Hummus, Avocado & Tostón Wrap

(Haz clic aquí para español)

This simple and tasty recipe is an unusual combination of textures and complex flavors wrapped in a tortilla- salty and sweet, creamy and crunchy. Make good use of your leftover hummus from the previous recipe, and enjoy this easy-to-make, portable wrap. Bonus: you get to impress your friends with your creative improvisation 😉

I owe the idea for this recipe to my clever friend, renown photographer Romain Champaulane. One day, missing the Caribbean, I made tostones, thick green plantain slices that have been mashed and fried, to share with him. Romain had never tried a tostón before, and after popping several into his mouth, he said to me very sincerely, “These would taste delicious with hummus.”

I immediately started to laugh, but the suggestion came out with such earnestness that I had to stop and take it seriously.

“Like falafel,” he continued, referring to the delicious pitas we had enjoyed a few days earlier at  Teklebab, and added with a mischievous smile -and here’s where he really jumped the shark- “You could even make like a Big Mac sauce to go with it.”

So the point is I couldn’t get the idea, as absurd as it might have sounded, out of my head until I finally tried making the thing. I substituted the pita bread for corn tortillas to get rid of the gluten, and, in order to simplify what is actually a pretty easy recipe, I replaced the hand-made Big Mac sauce with Salsa Lizano. The trick here, as with most cooking, is with the preparation: chop your ingredients before you begin, and everything will be ready in about 20 minutes.

See? You don’t need much.

You could probably slice these even thicker.

Smushing the tostones, dipping them in water and frying them a second time.

Ready to assemble!

Ingredients:

• 1 green plantain (Ignore the photo! I swear that it was totally green just the day before!)
• Vegetable oil
• 1/2 of a small onion
• Corn or wheat tortillas, or pita bread
• Hummus 
• 1/4 of a large cucumber
• Salsa Lizano or barbecue sauce (both may contain sugar)
• 1 avocado
• Finely chopped cilantro (optional)

1. Chop all of your ingredients: Cut the plantain into about 1.5″ slices, the onion into thin rings, the cucumber into thin slices, and the avocado in half. Put everything aside except for the plantain.
2. In order to make the tostones, add about a half an inch of oil (or more if you like) to a frying pan and turn the heat up to medium-high. While the oil heats up, take a bowl and fill it with filtered water, then add a pinch of salt. Place a paper towel or napkin onto a plate and set it aside. When the oil is hot, toss the plantain slices evenly into the pan. Careful not to burn yourself with the sizzling oil! Fry the slices until the bottoms brown slightly (one or two minutes) and then flip them with a fork to fry the other side. Turn the heat down, remove the plantains and place them on the plate so that the paper towel absorbs the oil.
3. Now, smush down the slices until they’re like little patties. One by one, dip them in the salt water, dry them a little and then throw them back into the frying pan until both sides are as toasted as you like (they cook very quickly). Remove the tostones, turn the flame down a little more and place the tostones onto the towel again to cool.
4. Sauté the sliced onion in the plantain oil (nothing goes to waste here, folks). Warm your tortillas or pita bread while it cooks.
5. When all of your ingredients are ready, spread a layer of hummus over the whole tortilla and place 2 or 3 tostones on one half. Then, spread avocado across the other half and place the cucumber on top.
6. Now to finish up with the garnishes, just drizzle onion, Lizano or barbecue sauce, and chopped cilantro (if you like) over the whole thing.
7. Fold the tortilla and voilá: you’ve got one of the best tacos/wraps/pitas that you’ve ever tried. Add a little lime to give it an extra kick, and enjoy 🙂