The night before you want to eat this easy recipe, let the cup of almonds soak in cool clean water for 8-12 hrs. In a food processor (I used a small Cuisinart Mini to pre-grind the rinsed and drained almonds to a fairly even cornmeal-like consistency). Chop the tomato and add it to the mix along with the garlic, shallot, and Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Grind until well mixed. It may not be perfectly smooth, but that's ok.
Prepare the collard leaves by washing them throughly, drying them, then trimming the end of the stem so that the stem is even with the bottom of the leaf.
This next part is VERY important...
Flip each collard leaf over to the back, and cut down the stem "shave" in a way so that it is as bendable as the rest of the leaf. This will take some of your crafty dexterity as you need to be careful to NOT cut the leaf at all, just shave down the stem. Once you get the hang of it, it's no big deal and you'll have opened up a whole new world of hand held delicious food. I am SOOOO going to make about 1,000 variations of collard leaf wraps, by the way. Including things like fajitas, and some Thai and Vietnamese inspired items too.
When you have the leaves prepared, you can start filling and wrapping them. Add some of the nut pate longwise within the leaf, then sprinkle with and extra toppings like goji berries and pecans.
Gently fold in the short edges on both sides, then roll up like a little green burrito! For the photo I decided to cut the wrap diagonally, looks FANCY! Planning to make some of these for an upcoming cookout, as I think they (or a version with a little less almond pate and more veggies inside... thin bell pepper slices, cucumber, avocado, etc. would make great hand-held salads to go with a steak!
I'd never considered collards for wrapping leaves before this past weekend when I saw them in the Juice Press display at Soho Strength Lab where we held a recent Progressive Calisthenics Certification (PCC) Workshop. Might have tried a whole lot of their raw food offerings, and it re-kindled my long lost interest in raw food... especially with the heat of the summer upon us. These simple, cool foods will be a lot of fun for picnics and cookouts, and most of the time they're already "Primal" or "Paleo" friendly. I can't wait to pair them with high protein grass fed beef and pastured poultry dishes for a "best of both worlds" super meal effect!