A Lunch Breakthrough

I've gotten a few really great cookbooks lately. The most recent is one I pre-ordered months ago from my favorite food blogger, Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks.com. If you don't read it, check it out, most of my all-time favorite recipes for healthy, vegetarian food come from this site. On Sunday I spent a few hours trying out some of the most intriguing recipes from Super Natural Everyday, and this one may have changed my life.

Here's the thing. Lunches are a challenge for me. I don't really like sandwiches, we don't often find ourselves with leftovers, and in order for something to make it into my bag before I rush out the door to work, it's gotta be easy. Far too often I find myself resorting to the school cafeteria out of convenience, and even if I do pack, so many things that qualify as easy don't also make the cheap and/or healthy category. Well, finally I've found something that has it all: super inexpensive, packed with protein and healthy goodness, easy, AND SO TASTY.

In the cookbook, they're called Chickpea Wraps, and I feel like you could call them Chickpea Salad Wraps, because the chickpea mixture really comes together similarly to a good chicken salad, and satisfies as similar taste. There are a lot of flavor profiles you could go with: curry, mustard, sweet--and I deviated a bit from Heidi's recipe by using cilantro in place of dill. The mix keeps, and actually gets better, for several days in the fridge. You could also experiment with wraps, pitas, and flat breads to fit your taste. I'm loving the red chili tortillas!

Here's my version:

Chickpea Salad Wraps

(for a big batch)
2 cans chickpeas rinsed and drained
1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
2/3 cup plain greek yogurt, thinned a bit with water
1 tsp cilantro/lime "pesto" (1 bunch cilantro, juice of 1 lime, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 cup olive oil, salt and red chili powder to taste blended in a food processor)
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Pulse all but 1/4 of the chickpeas and all the red onion in the food processor until roughly chopped and blended. Keep it chunky. In a bowl combine this mix with the remaining whole chickpeas. Set aside. Mix together the yogurt, cilantro "pesto", and mustard. Combine 2/3 of this yogurt mixture with the chickpeas and red onion and add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Keep the rest of the yogurt mixture as a spread for the wraps. Refrigerate until you're ready to use.

To assemble to wraps, spread the yogurt mixture on a tortilla, flat bread, or pita. Top with salad green and a generous scoop of the chickpea salad. Wrap, and you're ready to go!

Lunch will never be the same.

All the ingredients, so easy to assemble in the morning.

1st Harvest: Garden Updates in Pictures

Our first harvest of radishes.

Finally a wide angle view of the garden.

Stephen harvesting lettuce.

We got over 25 gallons of baby lettuce, arugula, and mustard greens!

Baby tomatoes in the "green house". A set of shelves with fluorescent lights.

Cucumbers, just peeking out.