Great as a meal or an appetizer!
small to medium-sized leaves of dinosaur kale (aka lacinato kale)
Pinoli Mayo (recipe below)
zucchini noodles, oiled (instructions below)
romaine lettuce, rough chopped
yellow bell pepper, seeded and julienned
Pickled Buttons (recipe below)
sun-dried tomatoes (salted, dry-packed), soaked 15-30 minutes and sliced lengthwise
Exact measurements are not really required here, though I would recommend having a fair amount of each ingredient on hand. The individual characteristics of each item play a significant role in the overall flavor. Simply choose how much of each ingredient you would like to have inside of your wrap, layer everything together, and then roll it up and eat. Easy!
Place a dinosaur kale leaf onto a plate with its inside faced up. Spread a nice amount of Pinoli Mayo across the middle of the leaf. Then layer a bit of each ingredient on top of the mayo, preferably across the widest part of the leaf (ingredient amount dependent upon leaf size). Starting with the bottom edge of the kale leaf, begin rolling everything upward, carefully coaxing along the ingredients inside. You’ll want to roll the wrap firmly, but try not to squeeze too much as your filling will be everywhere except inside of your wrap. Once you reach the top edge of the kale leaf, add a small dollop of mayo as a glue if needed to help secure the wrap. Then gently place it onto a plate fold side down. It takes some practice to get the process just right. And even after a few wraps have been mastered, there could still be the chance for a messy one or two. No worries. It’s all part of the fun! [wink]
A few tips…
Small to medium-sized dinosaur kale leaves are tender and have a mild flavor, while larger leaves are often quite bitter and tough. The wraps you see pictured above were created with medium-sized leaves. The leaf stem can be trimmed just at the very bottom where it is most thick. You don’t really need to completely de-stem the kale leaves unless you prefer it.
Creating the zucchini noodles is easy! First, cut away the zucchini stem and a small portion of the bottom to help create a rectangular shape for the noodles, and also remove the outer green skin. Next, using a veggie peeler, create long thin slices until you reach the tiny seeds in the middle. Stop once you get to that point because the “noodle” will be too thin to manage. Save the remaining zucchini chunks for adding to soups, salads, for juicing, or as an ingredient in making breads or crackers. No need to throw those good parts away!
The next step is to help soften the zucchini noodles up a bit, make them even more pliable. You accomplish that by massaging a little extra virgin olive oil onto each one. Once the oil permeates, the noodles will become nice and soft. Pour some extra virgin olive oil into a small container, dip your fingertips ever so slightly into the oil and gently coat each noodle completely.
When massaging the sliced zucchini noodles with the olive oil, be mindful not to use too much oil or the end result could be quite heavy. Just an ever-so-light amount of oil will work, really. On the other hand, don’t be afraid to make sure the noodle is well coated. Sliced zucchini will have a kind of squeaky feel to it. Once it’s been smoothed from the oil and has a slight sheen, you’ve probably put enough. If done correctly, you should end up with a texture that is very flexible and easy to bend without breaking. It’s also good to do this process first so that the oil has time to work its way through the zucchini slices while you prepare the other ingredients. In addition to creating pliable noodles, the olive oil deepens the overall flavor of the zucchini, which in turn gives more dimension to the dish.
I used Sommariva Organic Sun-Dried Tomatoes, salted and dry-packed. They are not super hard like most sun-dried tomatoes, but are actually moist and can be eaten straight from the bag if you choose. For this particular recipe, I chose to soak them between fifteen to thirty minutes so that they would become somewhat plump and even more pliable.
3 ounces pure water
1 cup raw pine nuts, not soaked
2 teaspoons raw apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt, fine grind
2 tablespoons dried apricots (unsulfured), small diced and tightly packed
Blend all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender or mini-prep food processor until the pine nuts and apricots are completely pulverized and the mixture is creamy, pausing periodically to scrape down the sides and help the mixture turn over. The finished mayo should be kept in an airtight container, stored in the refrigerator, and used within three to five days.
A few tips…
The listed ingredients amount to roughly 12 ounces of mayo.
In the list of ingredients, I noted 3 ounces pure water. Three ounces is equal to six tablespoons.
If your apricots are not soft and pliable, you can soak them in a small amount fresh water, just enough to cover the apricots, for fifteen minutes or longer until they plump up enough for ease in chopping and blending. If you store your apricots in the refrigerator, they will become stiff from the cold but will usually soften up somewhat after being left out at room temperature for a while. If they still seem hard, then definitely utilize the soak method.
In addition to being used for spreading across sandwiches and wraps, Pinoli Mayo works well as a base for salad dressings and quick sauces of every kind. Let your imagination take you where it will. [warm smile]
“Pickled Buttons”
3 cups button mushrooms (de-stemmed), sliced 1/4-inch thick and loosely packed
1 level teaspoon fresh ginger root, finely grated
1/2 level teaspoon fresh garlic, finely grated
1 and 1/2 tablespoons raw red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt, fine grind
1 tablespoon raw agave nectar
Place all of the ingredients except for the sliced mushrooms into a very large bowl and thoroughly mix everything together. Then add the sliced mushrooms and gently toss them with the mixture. Allow the mushrooms to marinate at room temperature for at least one hour, tossing them again periodically to ensure that each mushroom is completely coated with the mixture. The longer the mushrooms marinate, the stronger their flavor will be. Drain the mushrooms before serving. The finished buttons should be kept in an airtight container, stored in the refrigerator, and used within five days.
A few tips…
When prepping medium and large-sized mushrooms, I first cut the mushrooms in half and then slice them 1/4-inch thick.
No water is needed. As the mushrooms sit in the salted mixture, they will release a lot of liquid. Trust me. [smiley wink] Plus, adding water will just thin out everything. And we don’t want that!
As the mushrooms release their liquid, they will shrink quite a bit. Double or triple the recipe as needed.
A microplane works great for fine grating the ginger root and the garlic.
And here they are after marinating for about an hour.
The next time you make pizza, throw on a few Pickled Buttons! “Mmm!”
