Collards
In my experience at market, collards often get a bad rap. They are looked down upon as the overcooked ingredient of a side dish that pulls most of its flavor from ham hock in the (in)famous southern style collard greens. It is my opinion, that this is why I’ve seen market go-ers by pass these tender, sweet greens for kale time and time again. How do you think of collards? Was southern style collard greens the first thing that came to mind when you thought of this veggie too? If so, let’s work together to change that perspective this season, shall we?
Growing collards is a rewarding experience. They continue to produce for weeks, so you can enjoy those scrumptious greens from your garden for quite some time. In our garden, we start them from seed in February or March. We have always grown the Champion variety because it is so consistently awesome there has been no reason to try any other kind. After the seedlings reach a decent transplanting size (about four weeks or so depending on the conditions) we move them out to the field in two rows about a foot apart. Like any other member of the brassica family, we cover them to keep them protected from flea beetle damage and help speed up growth a bit. Fast forward another month or so and a few weedings... and you will be rewarded with some of the tastiest greens you’ve ever had! So good that they will definitely be featured in more than a few recipes here in the coming weeks/months.
Onward to the recipe, both chosen and made this week by Mark! Meaning I’ll be relaying this to you secondhand... but I feel confident I can make sense of it. Just comment below if I didn’t and I’ll be sure to make Mark write about the dishes he creates instead!
Okay, so this week we (Mark) created Collard Wraps with Arugula Pesto Hummus. Not only were they gorgeous, they were also packed with flavor from the simply prepared and delicious veggies inside. Each wrap had an arugula and chickpea hummus, sauteed asparagus and zucchini, sliced carrots, radishes and purple cabbage, sprouts and avocado! Maybe that sounds like too much going on in one wrap to you... but let me assure you it made perfect sense when it all came together. It’s been a sunny and warm day here in Marshall, and coming in to enjoy these wraps was ideal. They were filling, felt like quite possibly the healthiest thing I could be eating and going in for seconds (or thirds) didn’t make me feel like taking a nap in the hammock by the creek! What more could you ask for?
Mark’s Collard Wraps!
Mainly, we kept to the original recipe with a few exceptions. The first exception being that Mark made his own hummus using arugula instead of basil.
Here’s his ballpark arugula chickpea hummus recipe (because he seldom measures anything).
1 can of chickpeas
1/8 lb arugula
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup cashews, soaked for about 20 minutes
2 cloves garlic
Pinch of salt
Lemon juice- Mark squeezed one slice, if that helps!
We are lucky enough to have a Vitamix, so Mark put all of these ingredients together in there and blended on medium speed for less than a minute to achieve this.
From there, the only other modifications he made was to leave out the cucumber, and to saute the asparagus and zucchini in about 1 tbsp of olive oil on medium heat for about ten minutes stirring occasionally before adding them to the wraps.
Oh, and he doubled the recipes. Because he knows how hungry we are during our lunches!
Feast your eyes on the original recipe here: https://www.eatingbirdfood.com/hummus-collard-wraps/
Or, without further ado, here is the Hummus Collard Wrap recipe as we prepared it:
Ingredients
4 collard leaves
1 cup arugula pesto hummus (Mark’s recipe yielded more like two cups of hummus, definitely more than you need in the wraps! So you’ll have extra, yay!)
10 asparagus spears, sauteed (as mentioned above)
1–2 carrots, peeled and sliced into short thin strips
1/2 cup zucchini, sauteed (again, see above description)
1/2 cup radish, sliced into short thin strips
1/2 cup red cabbage, sliced thin
1/2 avocado
alfalfa sprouts
Instructions
Place collard leaves on a flat surface, spread 1/4 cup of hummus near the top/middle of each leaf, fill each leaf with the remaining veggies, splitting each amount between the four wraps. Wrap the leaves as you would a burrito, toothpicks may come in handy here! Cut each wrap in half and enjoy!
Our advice, flip the leaves over before you fill them. Do the opposite of what’s pictured here :)