Food Matters Project: Fresh Spring Rolls

This week's challenge for the Food Matters Project inspired a dinner teeming with Asian flavors with the assigned Vietnamese-style rolls with peanut sauce as the centerpiece. So delicious!

Mark Bittman describes these as "nothing more than salad wrapped in moistened rice paper." Taking that to heart, I used whatever fresh veggies I had in my fridge.

What I used...

spring roll wrapper / rice paper

green leaf lettuce, rinsed and dried

carrots, julienned

cucumbers, julienned

enoki mushrooms, rinsed and rootball trimmed

avocados, peeled and sliced

extra firm tofu, cut into long strips

fresh mint, chopped

fresh cilantro, chopped

What I did...

Submerge the rice paper in cool water until softened and pliable. It took about a minute or two per piece. I made two rolls per person.

Lay the salad on the softened rice paper. I did lettuce, carrots, cucumber, enoki mushrooms, tofu, avocado, mint, and cilantro. 

Fold the ends of the rice paper over the filling. And, keeping as much pressure as you can without ripping the paper, roll into a burrito-shape. Press the seam to seal. Serve whole or cut in half with a dipping sauce.

Dipping sauces: (1) The Ginger People's Hot Ginger-Jalepeno Dipping Sauce and (2) peanut sauce - 1/2 C organic peanut butter, 1 C coconut cream, 1 T soy sauce all whisked together.

What I served to round out the dinner...

Black Bean-Seaweed Salad: reconstituted seaweed, black beans, soy cause, olive oil, lime juice, and sesame seeds

Sesame Chicken Over Yam Noodles: chicken breast roasted with a soy sauce and lemon juice marinade, cooked yam noodles, olive oil, sesame oil, sesame seeds

This was a wildly successful Food Matters Project-inspired feast. I can't wait to see what the other creative cookers whip up with this challenge.

To see all the other takes on this, click here and look in the comments.