Calabacita Collard Green Wrap with Roasted Garlic Scapes

A collard wrap is an essential tool in the healthy cook's toolkit, but they can get a bit, well, redundant. Hummus here, alfalfa sprouts there...and usually raw or cold.  Hopefully for everyone here, this warm, savory, and bountiful wrap will be a pleasant diversion.  I was inspired by the intense and increasing quantity of some of these items in my fridge *ahem garlic scapes ahem* and was mightily tempted to simply eat the filling by itself-- it was THAT good.

The struggle is real, you could probably do both, eat the filling and make a bunch of wraps, depending on how many meals on the go you need for this hot summer week.

I was able to make 6 large wraps out of these, but probably 8 is a safer estimate, and largely depends on the number and size of your collards.




What you'll use from your bag:

10+ Collard Leaves, soaking in warm vinegar water or blanched

1 summer squash, cut into sticks

4 potatoes shredded (2 cups)

10 garlic scapes, cut into 4" pieces (ok this is leftover from last week, but you still have some right? I roasted all that I had left, and plan to make a garlic scape pesto, anyone want that recipe?)

1 Sweet onion, coarsely chopped

2-3 leaves of lettuce per wrap

What else you'll need:

3 Tbs Adobo spice

Your hot sauce of choice, to taste

Fresh thyme, one sprig

1 Tbs mustard seeds, whole

Salsa fresca

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil for sauté and roast

First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Prepare the garlic scapes to be roasted, tossed in about 1/2 Tbs of oil with a little salt. Then roast for about 12-14 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

Set your collards to soak in warm water, covering all the leaves you plan to use, including 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar to break down the cell wall...or Blanche for 2minutes and submerge in cold/ice water after if you prefer heat-cooked greens.

Next, heat your oil in a large skillet

You want to make sure it's nice and hot, because in will go your mustard seeds and 2 cups shredded potato first thing. Stir to ensure even oil absorption, and cook for 8 minutes until it starts to brown and get tacky.

Add your squash, stir thoroughly, and then cover. Cook for 3 minutes, so the squash can get a little tender and brown in some spots.  Add the adobo spice and stir to get some even browning and tenderizing of the squash (2 minutes)

Now, add your onions

The delicate sweet onions get tender fast, and have such a delicious flavor, your don't want to over-zap them.  Give them just 2 minutes in the mix.  Cook until the potatoes look-and-or-taste amazing.  Then remove from the heat and add the fresh thyme.

And now, let's master the collard green wrap

The soaked or blanched leaves will be more supple, and you shave down the thick stem to make it more flat, and pliable for better shaped wraps (and less rip-able!)

Overlap the collard leaves, top side up, with the stems faced away from each other.

Alternate the lettuce leaves along the length of the collards, then add the salsa, the sauté mixture and the garlic scapes to the very center. Try to hold back your hunger and not over fill it.

Fold the stem sides gently in first, leaving the middle filling still exposed, but allowing the side edges of both, and then roll from one direction to the other, pulling the filling towards your hands to keep the roll tight and keep the filling from spilling out as you flip it around.

And don't worry if your wraps have holes in them, because that sticky hash brown sauté will stay put!

Enjoy!