
I love the idea of my favorite sandwich fillings rolled up in a dark leafy green, I think you can play with the texture and flavor of collards in a way that really works and quite frankly is quite delicious. Here is how you do it.
How to Make a Collard Wrap that Actually Tastes Good
- Cook the collard greens! I can't stress this enough. I just emphatically believe that collards should not be eaten raw unless they are shredded thin and broken down with a dressing of some sort. To cook the leaves drop them into a large pot of boiling water, mush them around a bit with a wooden spoon to fully submerge. After about 3 minutes the greens will be vibrant green, remove them carefully and place on a paper towel to dry. You can submerge them in ice water to stop the cooking process and maintain that vibrant green color, but that's usually a step I skip. Even just a few minutes of cooking time dramatically changes the taste and texture of a collard, in a good way!
- Trim the stem. You don't have to remove the entire stem, but it does need to be trimmed for two reasons; 1) if you don't trim it your collard will not wrap properly, that tough stem will cause the leaf to break 2) you do not want to chew that bit! I take a paring knife and trim the stem (you can see a photo tutorial in this post)
Pretty simple right?
Oh, and how about this chickpea salad? That part is pretty important too. I have a new trick, rather than mayo or greek yogurt in a creamy salad I just mash avocado and mix it with lemon juice. It's the perfect creamy base!
This salad is simple enough; chickpeas, red onion, cucumber, bell pepper, and radish. I add dried thyme because I love the combo of thyme and peaches. Oh, and the peaches!! You can totally dice the peaches directly into the salad but I prefer to have them sliced inside the wrap. The peaches lend the perfect sweet bite to the creamy chickpea salad and earthy collard green.
So if you find yourself looking for ways to enjoy a wrap or sandwich without consuming bread, this one is for you. It's for my Paleo, Keto, Gluten Free friends. Although chickpeas aren't Paleo or Keto friendly – bleh! I couldn't live without chickpeas!
Nutrition info is for 1 wrap, a serving is definitely 2!
Collard Green Wraps with Avocado Peach Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
- 6 large collard green leaves
Chickpea Salad
- 1 avocado
- juice from one lemon
- 1 can chickpeas drained
- 1 persian cucumber diced
- 1/4 small red onion diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper diced
- 4 radish diced
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 peach sliced
Instructions
- Prepare collard greens. Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Choose 6 large collard green leaves and trim the center stem with a pairing knife (this is an optional step but makes for a more tender enjoyable eating experience). Drop leaves into boiling water for 2 minutes until bright green, remove and set aside
Chickpea Salad
- In a medium bowl mash avocado with lemon juice and stir until it has thinned out a bit. Add all other ingredients except peaches. Stir well to combine.
Wrap it all up
- Place a large spoonful of chickpea salad into the center of a collard leaf, top with sliced peaches, roll collard leaf around the salad by first folding in sides, then rolling from bottom to top.
Notes
- Blanching/ boiling the collard greens for a few minutes makes a huge difference! It will dramatically improve the texture of the wrap for both preparing and eating. Additionally boiling the collard greens for few minutes helps to reduce the oxalic acid in the collard greens (this is a good thing).
- You can replace the peaches with any fruit you like, I've used plums and apples successfully.
