Vegetarian Plate: A tastier wrap is in the bag
Here's the rap on wraps (sorry): At some point they became so ubiquitous - and they're often so boring - that they turned into the poster child for bad sandwiches everywhere. For those of us who strongly prefer corn tortillas over the flour ones often used in wraps, it was especially grating to see their growth, and all too easy to condemn them.
But they don't have to be all that bad. One of the reasons they became common, in fact, is their upside: a functional design, especially for brown-bagging. And when you fill them wisely, they can be as satisfying to eat as they are to tote.
One key is to make sure there's enough moisture in there. The wrapper - a flour tortilla, lavash bread or generic "roll-up" - is super-sturdy, which is what makes them good for transport - and what also often makes them dry. You can be generous with condiments, or you can make sure the bulk of your filling includes enough wet ingredients. In the case of a wrap recipe that caught my eye recently, it was the latter, and the ingredient that I think made all the difference was avocado.
In her charming book "But I Could Never Go Vegan!" (The Experiment, 2014), Kristy Turner's take on a wrap combines mashed avocado with mashed white beans in a mixture made tart and a little spicy by the addition of vinegar and canned green chilies, respectively. When it gets spread on lavash, topped with tomatoes and baby spinach leaves and rolled up, the result is something that's more than just functional enough to take to work. If you've dipped into the filling while making it, you might not be able to wait until lunchtime before you open up that bag and take a bite.