Sunday, January 24, 2010

Shrink-My-Ass-Month: Hummus and Grilled Vegetable Wraps




Sorry, carniverous beasts! It's a Monday (well, Sunday if you want to get technical) for the Meat Averse, so if the sight of a zucchini sends you shreiking for the hills, don them sneakers!

Growing up, I didn't really know any vegetarians. The first vegetarian I encountered was our neighbor, Jan. Her daughter was in my fourth grade class and Jan and Mama soon became thick as thieves. I still remember listening to them whisper and laugh in our living room, glasses of iced tea sweating in the afternoon heat. I also remember a few days later, opening a drawer in a living room cabinet and discovering the source of all that giggling: A dog-eared copy of The Sensuous Woman.

Even at the tender age of ten, I could tell that The Sensuous Woman was one of those books you read cloak-and-dagger fashion; naturally, I did just that. Armed with my trusty flashlight, I fled to the basement to see what that tempting, well-read tome had in store. Hoo-Boy!! Seriously ladies? Those women in the late 1970's had it going on. I came whizzing out of that basement a while later, eyes a-buggin.'

Jan was quite glamorous; she had luxurious red, thick hair and green eyes and was always tanned. She also had the slowest, most God-awful metabolism on the planet. I never saw her eat more than a few bites of food. One summer she abandoned meat entirely, subsisting on leaden, cardboard-colored pita pockets stuffed with avocado and wild, sprouty stuff that looked like hair. I watched her chew those concoctions slowly, amazed that she could gag it down.

Luckily for the Veggie Vixens of today, we no longer have to eat Bedrock Bread and shit that looks like hair. There's some lovely options nowadays and some are even easy-peasy. Which is what this wrap is. We like it for lunch but it's just as good for a light dinner or, if you are a freak like me, for breakfast (with a couple of potato chips stuffed in for salty goodness). Hey, don't knock it till ya try it.



Hummus and Grilled Vegetable Wrap
serves 4
from Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave


2 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick-slices
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 cup store-bought hummus*
4 pieces whole-wheat wrap bread, about 9 inches in diameter, such as Flatout
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 jarred roasted red bell peppers, drained, rinsed and sliced
2 ounces baby spinach leaves or romaine lettuce leaves (2 cups lightly packed)
1/2 cup red onion, thinly slices into half-moons
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

Preheat a grill pan over medium heat. Brush both sides of the zucchini slices with the oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Grill until tender and slightly browned, about 4 minutes per side.

Spread 1/4 cup of the hummus over each piece of bread. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the pine nuts on top. Top with zucchini slices, red peppers, 1/2 cup spinach or romaine, a few onion slices and 1 tablespoon of mint. Roll each of them up and slice on the diagonal.

* You can use any kind of Hummus you like. Personally, I think the Sabra brand hummus kicks everyone else's ass.

39 comments:

  1. It looks good, even if it doesn't have any meat on it. I recently dic=scovered that I do like hummus...I assumed because it is made which chick peas which I despise that I wouldn't like it.

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  2. My whole life, I hated garbanzo beans. I would pick those suckers out of any salad served to me and throw them away. Recently, a friend invited me for lunch at her house. The salad had both kidney beans (hate them) and garbanzo beans. To be polite, I ate them. Something happened. I liked them. I ate more. I guess my childhood aversion has been cured. My next attempt is to see if I can like hummus. Once at a pot luck, I mistakingly ate a HUGE mouthful of what I thought was guacamole. Yeah, I gagged. That was a long time ago. Long story short (aren't you glad?) I'm going to try hummus. Homemade... I just need to find the right recipe. Wish me luck.

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  3. I loved grilled zucchini, that sounds excellent. And grilled eggplant... and grilled mushrooms. Especially grilled mushrooms. I bet they'd be good in that as well.
    Yum...

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  4. Chips in any sandwich = deliciousness. Especially for breakfast.

    ...I need someone like Jan to move in next door. That would be kinda awesome.

    PS: I love the cards you've been putting at the top of your posts.

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  5. Hey these look goooood! I am dying for that Thai chicken meatball recipe too! I think the kids will like it. And guess what? I am MAKING KALE CHIPS right now! In the oven.

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  6. Where do you find hummus in the grocery store? I looked for it the other day and couldn't find it anywhere. I've never tried it, but I would really like too.

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  7. I heart Mondays for the Meat Averse.

    @Jennifer: at my current grocery store, hummus is in the produce section. At my former one, it was in the ethnic refrigerator section near the Kosher food. And I'm with TKW: Sabra hummus is the way to go if you can find it.

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  8. This looks insanely good. Thankin' ye...

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  9. I got everything except the hummus...dare it...I'll add it to this next week's shopping list. It's perfect for lunch. =)
    The plan this week is to make my zucchini nut bread...its so good and its veggie vixen approved....its on my blog if you are interested under low carb living.

    Love the title by the way!! :-)

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  10. Oooh, these look delicious! I just bit the bullet and cooked a batch of dried chickpeas for the first time this weekend. This will be a great way to enjoy the resulting hummus!

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  11. TKW - Poor neighbor Jan's sandwich had to be filled with alfalfa sprouts, which I remember very well eating on sandwiches as a substitute for lettuce - like something was wrong with lettuce? This is a food it's impossible to eat gracefully. You always end up looking like a rabbit eating grass. Once, though, my daughter had to bring in a food everyone was unfamiliar with for her science class. I bought a box of alfalfa sprouts and wowed the class.

