Vegan Collard Wraps with Thai Peanut Dressing

Vegan Collard Wraps with Thai Peanut Dressing

I love these Collard Wraps wraps! And since I’m already slicing and dicing, I typically double the recipe and use the extra filling for salads or buddha bowls.  I am also re-committing to a 100% gluten-free diet. Therefore, I decided to use greens instead of a traditional grain wrap. 

In case you didn’t know, collard green belongs to the same family as kale, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and bok choy. Collard greens are nutrient-dense and low in calories. They’re an excellent source of calcium, folate, and vitamins K, C, and A. Furthermore, they’re high in fiber and antioxidants.

These veggie wraps are packed with high-quality protein, thanks to the quinoa. This naturally gluten-free grain is considered a superfood because it’s a powerhouse of nutrition. Quinoa contains all nine essential amino acids and lends seven grams of hearty protein per serving. I made hummus with quinoa because it seemed like a good pairing! Here are some quick tips for cooking quinoa (pronounced keen-wah).  

  • Rinse the quinoa. I usually only do this with other grains, like rice. But it is 100% necessary when cooking quinoa from scratch. You run the risk of having crunchy quinoa if you don’t.
  • Cooking the quinoa in vegetable broth gives it much more flavor.

Modify the recipe to your liking by using the vegetables of your choice. I suggest using sliced tomatoes instead of the red pepper, swapping kale for the spinach, or adding a few crisp radishes. And vegan feta instead of avocado also gives it a delicious creamy bite!   The best part, though, is the Thai Peanut Sauce!  

 

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Vegan Collard Wraps with Thai Peanut Dressing

  • Author: Stephanie Bosch

Description

Substitute any veggies you have on hand, such as sun-dried tomatoes, red peppers, spinach or romaine lettuce.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 red pepper, cut into thin strips
  • 12 carrots, julienned or cut into thin strips
  • 1 English cucumber, diced
  • 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 avocado, cut into long strips
  • 24 green onions, cut lengthwise (green part only)
  • 1/4 head purple cabbage, shredded
  • 1/4 cup sprouts or microgreens
  • 1/2 cup quinoa hummus
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, spinach, Thai basil, and/or mint, chopped
  • 4 large collard leaves 

Instructions

Collards:

  1. Wash and dry collard leaves.
  2. Cut the stem off the collard green leaf and then carefully shave it down using a small knife so it’s flat. This will help prevent the collard leaf from breaking at the end and make it easier to roll up.
  3. Add water to a large pot and bring to a boil.
  4. Add 1 Collard leaf to the simmering water, gently holding the leaf down with tongs so the leaf is submerged.
  5. Simmer each leaf for 30-60 seconds. Don’t go any longer, or the leaf will become more flimsy and tend to rip.
  6. Remove the leaf and immediately place it in a bowl of iced water.
  7. Submerge the leaf for 10 seconds in an ice bath.
  8. Remove and place on paper towels to dry.

Wraps:

  1. To assemble wraps, lay collard on a flat surface and place quinoa hummus in the first half of the wrap.
  2. Add ingredients based on the size of the collard leaf, being careful not to overfill. A good rule of thumb is about 1-2″ inches wide.
  3. Carefully wrap it using the tuck and roll method like a burrito. (There are some excellent YouTube videos out there!)
  4. Continue until all collards are filled.
  5. Enjoy!

Notes

Always place all the filling in the tortilla’s first half, closest to your hand, not the center.  That way, you have more surface area to cover the filling.

Tarragon Chickpea Salad with Riced Broccoli and Cauliflower

Tarragon Chickpea Salad with Riced Broccoli and Cauliflower

A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to meet Dr. Michael Greger, MD, at a conference here in St. Louis. I had read his book, “How Not to Die,” and was delighted to hear him speak. One of the biggest takeaways was learning about a sulfur-rich compound called sulforaphane. Found in certain cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage, sulforaphane is a powerful antioxidant that cancels out free radicals in the body and protects your DNA. 

Plant-based Summit 2018

It has also been shown to reduce certain toxins, reduce inflammation, and provide protection from cancer, specifically breast cancer stem cells. It also protects against blood vessel damage in people with diabetes and lowers the levels of fat found in our blood. 

The thing about sulforaphane is that it must be developed before being eaten. The easiest way to do that is to cut up your broccoli and let it sit for at least a half-hour before eating.

Chopping and exposing broccoli to the air allows it to activate the enzyme to promote sulforaphane. And if you’re not used to getting a lot of fiber in your diet, cutting up the broccoli and cauliflower makes it a bit easier to digest!

This dish is best served cold. It can easily be made the day before and it holds up quite well!  It would also be a perfect dish for your Memorial Day weekend! As always tag me and let me know how you liked it!

