Thai Inspired Wraps w/ “Peanut” Sauce feat. Mom :0)

Hello again my friends. Do you ever stumble upon a recipe that just get’s ya hooked and not only tastes freakin’ good , but is fairly simple to whip up? Well I’ve got just such a recipe that I’ve been enjoying on a nightly basis for the last two weeks. I’ve been craving something a lil’ spicy that incorporates root veggies to warm up these cold Connecticut evenings. After blending some almond butter into one of my smoothies…it hit me… Thai style wraps with “peanut” sauce….Oh yes!

The sauce is deceptively simple…..I mean that it just seems too simple to taste as good as it does! As is the way with the many Thai dishes that I recall from cooked food concocting years. I simply plopped some Raw Almond butter in the blender with a lil’ water, a squeeze of lemon juice, some honey (you could use agave and it works just as well….I’m just a honey freak due to its’ high enzyme content), a lil’ sea salt and a generous pinch of cayenne pepper! The proportions I usually use are as follows~

1/2 cup of water
2-4 tbsp’s of raw almond butter (more or less depending on how thick ya like it!)
Juice of half a lemon
1-2 tbsp’s of honey
1 tsp sea salt
1/4-1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper (more for some that like it hot)

The cool thing about using almond butter is that it blends right on down in even the wimpiest of blenders! If you’re using a high power mama-jama, like the vita-mix, you could go ahead and sub the almond butter for soaked almonds.

After a quick blend the sauce is ready to go. You can store it in the fridge for later use (I’d say with the lemon juice it should keep in the fridge for 2-3 days), but know that the cayenne will mature the longer it sets, so what might’ve been mild will become medium and what was medium will become nuclear! Food is so freakin’ fun….ya never know what it’s gonna do when left unattended…around here it usually get’s eaten….especially if it’s a raw dessert. My advice is to save the empty frozen veggie bags and hide those goodies in there….and hope that no one who raids the fridge is readin’ this post! :0)

Now on to the wrap ~ My all time fave raw wrappers are romaine lettuce leaves, they’re mild, crunchy and tend to compliment whatever ya got goin’ into them…even cooked foods for those who’re doing high-raw or transitioning. You could sub romaine leaves for taco shells as my Mom describes in the video. You could also use collard leaves which make a fun flexible wrapper that you could form into lil’ egg-roll style rolls.

The next part is fun, simple, and darn tasty. Take a carrot and using your julienne peeler shred that bad-boy into thin noodle like strands.

You wouldn’t believe how just changing a veggie’s texture can make it so much more palatable until you start playing around with different cutting methods. Personally I’m not a straight up carrot munching guy, but you shred them down or thin slice ‘em and I’m in! So if a veggie doesn’t appeal to you, try it in different forms…you might be surprised!

Take your tasty mass of carrot strands and sprinkle with a lil’ sea-salt, cumin and garlic powder, toss and they’re ready. You can let them marinate a lil’ bit and they’ll actually get softer, but I love this dish so much that they usually don’t have that option!

The “icing” on the wrap is some seasoned tomato chunks (you can sub ripe red bell pepper as well and it’s equally as tasty!) Just dice some tomato and sprinkle with garam masala, this spice mix can be found in most grocery stores or your local Indian Grocer, but if not, you can whip up your own at home with equal parts ground coriander, black pepper, cumin, cardamom and cinnamon.

Assemble your wraps however ya like, I personally like to go light on the fillings and do more of them, to get as much greenage as possible! Set these up on a plate with a lil’ bowl of the dip and you’re in business!

The sauce recipe was so good that when I concocted it I called Mom and shared it with her, and she’s been playing with it as a veggie dip and salad dressing. So many people have been asking for an update with mom, and thankfully the snow today wasn’t bad enough to put a stop to us doing just that! So we headed on over to chat with her and share this awesome recipe. Mom has been doing really well with her raw diet and has been making great choices for her cooked food options as well! She’s ditched artificial sweeteners, immensely reduced her gluten intake and has turned down numerous offers from her neighbours of homemade, but not so healthy goodies! I’m so happy to see her rockin’ such a healthy lifestyle and proud of her for sticking with it! :0)