Chickpea Salad Wraps

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Summer is the perfect time to have a plant-based sandwich in your arsenal for picnics, boat trips and lazy days in the sun. These Chickpea Salad Wraps have been my saving grace lately for last minute, easy food prep.

Saturday evening we enjoyed dinner at the lake with friends, and these wraps, coupled with a fresh green salad and my Rhubarb Strawberry Crumble were the perfect meal. I made it all ahead of time and brought it to the dock when we were ready for dinner. It was so much more enjoyable than having to go make a meal and lose out on quality time visiting. Even our German meat loving friend enjoyed three Chickpea Salad Wraps and couldn’t stop raving about them. 🙂

Not into wraps or sandwiches? Wrap it up in a collard leaf or add this mix to the top of a salad instead!

These Chickpea Avocado Wraps are excellent for your health! Why?

Many plant-based leaders, such as Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Garth Davis and the lovely dietician Julieanna Hever (who I once ate dinner with on the vegan cruise I attended – so exciting!), promote the consumption of 1/2 cup of legumes each day – working up to 1 1/2 cups. Beans/legumes in the diet have been proven to provide the following benefits:

• they are full of vitamins, minerals and protein
• legumes are good for your heart, reducing blood pressure as well as the risk of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease
• low in fat and high in fiber
• legumes lower cholesterol levels
• they digest slowly, helping to keep blood sugar levels low
• legumes are anti-diabetic, decreasing insulin resistance and optimizing diabetes control. They contain compounds that partially block our starch digesting enzymes allowing some starch to make it to our colon to feed out good bacteria. This works similarly to a carb blocking drug without the drug side effects.
• helpful for weight loss making you feel full
• they are an immune booster
• legumes are high in the amino acid Lysine
• legumes are included in many anti-cancer diets
• easy on your wallet and available everywhere

But, what about flatulence?!

I know this can be a big problem for some people. But, not eating legumes because you are afraid of passing wind, is not worth the benefits your body will miss out on!

Here is the trick!

Try to consistently eat 1/2 cup of legumes each day...

So, add some hummus to your diet, a bit of tofu or some beans sprinkled on your salad or add lentils to your pasta or stir fry. Enjoy a bean or lentil burger instead of a Beyond Meat one, or heaven forbid a meat burger!

The more consistent you become, the less flatulence will be a problem. You are changing your gut bacteria each time you eat legumes. The more you eat them, the less flatulence your body will produce.

What else can you do to reduce the amount of gas?

If you are very concerned, as you are transitioning, you could talk to your doctor about temporarily taking a low dose digestive enzyme (such as Beano) prior to eating a meal. These enzymes help your body better break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins and assimilate the nutrients in the legumes. Doing this can result in less gas as your body is transitioning. As you incorporate more legumes into your diet, you will start to develop the correct bacteria needed to properly breakdown the legumes in your digestive tract. Hang in there!

Another trick to reducing gas is to add the following foods to your diet. They are naturally rich in digestive enzymes:

• avocados
• bananas
• ginger
• honey
• kefir
• kiwi
• mangos
• papayas
• pineapples
• sauerkraut

Now that you are all up to speed on legumes and digestion, let’s get back to this Chickpea Salad Wrap recipe! You can jazz it up any way you like. This is how I usually make it.

Chickpea Salad Wraps

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Serves: 4-5 Prep Time: 20 minutes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

• 2 cans chickpeas drained, rinsed and mashed with a potato masher
• soft whole wheat tortilla wraps or collard greens
• 1 small cucumber, diced finely
• 4 small dill pickles, diced finely
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 1/2 medium red onion (or other), diced finely
• one small handful of cilantro, diced (optional)
• 2-3 tablespoons of hummus
• 1 1/2-2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of hot sauce, or more (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL TOPPINGS:
• sliced avocado
• pumpkin seeds
• spinach, lettuce or kale
• sliced tomatoes
• capers
• hummus
• spicy Chipotle vegan mayonnaise (or other)

Instructions

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and mash with a fork or potato masher in a medium sized bowl.
2. Dice the vegetables and add to the chickpeas.
3. Mix in the remainder of the ingredients and stir well. 
4. Adjust the spices to your liking. 
5. Spread hummus or mayonnaise on the wrap if using. Scoop approximately 1/2 cup of the chickpea mix down the center of the wrap.  Add any additional toppings and roll up the wrap.  Fold up the side closest to you first, then the two ends.  Next roll the wrap away from you until it makes a sausage shape.   To keep the wrap tight, you can also put an overwrap the same way with parchment paper, wax paper or a cloth napkin.  Slice in half for easier serving. 

 

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