Rainbow Roll-ups, a quick healthy lunch, or a surprising party appetizer for your family and friends to enjoy. Pass the peanut sauce, please!
I think these Rainbow Roll-ups could very easily make me a vegetarian.
I mean, really. They could!
Ok, until that overwhelming urge for beef makes me leap off the vegetable cart.
But still, these rainbow roll-ups have me looking forward to Meatless Monday. In fact, I made these again to enjoy this week for lunch. Yum!
So you are probably wondering what exactly a “Rainbow Roll-up” is anyway.
Ok, here’s the breakdown…
How To Make Rainbow Roll-ups
Rainbow Roll-ups are made with a collard leaf as the wrapper instead of traditional wraps, tortillas, or rice paper. The collard leaves are packed tightly around creamy curry hummus with warming spice, crunchy cool vegetables, and quinoa. As if the rainbow roll-ups weren’t good enough by themselves, you take the wrap and give it a nice dunk into a pool of creamy peanut sauce that sends it over the top.
So you see, “Rainbow Roll-ups” is a fancy way of saying vegetable wraps. The term “vegetable wrap” sounds so boring, and these rainbow roll-ups are far from boring! These roll-ups are bright and beautiful in color and bursting with flavor. That’s why these delicious vegetable wraps needed a much more magical name.
Sometimes, I wonder what my daddy would think about some of the things I do with food. I mean, I’m eating raw collard leaves and making peanuts into a sauce. I’m pretty sure my daddy ate anything that you sat down in front of him. He was not a picky eater by any means.
Between hog-killing and hunting seasons of wild game, I never knew what would be inside the refrigerator when I opened it. I believe he would have tried these rainbow wraps. I’d love to hear what he would have to say about it. I know, mama, you are probably turning your nose up at most of my recipes. I come by my love for all foods, honest, don’t ya think?
Living on the farm, I grew up with mounds and mounds of fresh produce from my parent’s garden. My mama would spend many hard hours in the kitchen putting up all the vegetables from their huge garden.
Almost everything cooked was fried or boiled hard in pot
The only downfall to this whole recipe is that A LOT of chopping is involved. I just so happened to buy a new Tasty 3-piece peeler set before making these again. The shredder tool worked like a champ and did the job in no time! I couldn’t believe how much quicker it made all of the chopping, so I highly recommend one! (Click HERE to order one for yourself!)
Regardless, assembling the roll-ups doesn’t take that long. You can prep all the ingredients and store them in the refrigerator until ready to wrap, and then serve or make ahead! They will keep in the fridge for 2 to 3 days.
A quick, easy grab-and-go lunch during the workweek or a surprising party appetizer for all of your family and friends to enjoy.
Pass the peanut sauce, please!
Rainbow Roll-Ups with Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 collard greens large leaves
- 1 large carrot cut into matchsticks
- ½ cup red cabbage shredded
- 1 English cucumber cut into matchsticks
- ¾ cup curry hummus
- 1 cup prepared quinoa
- peanuts and cilantro optional
The Peanut Sauce
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon ginger fresh grated
- 2 tablespoons honey
- sriracha to taste, optional
- ¼ to ¾ cup water to thin out the sauce, optional
- peanuts for garnish, optional
Instructions
Prepare the Peanut sauce:
- Add the peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, ginger, and garlic to the container of a blender or food processor. With the motor running, slowly pour ¼ cup of water at a time through the chute until the mixture is creamy and reaches the desired consistency. Adding more water will make the peanut sauce thinner and less will make it thicker. Start with the minimum amount. You can add, but cannot take away.
- Add the peanut sauce to a serving bowl and stir in chopped peanuts, if desired.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to a week.
Prepare the Roll-ups:
- Cut the stems off of the collard leaves until you have about 6 to 8 inches of the leaf and stem remaining.
- Smear about two tablespoons of the hummus onto collard leaf. Top the hummus with some of the quinoa, then arrange the chopped vegetables on top. Sprinkle with a few peanuts (optional).
- To roll up, treat the collard leaf as if it were a tortilla and you are wrapping a burrito. With the stem end of the collard leaf in front of you, begin by folding in the sides. Keep the side pulled in and use your thumbs to bring the stem up over the sides. Continue to pull the bottom of the collard leaf tight and use it to roll over and wrap the filling and the sides of the leaf. Roll one or two more times until the leaf is securely wrapping up the filling. Secure the leaf with a toothpick, as needed.
- Serve with the peanut sauce and extra peanuts and cilantro, if desired.
Notes
The video shows the Rainbow Roll-Ups without curry hummus, quinoa or rice. Add those ingredients before topping with the cut vegetables. If the collard leaves are too stiff, you can steam them. However, I didn’t see a need to. The rainbow roll-ups will keep two days in the fridge. A quick easy grab-and-go lunch! A great toolset to have handy in the kitchen is this Tasty 3 piece peeler set.
The shredder works great for shredding the cucumber and carrots and saves a lot of chopping time!
Colleen says
And yum…and thanks for not messing it all up with bell peppers!!!
The Mountain Kitchen says
I like bell peppers, but I don’t love them raw. 🙂
givememeatloaf says
Anything dipped in peanut sauce is a-okay with me! I really need to cut back on eating carbs, carbs, carbs – so this is a fab option I hadn’t thought of making at home!
The Mountain Kitchen says
Thanks, Annie. You really should give these a go. I cut even more carbs this week by making these without the hummus. I ate really bad this weekend!
cookingwithauntjuju.com says
Your recipe certainly caught my eye this morning as I love wraps (might have to add a little protein). I’ve never used collard leaves before – not tough? Maybe I could eat them with just veggies since you made a peanut sauce to go with them.
The Mountain Kitchen says
Hi Judi! I really think you would like these. The collards are not tough to me at all. If you feel like they are you can run them under hot water at the sink or even steam them before making the roll-ups. They are delicious, with or without the peanut sauce, but I LOVE peanut sauce! 🙂
chef mimi says
These are fabulous! I can just hear and feel the crunch!
The Mountain Kitchen says
Thanks, Mimi. This is my lunch all week. I’m addicted!
Rachel says
I am hereeeeee for these!!!!
The Mountain Kitchen says
I knew you’d come! <3
Karen (Back Road Journal) says
I wouldn’t miss the meat at all with your colorful veggie rollups.
The Mountain Kitchen says
Thanks, Karen! Hope you braved to storms in Florida ok!