indian spiced raw flatbread wraps with chickpea filling

Hello Friends! One thing you may have noticed with the food recipes here; so that means, the food I eat, that I love international flavours! It is indeed a fact that my taste buds have little limits as to what flavours they are about to sink into. One week I can crave something Italian, and two days later Asian or Indian. And that is precisely why I see no restrictions in my diet ~ I have an open mind to a wonderful world of flavours, spices and interesting combinations of foods to make a meal not only delicious but also very healthy.

Skipping out on meat, dairy, eggs, glutenous grains (or going completely grain-free, like in this recipe) is not impossible ~ it is actually exciting! Once you look at the good-for-you foods waiting patiently to mingle together in a fun and healthy recipe – it’s a win-win for everyone!

For these Indian Spiced Raw Flatbread Wraps, I actually went deeper into the source for my ingredients…. as it all started with our random juicing day….

So once upon a time, me and my girl were having fun in the kitchen; juicing! We just picked up a bag of fresh organic carrots and the plan was to turn these into an incredible sweet carrot juice! So the mom got to work, as my assistant helped out with the recipe. “Can we add pineapple to it too?” the little girl asked sweetly eyeing the big delicious fruit on the counter. “Of course we can” said the mom excitedly. (Let me cut in and tell you that I get really proud when my little one ‘invents’ recipes. I completely support her ideas and make her feel like her input is fantastic and it wouldn’t have been as great without her own ideas).

So with my carrots all washed, all 10 or so of them, and the 1/2 pineapple sliced into chunks and ready to go…. I realized this would end up being a lot of waste of the pulp! All these vitamins, enzymes, beautiful good food all going to waste. I have to admit, I was getting jealous of my composter! Then it hit me, I could make awesome flatbread in the dehydrator with this!

Because I had two ingredients I juiced (pineapples not shown), I knew I had to separate the pulp. I juiced the pineapple first and removed the pulp. Then I continued with all the carrots ~ it’s that carrot pulp I was after – and I was happy to have about 2 cups of it from about 10 carrots. Here is the recipe:

INDIAN SPICED RAW FLATBREAD WRAPS
WITH CHICKPEA AND VEGETABLE FILLING

{vegan: dairy free, egg free, gluten free/ grain free}

Equipment needed :

• juicer ~ as you will be working with the pulp from juicing carrots
• blender
• dehydrator

Ingredients :

• 1 1/2 – 2  cups of organic shredded carrots OR juicing pulp (made from about 10 carrots)
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds (optional)
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 cayenne pepper
• 1/2 sea salt
• 1/4 ground pepper
• bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped fine
• juice of half a lemon

Directions :

Wash the carrots (no need to peel if they are organic) and shred or juice in a juicer. Move the carrot pulp into a blender. Place the flax seeds into a small bowl and add 1/4 cup hot water, mix and let stand for a few minutes.

In the blender with the carrot pulp, add the turmeric, curry, cayenne pepper, sea salt, pepper cilantro and lemon juice. Mix to combine. Add the flax seed gel and continue blending. If the mixture appears too dry, add a few spoonfuls of warm water, mix again and check if it sticks together and it isn’t crumbly. Keep adding a little more water and mixing again until you reach the consistency of cream cheese or hummus ;).

Spread out a few spoonfuls of the mixture (about 3-4) to the dehydrator silicone sheets. Spread out with the back of the spoon, wet the spoon first and continue running it in water if the mixture sticks to the spoon too much. Make a large disk that’s about 6″ wide and 1/4 inch thick. Should be enough to make 4 disks/flatbreads. Be sure to spread out evenly and it’s not too thin or it might fall apart or too thick. Dehydrate at 115F overnight – about 6-8 hours.

Filling :

• 1 cup chickpeas, rinsed and drained well
• 1 zucchini, sliced thinly
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced thinly
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• cayenne pepper or chili flakes
• mustard oil

Directions :

Heat a large skillet and add in mustard oil to cover the bottom. Fry the onion, red peppers and saute until softened. Add garlic and spices and chickpeas, stir and cook on low medium heat for about 5 minutes.

To cook the zucchini just slightly, I placed them overtop of the pan with the chickpea mixture and I covered with a large lid. This way, the zucchini just steamed up nicely without having me to use another pan. A few minutes later, I removed the zucchini from top and moved onto a plate. Mash some of the chickpeas with a large fork or a potato masher, stir up to combine all the flavours, remove from heat.

To assemble, layer the sliced zucchini on top of the raw flatbread, then add the chickpea filling, roll up gently and enjoy!

Sometimes it’s tricky to get the raw flatbreads perfectly bendy and not too crispy to use as wraps. If they are too dry, you can wet a paper towel slightly and place over top for an hour or so to soften the flatbread.

To make raw tortillas or raw crackers, simply keep them in the dehydrator longer. Cut them up into triangle slices. These make great little snacks when topped with hummus.

This is a great, light yet very flavourful lunch or dinner. I loved the Indian spices and all the flavours and freshness of the cilantro. You can also make them as spicy as you wish or remove the heat completely if you’re making these for kids and don’t want to serve anything too spicy.

That’s one of the reasons I love making Indian influenced dinners at home, it’s because I can control the heat I add to my dishes. I find I like just a little heat, and some Indian food is just too much for me…. This is a great dish that has the added benefit of raw ingredients, as a wrap – uses no grains at all, and best of all uses up juicing pulp which otherwise would have been disposed of  ;)

Have you gotten creative with your juicing pulp?