Healthy

Nigella Wraps

10/05/2007 08:31:00 PM


If you have Nigella Express, you will have noticed that Nigella is obsessed with wraps! Tortillas, mainly. She uses them in a variety of interesting ways - as a trendy party treat filled with raw tuna and crab, as a crunchy addition to spiced scrambled eggs, or, predictably, as a sandwich. I have to admit, however, that I've never really been a wrap enthusiast. Until this book, my greatest experience with wraps had been purchasing extra-hot chicken wraps at Nando's. (Delicious).

That's not to say I hadn't tried. Coincidentally, a week before I got Nigella Express, I bought some wholewheat mountain wraps as part of my whole healthy family thang. They looked nice, and I thought they'd be healthy. But, I couldn't figure out what to do with the wraps, and they have been been sitting in my fridge, alone and uneaten. Lucky for me, Nigella Express arrived about a week after I bought those wraps, and were filled with great ideas on how to use them!

We made Nigella's tuna wraps, crab wraps and quesadillas for a midweek dinner, after coming home from work, and before rushing off to a physio appointment. How very express!

So, in the first photo we have Nigella's tuna wraps (right) and crab wraps (left), which come from the Razzle Dazzle party chapter, and finally gave me a way to use up those wholewheat mountain flatbread wraps. For the tuna wraps, the bread is brushed with a mixture of mayonnaise (Japanese Cupie mayo all the way!), wasabi and sesame oil, then layered with fresh raw tuna, and thinly sliced carrots and cucumber before being artfully rolled up and sliced. For the crab rolls, you mix crab meat (I used tinned; don't tell anyone) with the mayonnaise mixture, and place it on the flatbread with avocado and shredded iceberg lettuce. Easy peasy. But not quite Japaneasy.


Here we have the quesadillas from the Speedy Gonzales Mexican chapter. Each quesadilla consists of a corn tortilla, filled with ham, cheese, finely sliced spring onions, jalapenos and coriander. It is folded in half, brushed with oil and grilled on each side until hot, crispy and bubbling. I think the tortillas I bought were pretty average - they broke in half as I tried to fold them. But, never fear, we just slapped 2 tortillas together to make each quesadilla. (In the background of this photo you can see the extra tuna I bought at the market, eaten sashimi style. Yummo).

The wraps were very popular with my family. Mum loved the crab wraps, and I thought the tuna ones were fantastic. As a bonus, they were both rather healthy! Full of omega-3 fatty acids and vegies, and with only a small amount of mayonnaise per wrap. (Although actually, I think crab might be high in cholesterol. Next time I might use canned tuna instead). The quesadillas were also very tasty, but I can't see myself making them over and over again. Not to worry, plenty more tortilla recipes where they came from.

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