Stuffed Collard Leaves

Recently I made this recipe for collard green wraps from epicurean vegan.  Well, more or less.  The recipe is so flexible that I had a ship of Theseus kind of situation.  I changed tofu for tempeh, scallions for onion, great northern beans for chickpeas and cannellinis, presumably white rice for brown rice, and salt for tamari.  In spirit, though, it was still the dish.

As usual (I didn't even bother to POST my grape leaves escapades) I had issues rolling the leaves.  Somehow I managed to be off by 90*, which I'm sure didn't help, because I was fighting against the big spine down the middle the whole way.  Still, this is how I did it:






Leaf with thick part of stem cut out, filling placed just so:

Bottom flaps folded up:

Sides folded in, then rolled up from the bottom:

Some of them stayed together just great, but others didn't.  As with my grape leaf adventures, I'm not sure it was worth the work.

I also used good ol' miso-tahini sauce instead of tahini-umeboshi.  I tried so hard to get into umeboshi back when I was trying to kick my zantac habit back in '08, but it never really stuck with me.  (by the by, reducing coffee intake and stress did the job just fine).  Miso-tahini is the most perfect condiment in the world, I think.  Its umamitasticness complements the bitterness of the collards, as does its wetness for the relative dryness of the filling.

One last thing: before you make the filling, ask yourself: do you really want 12 stuffed collards?  Do you have 12 collards?  After realizing that a few of the leaves in my bundle were ripped or too small, I only had 6.  The copious amount of leftover filling served several other functions, about which I'll post laster...

Stuffed Collard Leaves (shown with Miso-Tahini Sauce)

(from epicurean vegan)

Ingredients
12 collard green leaves, washed and patted dry
1-2 tsp olive oil 

8-oz firm tempeh, sliced into thin strips

1 onion, diced
2 tsp garlic, minced
3/4 lb (?) mushrooms, sliced

15oz canned beans, drained

1 c short grain brown rice, cooked

tamari and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Heat a little oil in a skillet.  Fry tempeh until medium browned.  Remove and set aside.  Heat some more oil.  Fry up onion, then add garlic and mushrooms.  Then add beans, rice, and tempeh.  Season with tamari and pepper, and set aside.

2. Roll up collards with filling as shown above.  Fasten with toothpicks, and steam for a few minutes until collards change color.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Serve with miso-tahini sauce.  Makes about 12 wraps (duh).