If you’re like the average American family, you’ve got a lot of leftover Turkey. There are the obvious ways of getting rid of it — Turkey Tetrazzini (fattening although this Tyler Florence version looks like it has some potential to be improved) Thanksgiving Sandwiches (Turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy on a sandwich, delicious and also fattening).
Turkey, in both ground and breast forms, has now become a staple in our household. It’s high in protein and relatively low in fat, and can be transformed for use in a number of adaptive dishes. We go through about a whole Turkey breast every week, because I’m now “brown bagging” it for lunch. My typical lunch these days is the Monster Wrap, which ends up working out to only a few dollars per sandwich. If I had to buy the equivalent sandwich in downtown NYC, I’d probably have to pay 3 or 4 times that amount and I wouldn’t have as much control over the quality of ingredients I put into it. I like wraps because you can stuff them full of protein and vegetables, and it takes up relatively little real estate in my laptop bag. Unlike a regular sandwich, getting a little compressed or smushed in the bag doesn’t really affect the quality of the product once its time to eat it either. I don’t have to bring any containers with me — just wrap the sucker in aluminum foil, and I’m good to go.
Toufayan is a NJ-based commercial bakery that supplies much of the wraps for use in delicatessen and catering applications. If you live in the Northern NJ area, you can actually go to the bakery and buy their goods fresh. They make a number of flavors, many of which you can get in your local supermarket. The larger ones they use for food-service size, however, might be difficult to get. In particular, I like the large multigrain wraps since they have more complex carbohydrates in them, so we get them straight from the factory.
Fresh Spinach is a great vegetable to use in wraps. Unless you plan to eat a wrap immediately, you want to avoid high water content vegetables like lettuce because they’ll get your wrap wet and gummy if its going to sit in your bag or briefcase for a few hours. Arugula is a nice vegetable to use as well.
Line wrap with mustard or your favorite spread, such as babaghanoush, ajvar, salsa, or hummus. Place lots of turkey over the bed of spinach. Add tomatoes and sprouts, liberally season with salt and fresh cracked pepper.
Wrap it up!
Eat!
Off The Broiler 
Nothing wrong eating and savoring a turkey wrap sandwich with crunch and colors abounding! Mayo or no?
Traditionally I would have used the mayo on my turkey sandwich– God how I love it — but these days I would say go with Guacamole, or Romesco sauce (cooked pureed red peppers with spices and olive oil) or the aforementioned Babaghanoush or Hummus to provide that moisture that dry turkey meat often needs. All the different kinds of flavored mustards and salsas are great too, just be careful of the ingredients. Stay away from heavy sugar content. More than likely you can make these spreads and condiments yourself, and they’ll taste better and will be healthier than their store-bought counterparts. They’ll stay in the fridge and the freezer for a while, too.
I’m going to try it with roasted peppers. Good color, and they don’t get as soggy as tomatoes do. Yor are already making “healthy” seem very inviting.
Yes, I do them with roasted peppers as well. There’s a lot of variations you can do with these.
Watch out, guac, babaganoush – high fat. Mustard, salsa – low fat. Hummus – depends on how made. Of course if amount is small then it is a secondary concern. If you don’t have sodium issues, pickles and clear soups can help fill you up as well. In the end though, TOTAL calories is the key. I gained 15lbs. one year eating nothing but “healthy” items – I just had large portions of them! Water, either direct or indirect (soups, fruits, vegetables) really helps.
Jason,
Now that you’re going low-carb, etc., I’d be interested in what kinds of spreads you find satisfying. I like the guac and romesco suggestions, but they take time to make. I’ll be interested in what you find available in the grocery store. The wrap looks great, but it’s screaming for mayo!
Hey J, try veginaise or soy based naise product, less cals and fat and tastes like mayo without the weird aftertaste…
Gorgeous photos and the wrap looks delicious. I have to keep an eye out for the bread, but we’re in Central NJ. I use Wegman’s Lite Mayo but I’ll have to try the veginaise.
I notice that your product shot of the Toufyan wraps is very different from the Toufyan website product shots. Any idea?
The packaging on the website may not reflect the food service size (large) wraps. They may only be the consumer ones. The multigrain wraps I think are food service size only, but I could be wrong.
To Mike: The guac and the babaganoush are high fat, but they’re going to be unsaturaed fats, aren’t they? The “good” fats?
I’m torn on the new topic, Jason. I need to lower my carbs due to insulin resistance, but I’ve also become anti-lower-calories because the research doesn’t actually support more calories = more weight. I’ve been approaching it from a health Pov: If my blood numbers, energy levels, etc are all good, the number on the scale isn’t so important. All that said, some of my numbers aren’t there yet, and carbs (sugar particularly) are the cause for me. Regardless of the reason, that looks like a good sandwich, although I’d go for something other than mustard on it, personally (I’m a weirdo who doesn’t like mustard).
I think that wrap looks lovely. Keep up the good work!