Recipe: Sweet Potato Collard Green Wrap

It’s summertime, which means it is WAY TOO HOT to leave the office in the heat of the day to go get a $14 wilted salad. Bring this shit to work and you’ll stay cool, satisfied, and FULL OF NUTRITION. You know you’re supposed to bring your damn lunch to work anyway, so try this one.

I like eating, so I usually put 1/2 of a sandwich’s worth of food in each wrap and have two wraps, as opposed to bringing one huge burrito of a wrap. Also, collard green leaves aren’t always big enough to make a huge burrito. But, you do whatever works for you. Here’s what you’ll need (per serving; if you wanna make a bunch for the week, go for it):

• 1 small sweet potato
• 1 small chicken breast (4-6 ounces)
• 1/3 cup sweet onion “mayo” (that Greek yogurt concoction we made last week)
• 2-4 collard green leaves, depending on their size

That’s all! These are simple and packed with flavor. You can also toss in any other raw or roasted veggies you might have lying around. I added roasted asparagus once and it was very tasty indeed.

First, roast those sweet potatoes (or steam them, if that’s your thing). Throw them in the oven at 375 for 45min to an hour. Just til they’re tender.

Now for 12-15 of those minutes, roast your chicken breast (seasoned with a little salt and pepper) in the oven at 375.

While those are cooking, make your sweet onion “mayo” by sautéing onion and tossing it with the other ingredients (Greek yogurt, honey, cinnamon, salt). I used both red and yellow onion in this batch.

Now let’s get those collard greens ready for wrapping. Gather your ingredients so they’re ready to roll into your wrap.

These leaves are nice and sturdy and flat, so as far as leafy greens go, they’re the best for making a wrap. However, the stem is way too thick for our purposes. We’re gonna trim that right off, like so.

Cut it 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the leaf. The remaining stem, which you need to hold the leaf in one piece, is still likely to snap when you roll this, so trim it on the underside of the leaf like so. Another way to avoid the stem snapping is to steam the leaf, but I prefer to keep it raw so it still has a nice crunch.

Now we’re ready to roll this all together. Start by overlapping the leaf where the stem is trimmed, so nothing leaks out.

Now, if this leaf is very large (like twice the size of your face), then you’re ready to lay on the ingredients. If your batch of greens is a little smaller, like this one, you might want to lay another trimmed leaf sideways over this leaf, to keep all your ingredients secure.

Great, now we’ve doubled our Vitamin K intake. Note that the light green side is facing upward, so that the shiny dark green side will be on the outside of our wrap when we’re done. This is because we are very fancy.

Let’s stack up the fancy ingredients onto our leaves. I go from wettest ingredient to driest, just because i find it easier to keep it classy this way. So, slather on a big spoonful of the mayo, then a few slices of sweet potato (leave the skin on, we’re not wasteful here), and then a few slice of chicken.

Remember you can make 2 of these for one meal, so put about as much as you would in half a sandwich: half of a small sweet potato, a few ounces of chicken, and a spoonful of “mayo.” To roll up this wrap, start by folding in the sides of the leaf on either side of your ingredients, and then roll from the bottom up to seal it, like so.

This is where having 2 leaves for one wrap is handy, because if it was only one small leaf, I wouldn’t be able to close the sides, and then I might get some of that goodness leaking out on the way to work. That would be wasteful and an absolute shame and nobody wants to start their lunch with a nutritious mess. If your leaf isn’t big enough to seal the sides, just use two; all you’re doing is adding more of the lowest-calorie, highest-nutrient part of your lunch. Do it.

Now you can either put it in a baggie to keep it secure, or tie it with a little twine to impress all of your coworkers.

That’s it! You can make a bunch of these and keep them in the fridge all week for easy lunches on the go. If you’re really in a bind, you can use low sodium deli roasted chicken or turkey, but roasting chicken breast yourself is definitely the better way to go; less additives and sodium.

Now for the nutritional benefits. The roasted sweet potato is antioxidant- and carotenoid–filled, and has a healthy dose of slow digesting carbs that will keep you feeling full and energized all day. The lean protein from the chicken and Greek yogurt and dozens of nutrients from the collard green make this meal flavorful and packed with Vitamins A, C, K, B6, B12, manganese, fiber, calcium, and more.  Plus it’s sweet, savory, crunchy, creamy, and super delicious. I mean what else do you want to be eating? Just… nothing. Eat only this.

By the way, these greens can be used to wrap absolutely anything. Healthy chicken salad, different kinds of quinoa, or just in place of bread on a regular deli sandwich with mustard. Keep some collard greens handy, and you can cut down on refined sugary breads easily. They add a little bit of a peppery flavor and lots of crunch, plus all those damn nutrients.