Cook With Us #14 -- Vegan Napa Cabbage Wraps with Sprouted Mung Beans & Sunflower Seed Butter Sauce {Gluten-Free, Nut-Free}

Hello again everyone!  I hope you all have enjoyed the weekend.  It is quite steamy around here right now, so I wanted to make at least one of my dishes this week light and refreshing.  After such a warm welcome joining in last week for the @cookwithus challenge, I couldn't miss out on putting in an entry for week 14 since the hard working team of @chefsteve, @offoodandart and @pandamama will be taking a much-needed hiatus after this round.  The theme this week is wrapped food.  I'm getting my entry in on the last day, but definitely check out the contest post to see all of the other great entries!

I have to admit I don't often make wraps.  Probably through inexperience, I feel like whenever I make something in this genre it all falls apart and I end up eating it with a fork and knife anyway.  Perhaps checking out some of the other entries will help me hone my wrapping skills a bit. ;)  The fun part on joining in on challenges is to be "challenged" a bit, so why not push myself a bit to go outside my normal meal prep box.

As usual lately, I wait until I hit the farmers market before I finalize my meal plan for the week.  I did already have mung beans sprouting, so I did want to incorporate those into my wrap.  Sprouts are really healthy little gems as the sprouting process helps make many of the nutrients more available for our bodies to digest and utilize.  Mung beans in particular are a good source of vitamins C & K, iron and folate.  I have been sprouting broccoli seeds because of the nutritional benefits for a while now, and the mung beans are just as easy and fun to incorporate, as well!

At the farmers market I happened upon the last bit of Napa cabbage and my current favorite veggie, kohlrabi.  No stranger to stuffed cabbage leaves (my boyfriend is Polish), I thought the cabbage would make the perfect vehicle for my take on a wrap.

I'm no fancy chef, but I do try to balance out my meals both nutritionally and from a flavor and texture perspective.  Just like my bowls last week, I wanted my wrapped meal to have plenty of fresh vegetables, a serving of starchy carbs to fill me up, plant-based protein and  a small portion of fat to lend some flavor and assist with nutrient absorption.  My vegetables and protein were taken care of, so the last pieces of the puzzle were some filling whole food carbohydrates and a nutty sauce.

I always have a few different types of whole grains in my pantry, but this week I opted for the millet to keep my dish gluten-free for anyone with special dietary restrictions.  It is a lovely little grain that I have only recently started incorporating.  Sweet potatoes are also a staple in my kitchen.  I had a few from the market, as well, so those I decided to turn into some baked fries because a wrap doesn't seem complete without them. ;)

Anything with peanut sauce is fine by me, but in keeping with my allergy-friendly theme I chose sunflower seed butter to make my sauce this time around.  Like potatoes, there are not many nut or seed butters I don't like.  If you have nut allergies, seeds butters or tahini are great options to still get a delicious dipping sauce.  With all of the fresh light ingredients in the wrap, a creamier sauce was just the ticket to pack a nice punch of flavor.

Alright, I'm getting hungry again just talking about it, so let's get into the method...

Sunflower Seed Butter Sauce

• 1/2 cup sunflower seed butter (preferably no oil or sugar added)
• 1/4 cup organic rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 filtered water
• 1 teaspoon ground sumac

Mix all of the ingredients together and thin out with extra water if needed.  Taste and adjust to your liking.  Feel free to add a little hot sauce if you prefer a spicier option!

Napa Cabbage Wraps

• 1 head Napa cabbage, washed & leaves carefully pulled off
• 1 cup millet, cooked according to instructions
• 1 bulb kohlrabi, peeled & shredded
• 3 small carrots, trimmed & shredded
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped mint
• 2 tablespoons lemongrass mint white balsamic (can sub rice wine vinegar)
• sprouted mung beans
• sweet potato fries for serving (optional)

Prepare your millet (or other grain of choice).  Set aside to let cool.

Shred your kohlrabi and carrots using a food processor.  I used the medium shredding disc.  Place in a bowl with your chopped mint, onion, balsamic vinegar and cooled millet.  Mix together.

To make your cabbage easier to wrap, blanch the whole leaves.  Place a few leaves at a time in a large pot of boiling water for just a few minutes to slightly soften.  Remove from heat and place in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.  Repeat for as many leaves as you need to serve your wraps.

Once all of your components are ready, lay out a few leaves on each plate and fill with a scoop of your millet mixture and a handful of mung beans.  Carefully wrap and serve with your sauce and some baked sweet potato fries.

If I am being totally honest, I prepared wraps for today to meet the challenge and then the rest of the extras I'm just tossing together in a big salad for leftovers!  They taste awesome wrapped up and dipped in the delicious sauce, but it will taste just as good and be a whole lot easier to eat in a big bowl when I am at work this week. ;)

Thanks again to the @cookwithus crew and all of the supporters of the contest!  I will definitely be looking forward to seeing what you guys have in store for us the next round.