XO,

Steph

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Tarragon Chickpea Salad with Riced Broccoli and Cauliflower

  • Author: Stephanie Bosch
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x

Description

Rich in antioxidants, fiber, and flavor, this salad is a delicious way to get all of your nutrients and would be the perfect item to bring to a summer gathering!


Ingredients

Scale

Ingredients

Salad:

  • 12 ounces small broccoli florets (about 5 cups)
  • 6 ounces cauliflower florets
  • 2 (14 oz.) cans chickpeas, drained & rinsed
  • 1/2 cup soaked cashews, drained or rinsed (or boiled for 10 minutes and rinsed) See Note
  • 1 large yellow bell pepper, diced
  • 1 large tomato, seeded and diced
  • 1 zucchini, diced
  • 2 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 ripe avocado, diced
  • 3 tablespoons hemp seeds
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
  • 3 large fresh tarragon leaves, minced 
  • 1/2 cup cilantro, minced

Dressing

  • 1 ripe avocado, seeded and chopped
  • 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon
  • 1/2 zucchini, diced
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon hemp seeds
  • 1/2 tsp dried tarragon (optional, but recommended)
  • 1 tsp salt and pepper 

Instructions

Dressing:

  1. Make the dressing first and refrigerate. 
  2. Soak cashews overnight or boil for 10 minutes to soften. Drain and rinse.
  3. Add all ingredients, including cashews, to a blender and mix well. If the dressing is too thick, you can add about 2 tablespoons of water at a time until it thins to your preference.   Taste for seasoning and adjust if needed.

Salad:

  1. Divide broccoli in half, and pulse each half until broccoli resembles small rice grains. Note –  you do not want to pulse it all at once because you risk turning some of your broccoli into a paste.
  2. Repeat with cauliflower.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, add broccoli, cauliflower, and tarragon.  Mix well. Add remaining ingredients and stir well.   Add dressing, mixing well—taste for seasoning. Adjust if necessary.   

This dish is best served cold. The dressing or the entire salad can easily be made the day before.  Don’t worry about the vegetables softening. It holds up quite nicely!  


Notes

Cashews need to be softened.  You can either soak them overnight or boil them on the stovetop for about 10 minutes or until cashews float to the top of the water.


Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 cup

 

 

Curried Zucchini Soup with Pistachio Parmesan Noodles

Curried Zucchini Soup with Pistachio Parmesan Noodles

Happy New Year! I hope you are well and enjoyed some form of relaxation with those you love! The holidays can be joyful but a bit of a whirlwind and are here and gone in the blink of an eye! Don’t get me wrong, I love every minute between Halloween and New Year’s, but this year was particularly busy and took a little bit of a toll on my health! I am just now starting to feel better after a rough bout of bronchitis, which I used to get all the time as a kid. Secondhand smoke is fo’ real, and my lungs are physically scarred from years and years of coughing from inhaling the toxic fog. Another reason Covid kinda scares me, ya know?

But this was also the first time I’d been sick in just over 6 years. And I can’t get sick! I have people who depend on me to cook, clean, transport, teach, write, exercise, volunteer, and well, the list goes on and on. And not to mention, cooking for me is a way of relaxing and being creative. So, what’s a girl to do if she can’t cook for nearly 3 weeks? Read, rest, and reflect—a lot. And when I got well enough to cook again, I returned to the kitchen with a significant mind shift. At the forefront was the question, “Am I really feeding myself if I’m not feeding myself well?” Deep, I know. But, alas, you are what you eat.

Listen, I am by no means a junk food vegan, but I not gonna lie. I love chips and cashew queso, like, a lot. And sometimes I get lazy. I also get caught up in convenience foods, Doordash, and sometimes, skipping meals entirely. I also give in to unhealthy cravings, and sometimes I do not feed my body well. This is a far cry from my early days as a plant-based eater–when I was all in. All. In. No oil, no processed anything, no wheat, no starchy stuff. I was a well-oiled machine, lost a bunch of weight, and felt ten years younger. I still feel 10 years younger, but the weight is slowly creeping back, and admittedly, I’m feeling a little rusty.

So the first several days back in the kitchen, I made only raw foods for 4 days. I was amazed at how light yet full and satisfied I felt. I started reading about the miraculous enzymatic functions found in whole foods and how cooking foods actually kill these beneficial enzymes that our food is trying to provide us. I’m not sure I will ever be 100% raw, but I’m definitely game for 50-75%, and who knows!

That said, I’m super excited to share this recipe with you. This oil-free soup is super healthy and completely delicious. It’s also 50% cooked and 50% raw. Part soup part salad (who says ya can’t), I added a Yukon gold to help thicken, some green peas to help brighten, and topped it with a raw zucchini salad that makes me want only to grow zucchini’s in my garden this summer! Pistachios give it a nice crunch and a little protein boost. The basil gives it depth, and the parmesan cheese, well, you know…! Let me know if you made it and how you liked it. I love hearing from y’all. Until next time!