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  12. Veggie dishes arent what they used to be... I remember mac and cheese or dry yucky stuff on "bread" and what the hell was the wheat germ that my aunt Jan gave us?!? I Love Hummus and this looks great!

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  13. Has your ass shrunk any yet?
    jc

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  14. Everyone I know loves Sabra hummus...except my family. I prefer Trader Joe's organic because it's less garlicy. Spouse prefers roasted red pepper. Brother swears by Three Sheiks Thousand Spice hummus. And Peanut prefers the stuff we make at home. But we have access to tahini, so it's easy.
    Either way, hummus and wraps are the way to go. Chips in any wrappy, sammy kind of food is imperative. And now I must go get my hands on a copy of the Sensuous Woman. Because nothing says "earned my hummus" like reading elicit texts in the basement with a flashlight.

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  15. yum yum...I love my veggies - these look very healthy and tasty too! :) xxx

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  16. YUMMY!!! And, how about a hummus recipe for those of us who are not going to buy it made? LOL! I love to make hummus - with chickpeas, black beans. You name it!

    Try grilling the wrap in a panini machine. My son had to go to dinner with seven of his classmates at the priest's home. This was in place of one-on-one Confirmation interviews. They did grilled wraps in a panini press. The kids said they were delicious.

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  17. Despite the lack of meat, those things still look nice. Could you mail me one?

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  18. This looks delicious. I am with Mo; Will you pop one of those babies in the mail for me? I am a part time Veggie Vixen. And after reading this great post, I am very hungry! Yum.

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  19. Yup and I'm totally bookmarking this for my Friday night Girl's Night! I have 2 friends that are veggie heads and I like to find yummy things for them so they don't feel left out. (And they're both freaky about their weight...so perfect from SMAM!)

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  20. My carnivorous self can't help but feel this needs bacon. Sorry hon.

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  21. Confession: I hate sprouts.

    However!!! This reminds me of my favorite spring-time sandwich: Toasted wheat pitas stuffed with Giada's Italian hummus, julienne bell peppers, and thick slices of fresh mozzarella cheese. Would it warm up already??

    Thanks for another great story and recipe.

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  22. Love Sabra-brand hummus. It's not cheap around here (compared to the other available stuff), so when I want to spoil myself, I pick up a tub.

    I'm still laughing at the image of you coming out of that basement with the crazy eyes.

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  23. Drool.

    I love hummus now - but my first encounter was with a snooty little girl at a camp where I was a counselor. I rolled my eyes as she explained that she was a vegetarian out of a personal conviction that eating animals is wrong...at the ripe old age of seven.

    But then, when I started eating healthy, hummus became my best friend.

    And, yes, Sabra kicks ever other brands arse. Especially their Supremely Spicy. Yum.

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  24. God I love roasted veggies!
    And that bread? Man I really would love some of that. I might even be able to tolerate hummus with all you've got going on in there.

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  25. Looks delicious. I love Ellie Krieger, her recipes are healthy (but never too healthy). And I completely agree with you about Sabra hummus, I think it's the amount of tahini that makes it so good. Thanks for making me laugh, love that we don't have to eat "shit that looks like hair." Though I think my nutrition clients would eat hair if it made their asses shrink.

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  26. Yum-O! These look fantastic. We eat vegetarian at least 2 night a week (much to my chilren's dismay) and I think they might actually eat this. (And in OUR house, we'd eat them for breakfast, too. Leftovers and other non-traditional breakfast fare is the favorite in this house!)

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  27. For a moment there I thought you weren't going to cook those zucchini! I'm all for vegetarian, but there are some veggies that just shouldn't go raw.

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  28. Vegetarian and vegan food has come a long way! This looks like a great wrap!

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  29. Sneaking potato chips into pretty much ANY sandwich is a good idea. I dig the old fashioned Peanut Butter with a few Ruffles layered in the middle. Yum yum yum.

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  30. I have a husband for whom a meal isn't a meal unless there's meat. BUT this is a great lunch for moi! My new favorite hummus is Sabra....

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  31. I'm crazy for wraps and hummus! Love that you added in pine nuts!

    I'll have to see if I can find a copy of that book! :)

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  32. This looks yummy. But who will come and make it for me? (What was the name of the maid on the Jetsons? She had a cute apron, adorable robotic domestic that she was. Hmmm. Wait. That was me, when married. Sans apron.)

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  33. I love hummus. But still, I love the cartoon so much much more. ;-)

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  34. Oh yeah, I'm with Mo and Aidan. Here's my address...ah, please?

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  35. This sounds divine. I just watched food inc and am thinking I need to incorporate more vegetarian staples into our routine.

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  36. hummus is one of my favorite foods on the face of the planet...when it's made well. i agree about sabra--that's tasty stuff, but homemade is even better. your wraps are perfect as a filling yet light lunch--no backside suicide for this gal! (i love that!)

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  37. These look really good - and the carnivores among us could easily add chicken or steak, eh?
    LOVE the picture!

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  38. I heart Trader Joe's spicy hummus. Mmmmm. That sounds good. Thanks, TKW, all I needed was a craving after the boys were asleep and the husband out of town. Geeze.

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  39. Absence: The robot maid was named Rosie. My favorite episode of all time is when she falls in love, gets jilted, and gets so depressed that all she does is lurch around the house going, "MMM. BeepBeep. Rosie."

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