You want to know a funny thing about Swedish people? We always talk about the weather. Always. Come rain or come shine, we will talk about it. Several times each day. It’s one of the first things we mention when arriving at work, buying lunch, taking a cab or meeting a friend in the subway. And since I am Swedish, I’ve decided to tell you about the weather last saturday. It was a little bit chilly and cloudy during the morning. Around noon the clouds cleared away and we had blue skies and fairly warm temperature. It was the perfect weather for a picnic.
Me, Luise and Elsa packed our picnic bag with a blanket, fruit, juices and homemade wraps, met up with my mother and sister and took a bus to a 4H farm just outside the city. As most kids, Elsa is crazy about animals, and since there aren’t very many goats and cows running around on the streets of central Stockholm, visiting a farm is her only chance to listen to some muu and maa.
I am not going to give you a big speech about wraps. It’s pretty obvious that they are good picnic food since they are extremely portable and taste good cold. The fun thing is that you can vary them endlessly depending on what you fill them with. Luise came up with three different fillings for our wraps; a creamy beetroot & goat cheese filling, a crunchy green lentils and walnut filling and a sweet quinoa and raisin filling. Creamy, crunchy and sweet – isn’t she phenomenal?!
Pretty Purple Picnic Wraps
8 big wraps
8 wholegrain or corn tortilla breads
4 big salad leaves (torn in two)
Purple Beetroot & Goat Cheese
600 g beetroot
300 g goat cheese
5 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
Peel the beetroots with a peeler and put it in a blender or food processor, press ‘pulse’ a few times. Then add goat cheese, olive oil and salt & pepper. Blend for about a minute or until it has the consistency of a rough textured spread.
White Quinoa & Raisins
1 cup quinoa
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 cup raisins, any color
1 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of salt
Rinse and cook the quinoa in 2 cups water, add fennel seeds, bring to a boil and cook for about 15-20 min. Set aside. When cold, mix with raisins, cinnamon and salt.
Orange & Green Lentils
1 cup green lentils, any kind would work
1 tsp oregano (add to the water)
a pinch of salt
100 g walnuts, chopped
1 organic orange (juice and zest)
a handful goji berries, optional
Rinse and cook the lentils in water, add oregano, bring to a boil. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes before reducing the heat to medium. Let it cook for until tender, about 35 minutes. When done, add a pinch of salt and set aside. When cold, add walnuts, orange juice & zest and goji berries and mix well.
+ Lentil trick: Do not add salt until the lentils are cooked, because the salt will toughen them if added during cooking.
Wrap it up!
Put all 8 tortilla breads on the kitchen counter. Place two or three of spoonfuls of the beetroot & goat cheese filling in the middle of the bread (not all the way to the sides), place the salad leaf on top, so it’ll cover the spread. Place a couple of spoonfuls of White Quinoa & Raisins and a couple of spoonfuls of Orange & Green Lentils on top.
Here is how you fold them together.
Fold each side in, about 1 inch, then fold the end closest to you over the filling and ‘tuck it in’. Fold each side a little, one more time, so you kind of lock the filling. And finally roll the wrap over in the same direction one more time. Roll some wrapping paper around them and tie a string around them to hold them together. Done! When serving, cut them in halves.
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