–Steph

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Curried Zucchini Soup with Pistachio Parmesan Noodles

  • Author: Stephanie Bosch
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 20
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 4 cups 1x
  • Diet: Vegan

Description

Delicious and creamy this dairy-free, oil-free soup, will leave you wanting seconds!


Ingredients

Scale

Soup:

  • 2 tablespoons organic vegetable stock 
  • 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and chopped
  • ½ jalapeño, seeded and chopped
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 teaspoons organic curry powder
  • 23 pounds organic zucchini (about 3 large), 5-6 cups diced, 2 cups spiralized
  • 1 cup frozen organic peas
  • 1 small Yukon gold potato, diced
  • 4 cups organic vegetable stock
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Noodle Salad Garnish :

  • 2 cups organic zucchini noodles
  • 1 tablespoon organic lemon juice
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons organic basil, minced
  • 1/2 cup raw pistachios, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup vegan parmesan
  • 1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

Instructions


Notes

*When hot food is inside a blender, and a lid is placed on top, it heats the air above between the food and the blender lid, causing pressure to build up in the blender jar. This pressure can cause the top to blow right off as hot food explodes out the top of the blender jar. Trust me. It’s no fun to clean soup off everything, including the ceiling.

Keywords: no oil soup, zucchini soup, vegan soups

 

Chickpea Tartare with Avocado & Tomato

Chickpea Tartare with Avocado & Tomato

When we first became plant-based eaters, we came across a simple recipe for a chickpea salad from the fine folks at Forks Over Knives! It is hands down the best chickpea “tuna” salad recipe I’ve found. I’ve made no modifications to their recipe, but I did make a stack out of it!

Now, I have a set of food rings that I use to stack, but you can use any round container ( a 1/2 or 1-cup dry measuring cup would work great). A quick note, though, if you’re using something with a bottom, you have to assemble your stack backward. So, if you want the tomatoes on top, you have to put them in first. 

For this stack, I small diced tomatoes and red onions (uniformity is key to a pretty stack) and small cubed avocado, tossed in lemon juice, and added salt. I also added cilantro to my tomatoes and topped the stack with radish microgreens. And as always, we double our batches of the salad! It’s so yummy! Enjoy!

Chickpea Tartare with Avocado & Tomato 
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Chickpea “Tuna” Stacks

  • Author: Recipe from Minimalist Baker, adapted by Stephanie Bosch

Description

This recipe is made using the Minimalist Baker’s Chickpea Salad!  We always double our batches! 


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 3 tablespoons tahini
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon or spicy brown mustard
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup or agave nectar
  • ¼ cup diced red onion
  • ¼ cup diced celery
  • ¼ cup diced pickle
  • 1 teaspoon capers, drained and loosely chopped
  • Healthy pinch each sea salt and black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon roasted unsalted sunflower seeds (optional)

*Stacks: (see note)

  • 1/2 roma tomato, seeds removed, small dice
  • 2 tablespoons red onion, small diced
  • 1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice, divided in half
  • 1 teaspoon salt, divided in half
  • 1 tablespoon, minced cilantro
  • 1/2 avocado, small diced

 


Instructions

    1. Place the chickpeas in a mixing bowl and mash with a fork, leaving only a few beans whole. For this, I use my food chopper from Pampered Chef. 
    2. Add tahini, mustard, maple syrup, red onion, celery, pickle, capers, salt and pepper, and sunflower seeds (if using) to the mixing bowl. Mix to incorporate. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

    *Stacks: (see note)

    1. In a small bowl, add tomatoes, red onion, 1/2 lemon/lime juice, 1/2 the salt, and cilantro. Mix well.
    2. In another bowl, add avocados, the other 1/2 of the lemon/lime juice, and 1/2 the salt. Mix well. 
    3. If using a food ring, fill ring 1/3 full with avocado, repeat the next two layers using chickpeas, and  tomatoes. Press firmly and remove the ring. Top with microgreens and cilantro. 
    4. If using a round mold with a bottom–trace and cut a piece of parchment or waxed paper to fit inside the mold. Add tomatoes, chickpea salad, and finish with avocados. Press firmly, but not too hard. Carefully use a knife to score the edges of the stack and flip mold. Remove parchment paper. Reassemble any pieces that have fallen away. There may be a few, no worries! Top with microgreens and cilantro. 
    5. Enjoy! 

 

 


Notes

*This is for one stack.

You can freeze what you don’t use, otherwise, l keep it covered in refrigerator for 4-5 days.