RECIPE : collard green wraps + black rice salad | the hike picnic

our final weekend in portland we went on a hike in the columbia river gorge – and gorge is just the word !
incredibly green, views for days, too many waterfalls to count. if you’re ever visiting portland, i recommend taking a day trip to the gorge to do a day hike.

the day before the trip we made these beautiful collard green wraps filled with black rice and green lentil salad, with pomegranate, beetroot, radishes and my crazy easy quick-pickled red onions. so black and pink with a green wrapping. not painful to look at at all !

these little bundles are the perfect picnic food, and can be made the day before no problem ! but i’m also thinking that these could be fun garden party or cocktail party hors d’oeuvres, or great as a starter – isn’t that a good idea for new year’s eve ?

collard green wraps
makes about 15 wraps
300 ml / 1.25 cups black rice
300 ml / 1.25 cups green lentils
3-5 tbsp rice vinegar, or your fav vinegar
seeds from 0.5 pomegranate
2 green peppers, thinly sliced ( we used 1 anaheim and 1 poblano, but whatever you want is fine )
6 green onions, sliced
salt and pepper, to taste
1 beetroot, super thinly sliced
6 radishes, super thinly sliced
a handful of quick-pickled red onions
about 15 collard green leaves

serving suggestion
we made a dipping sauce of 1 part organic mustard, 1 part white miso. with a splash of water to make it runnier. yum !

– cook the rice and lentils together until soft, about 45 mins. let cool somewhat.
– add the rest of the ingredients except the beetroot, radishes, red onions, and collard green leaves.
– remove the thickest part of the collard green stem, so that the leaves will be flexible enough to roll.
– add a little bit of the salad on top of a leaf. in the middle of the rice, make row of beetroot, radishes and pickled onions.
– roll tightly – first upwards, when at the middle fold in the sides, and then continue rolling all the way up the leaf. use a piece of string to hold together. repeat with all leaves.
– the perfect picnic food ! very nice served with miso mustard dipping sauce.

you know i’m a walker. so going hiking is like the perfect exercise + travel activity possible for me. this day was just a blast, and i’m so happy to have seen the gorge. i wonder if there are any hiking trails around berlin ? anyone know ?

love // jenny

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more picnic friendly food :
mini rösti / gluten-free crisp bread / pink & purple prune sushi