Hoisin duck wrap in centre being made with coronation chicken, BLT Hoisin on left & selection of fillings
Using Gem lettuce, celery, Chinese cabbage, spring onions, Oriental radishes, tomatoes, chard, cucumbers and our Lakemont Seedless grape sultanas from the tunnel! They’re also made with the lovely organic eggs from our hens – who also eat a lot of green food from the polytunnel!
These wraps are a great alternative to bread, they’re grain-free, gluten-free, sugar-free and high in good quality protein. Perfect for gluten-free diets, or even if you’ve just run out of bread! Gluten-free products are expensive to buy in shops and often contain nasty additives. These work out at a fraction of the price and are totally healthy! They’re cheap to make – and once you have the dry ingredients on hand you can make them whenever you need them – or keep a few handy in the fridge ready for snack-attacks! Everyone loves them and they’re great for feeding a hungry crowd fast – as can often happen when you have hungry teenagers!
The easiest recipe on earth – and a useful one all year round. These are so easy even a child could make them!
The ingredients are available everywhere.
The wraps are very filling and are great for lunchboxes. They’re also perfect picnic food.
They’re suitable for vegetarians – with meat-free fillings.
I find these wraps such easy healthy eating – you can use seasonal veg for fillings and also use up any small bits of leftovers you happen to have which often prevents them being wasted!
It’s a ‘low carb high fat’ or LCHF recipe. My LCHF diet recipes contain as little sugar, processed refined carbohydrates or starchy foods as possible. Processed carbohydrates turn rapidly to sugars in our bodies and we’re all eating far too much of them,which is leading to an increasing epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes. This can be avoided – and now some doctors are proving even reversed – by following the new LCHF diet and cutting out all sugars from your diet. The latest scientific research shows that it’s not natural saturated fats like butter or coconut oil in our diet that are a problem – but highly processed, high sugar foods, artificially hardened fats like margarine and some vegetable oils. The great spin off from the LCHF diet is that you can also lose weight very easily without starving or feeling hungry. It’s a very easy diet to stick to because you’re never hungry and it’s high in healthy nutrients. (On a personal note – 2 years ago, I lost 2 stone and my son lost 4 stone on this diet over the course of a year. We had both put on weight following serious accidents which left us unable to exercise. My son was in a wheelchair for some time. We didn’t find it hard to do as we always ate whole natural foods here and no processed food. Even if you eat those foods – you won’t believe how much better you feel and how much more energy you have when you stop eating them!)
Equipment:
You’ll need a good quality ceramic non-stick pan – don’t use a ‘Teflon’ or other non-ceramic pan as these can produce toxic cancer-causing compounds during cooking. Ceramic pans can sometimes be expensive but T.K.Max is a brilliant source of them at about a third of the price! If you buy a new pan, wash it with warm soapy water, rinse it, dry it with paper towel and then ‘season’ it by heating it up and melting a knob of coconut oil in it until it’s quite hot – then let it cool a bit wipe out with a paper towel. Your wraps shouldn’t stick then. (Here’s a link to a good article giving alternatives to ‘Teflon’ non-stick pans. http://www.ecowatch.com/5-non-
A good spatula – not wood unless it’s a well-used, well-oiled old one, or the wraps may stick to it when you’re turning them, as they’re quite delicate at that stage.
A good whisk or Nutriblender of some kind
An accurate 1/4 cup measure
Recipe – Makes 4 large wraps
Ingredients:
4 med/large organic eggs
1 tablespoon organic coconut flour or flax flour – or a mixture of the two. Flax flour tends to give a slightly larger volume of mix and is also slightly more pliable when cooked – but either are suitable.***
A small pinch of salt & few grinds of fresh organic black pepper.*
Organic virgin coconut oil for greasing the pan.**
Notes on ingredients:
*I always use freshly ground organic black pepper – you won’t believe the difference in it’s flavour. It’s rich in aromatic essential oils which give it the wonderful aroma -,and also other phytonutrients which are anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial and enhance immune function. Studies show that black pepper increases the body’s ability to absorb nutrients from other foods and is also good for digestion. As studies also show that organic foods are higher in phytonutrients – you get 60-70% more of the beneficial compounds. Once you’ve tried it – non-organic pepper seems tasteless! Out of interest – in the Middle Ages and Tudor times, pepper was considered so valuable and was so expensive that it was used as currency – which is where the term ‘Peppercorn Rent’ came from!)
**Coconut oil is best for this as it prevents possible sticking which can still happen even with non-stick pans if not hot enough. A mix of coconut oil & butter gives a nice too but may stick more easily as butter can also burn quite quickly. Coconut oil is also widely available now – organic, cold pressed, extra virgin is best as the quality is assured but prices can vary widely between shops so shop around. Coconut oil is the very best fat for frying at a high temperature as it is stable at high temperatures and withstands the heat of cooking better, without altering chemically, which can happen with other cooking oils. It is the healthiest source of saturated fat – which up to date research proves is actually good for us. It’s good for our heart, brain, skin, immune system and thyroid. Although called an oil – it is actually hard at room temperature but melts very easily. As it contains antioxidants it doesn’t go off and is stable at room temperature for a long time, so you don’t even need to keep it in the fridge. It’s also delicious – I often eat a teaspoon on it’s own! Being very slightly sweet it reminds me of the coconut ice sweets that my grandmother used to make – but without all the unhealthy sugar!
