Alina's Tofu Pumpkin Seed Asparagus Wraps

My younger brother Dugan graduated from Grinnell College a few weeks ago. Here he is during the graduation march... doesn't he look excited?

His computer science department had a special breakfast the morning of graduation and while we were there one of his favorite professors gave him a cookbook that I recognized. I made a comment about it, Dugan told his professor I love to cook, and one thing or another led to the professor giving me a vegetarian cookbook: Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons.

This week I'm modifying the Tofu and Pumpkin-Seed Burger recipe from that cookbook, and so the recipe this week is in honor of my little brother- an intelligent, friendly, kind-hearted guy who has always loved to eat.

Total time: Approximately 40 minutes. Makes 6 wraps.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of black beans
• 1/3 cup of hulled, unsalted pumpkin seeds, toasted 6-8 minutes in a 350 degree oven
• 1 16-ounce package firm tofu
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 tbsp miso paste
• 3/4 cup minced onion
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Ground black pepper to taste
• Several tbsp canola oil
• 6 large collard green leaves (1 leaf per wrap)
• 6-12 asparagus spears (optional)
• 1/3 cup beer (optional)
• 1/2 cup flour (optional)
• 2 tsp ground ginger (optional)
• 1 tsp salt (optional)
• 1/3 cup canola oil (optional)
• 1 tsp baking powder (optional)

With a potato masher in a bowl mash the beans. Chop up the pumpkin seeds and add them to the mashed beans.

Quarter the tofu and crumble the tofu into the bowl by squeezing it with your hand.

Add the cumin, ginger, miso, and onion. Mix everything together with your hands. Add the salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat and add the canola oil to it.

Scramble the tofu mix in the skillet, but don't scramble it too much. 

You want it to sit in the skillet long enough to brown and then you can mix it up a little and brown it some more.

Optional: At this point you can wrap it up, but I decided to also add some asparagus. I pulled my inspiration for this from the same cookbook with the Asparagus Wasabi Tempura recipe. I mixed up a little beer, flour, ginger, baking powder, and salt, dipped some asparagus in the batter, and then lightly fried it in canola oil.

 My mom taught me a great tip when using collard greens in wraps. Before you assemble your wraps, bring some water to a boil. Quickly dip the collard green in the water for no more than 1 second and the collard green comes alive with color! It turns bright green and becomes much more pliable so you can easily roll it up.

To assemble, top your collard green with 1/6 the tofu mixture and 1 or two asparagus stems. You can chop up the asparagus or leave it whole.

Now wrap it up and enjoy!

Adam's taste rating: 2 ladles

Alina's taste rating: 3 ladles

Healthy rating: 3 ladles

Ease of prep rating: 4 ladles

Overall average: 3 ladles