I haven't been out for dinner anywhere recently, tonight I shall be breaking that by visiting the wonderful restaurant Zizzi's with a friend and I can't wait!
Newburn Bakehouse Warburton Wraps have helped me create a few of my favourite lunches and dinners, there are a fair amount of ways to use them although I tend to use them mostly in the same way with different ingredients each time.
I'm going to talk about a few of my favourite recipes and uses of them from over the years, when they talk about it being something for breakfast, lunch and dinner they aren't lying. Although I am yet to include them in a breakfast dish yet, I just don't feel like putting something sweet in it and I'm not a huge fan of hot breakfasts unless they are using breakfast food for brunch or brinner. Though this might all change as I have just booked myself onto a cookery course with Offbeet for the end of this month and I am super excited, it is the Breakfast fundamentals class with aubergine bacon, carrot lox etc. So who knows, Warburtons wraps with Seitan Sausages and Aubergine Bacon might be a thing soon enough...
Anyway, I've lost my trail again, back to the wonderful world of Warburtons Gluten Free do anything with them Wraps!
I remember the first time I had to do a shop when first finding I was Gluten Intolerant, I was really out of my comfort zone and this being a couple of years ago, there wasn't a very big range for me to choose from. Because although the Gluten Free section was decent, I was also diagnosed as Dairy, Egg and Yeast Intolerant so it made it extremely difficult for me to find anything for lunch that wasn't a salad.
So I was obviously extremely happy to find these wraps, they were just starting out at the time so I could only get them in a handful of shops and I remember making special trips just to go and find them. They allowed me to break up my food routine a little bit more, having something that was a little more "normal" to what I was used to and not too much salad, fruit and vegetables.
The first "exotic" dish I made with these was the pizza (Wra-Pizza), perhaps not as nicely presented as the one in the photo but I only took photos of really amazing food in restaurants back then (or I was just too excited to eat it).
I just spread a bit of Tomato Passata over the wrap, season it with a sprinkle of basil and then any chopped vegetables I like at the time. Mostly I use Mushrooms, Red Pepper, occasionally some red onion and if to hand I would use Violife Cheese (though at the time that was very unavailable!). Cooking it for about 10 minutes in the oven, it was great, something more stable, "normal" and delicious, the peak of my cooking ability back in the day. Well, apart from my amazing stir frying capability!
Then something to accompany your pasta dish as I was a garlic bread fiend, Garlic Wraps. I absolutely loved the stuff, the ends were mine and even better when we had the tear and share fresh garlic bread. For me it was another devastating loss, however again you get used to eating without it and you actually realise pasta dishes can carry themselves.
As a homage to my former tastebuds I decided to experiment one night, I got a wrap, some dairy free butter and a bit of garlic powder. I mixed the butter and garlic in a bowl together, then spread it over the wrap as thickly as I could without it being a little excessive. Then put the wrap in the oven for 5 minutes, now I am not going to lie to you, it tastes and resembles nothing like garlic bread. Though it is still wonderful and whenever I am doing a pasta dish with some leftover wraps in the house, I always have them accompanying it. Yet now I add a little melty cheese, just for that additional taste of "normal" and a little bit of flair!
Finally, one of my more crazier/genius moments with one of the wraps, I was still living at home and my parents were having Enchiladas for dinner that night. I was stuck, I didn't want another pizza (they can be boring after a while) and stir fry wasn't an option either so I decided to try and recreate the same dish they were having (EnchiWrapas).
So my mum and I cooked some peppers and red onions in a tomato sauce, we put it in a wrap and then placed it in a baking dish, pouring more tomato sauce over the top to stop any burning and sprinkled over some Violife cheese (which didn't melt at the time). We put it in the oven for about 10 minutes, it was quite hard to get out of the dish, nevertheless it was worth the experimentation. I remember it being a proper breakthrough for me back then as it was really tasty and something completely different. Strangely I've never recreated it, maybe I'll have to try again with my new found sort-of-cookery skills!
Then moving onto the more obvious way of using the wraps, as, well, a wrap. Now I don't want to sound boring, obvious or like I'm teaching you to count to 10. However, I really like having a lunch wrap with these, they are great for wrapping all sorts and I have now gotten the hang of how to wrap things in them without everything coming back out over me. Using a square wrap is quite difficult when you have used the round ones your whole life, but it is all about the angles!
Over the years, I have had salad wraps, veggie ball wraps, burritos, tuna wraps (back when I ate fish) and I've even had one of the Gluten Free noodle pots and put it inside the wrap. That however was a very bad idea as the noodles were quite wet so no matter how well I rolled it there are still tiny holes in the wrap, it got pretty messy. I was away from home that day, so I blame it on the restaurants at the time not being so accommodating!
I guess what I am saying here is that the world is your oyster, they are great for everything! I've even been known to just snack on them with a bit of mayo. Like pitta with humous, except not at all. Don't judge...
Warburtons Gluten Free Wraps come in the White, Seeded or Protein versions and for 4 costing around £3, it isn't that bad considering what you can make out of them. I just would say, buy them wisely as you can plan a few meals in the week without wasting any. They don't always have that long of a life on them, usually about a week but you can freeze them, I just like things fresh and have a tiny freezer.
For someone just starting out, this is where I would point you to as it is something familiar, easy and tasty without breaking the bank!
For such a mundane looking product you can do so much, I mean look how long a blog I have written about them! Thank you Mr Warburton, you definitely helped this Gluten Free Vegan out in a rather difficult part of her life and you still do!
If you've been reading my blogs, it'd be great to hear from you. Each one has a comment section, 11 blogs in a row now so I hope they're helping or entertaining! Happy Veganuary Day 11!