***You can buy coconut flour or golden flax seeds easily in most shops now. Make sure you get the freshest date possible. If using flax flour it’s better to grind your own freshly – the Nutribullet/Nutrimix-type blenders have a spice grinding attachment which will grind small amounts brilliantly and it’s better to grind it fresh if you can as the high fat content can oxidise quickly. If you have any unused flour afterwards – keep in the fridge afterwards so that its stays fresh and use as soon as possible. (Nuts and seeds should always be kept in fridge to prevent fats going ‘rancid’ or oxidising. If nuts are kept in a warm shop shelf this can happen quite quickly – you’ll get a horrible ‘chip pan’ smell off them when you ope the packet! Fresh nuts should have a pleasant, sweet smell. (If using coconut flour – before the 18th of October – Holland & Barrett health stores have coconut flour at half price which is terrific value!)
Method:
This just couldn’t be easier!
1. Grind the flax seeds into a flour first if using those. Then whichever flour you’re using, add the flour to the eggs in the blender or bowl, with a small pinch of salt & grinds of black pepper & blend – Nutriblender or Nutrimix ideal as they blend evenly – but a whisk is fine too.
2. Heat pan with a small knob of coconut oil – roughly hazelnut-sized. When it’s hot add a 1/4 cup measure of the mixture and tip pan around to distribute evenly. Do this as quickly as possible or you may end up with a wrap with gaps as it can ‘set’ very fast! It’s just like making a thin pancake. It’s essential to get the pan really hot for the first one or it may stick – after the first they tend not to. Be careful not to get the pan too hot or the mixture may bubble up also possibly break giving you a hole in your wrap! If in doubt remove pan from heat for a moment while you turn it down to medium/hot and replace the pan onto the heat.
3. When the top sets and the sides of the wrap start to slightly come away from the sides of the pan – use a greased, wide spatula and turn over carefully. It can be delicate at this stage so greasing the spatula helps the wrap to come off it more easily without catching on it and tearing.
4. Stack the wraps onto a plate as you make them and cover. The steam as they cool helps to keep them pliable and stops the edges becoming brittle. As they’re made with coconut oil they won’t stick to each other so don’t worry. They firm up a bit and can be handled easily but gently when they’re cool. By all means make them thicker if you like, but we like ours made to these proportions otherwise the wrap can dominate a bit. – A bit like a sandwich without enough filling!
5. That’s it! Fill either warm or cold to your heart’s content!! As far as fillings go – the only limit is your imagination – or your leftovers!
Some suggestions for fillings:
Chicken, bacon, avocado & gem lettuce or spinach with mayo.
Coronation chicken with sultanas, chopped Chinese cabbage & chopped celery. (You can make an easy Coronation dressing by mixing a couple of teaspoons of organic curry paste into some bought organic mayo if you don’t want to make your own. Add a few sultanas & there you are!)
Bacon, avocado, lettuce, with semi-dehydrated or fresh tomatoes & mayo.
Prawns, avocado, Gem lettuce & Marie Rose sauce (recipe elsewhere on website)
Smoked Salmon, cream cheese, lettuce & cucumber.
Roast Mediterranean veg, and feta (recipe on website)
Hoisin duck with spinach or chard, sliced spring onions/scallions, ‘julienned’ cucumber or pickled cucumber. If like me you don’t fancy using non-organic duck then the dark leg meat from a chicken works just as well too.
Hummus, spinach & raw summer veg or roast winter root vegetables (recipe on website)
Try making 2 or 3 different fillings, put them on the table with extra veg and let everyone fill their own wraps. Some weird combinations can result when kids start mixing them up – but it makes food fun – and it’s a great way to get them to eat their veg!
My tip for getting absolutely perfect, ripe avocados every time! :
Always buy them about a week before you need them – green and bullet hard. Hass are the best if you can get them. Put them in a brown paper bag for a week with a very ripe browning banana – this ripens them perfectly and they will gradually turn brown and yielding to the touch at the stalk end – a sign they are ripe. They don’t need to be warm, just normal room temperature’s fine – it’s the ethylene gas given off by the ripening banana that ripens them. Hey presto – perfect avocados with no bruising every time!
As usual all the ingredients I use are always organic wherever possible. Organic ingredients are scientifically proven to be more nutritious, higher in healthy omega-3 essential fatty acids, phytonutrients and of course contain fewer chemicals like pesticides, heavy metals or additives (this is what we have eaten for 40 years – but it’s up to you – non-organic alternatives are easily available)
PS. We don’t do calorie counting here – because it’s the quality of calories that counts – not the number! We never worry about eating natural, whole, nutritious foods like coconut oil or butter! It’s the empty, unhealthy calories in industrially-made, highly-processed low-fat spreads, petrochemically extracted vegetable oils and sugar-filled processed foods that damage our health and clog our arteries. We avoid them like the plague!