Spring Ahead Salad Rolls

vermicelli noodles, jicama, lettuce, cucumber, 

carrot, peanut sauce ready to go together

Today we spring ahead an hour and Salads Rolls seemed the obvious choice for dinner on such an occasion. 

SALAD ROLLS

Start by making a dipping sauce. Here are two examples of ones we have enjoyed. You can use anything that resembles salad dressing that you enjoy. So don't worry too much about it!

PEANUT 

1/4 to 1/2 cup organic peanut butter

2 cloves minced garlic

1 tbsp minced ginger

1 tbsp honey (optional)

Juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp oil (sesame if you have it)

1 to 2 tsp (to taste) sambal oelek (very important in my opinion)

1/4 cup soy sauce (wheat free tamari if you have it for gluten free)

Blend by hand or in a food processor / hand blender.

OR 

CHILE LIME

Juice of two limes

1/4 cup fish sauce 

1/2 cup water

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp sambal oelek 

Blend by hand. 

Next the rolls. You will need:

1/2 package rice vermicelli (thin rice noodles)

Round rice paper wrappers  (22 cm/8.5 inch)

Shredded carrots

Shredded lettuce or kale

Shredded cucumber 

After the salad basics you can add anything you like. For example, we love jicama, so we add shredded or julienned jicama. 

Sometimes, we also add BC Spot Prawns when we're feeling flush, or fruit (mango) and vegetables such as green onion or sprouts, and fresh basil. Any salad fixings you have on hand. Experimenting can be fun!

DIP, BITE, DIP, BITE, DIP, BITE ...

Directions:

Bring a saucepan of water to boil. Remove from heat. Place rice vermicelli in boiling water, remove from heat, and let soak 4 minutes. Drain, and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Fill a large bowl with hot water. Dip one rice wrapper in the hot water until soft (only a couple of seconds). 

Lick your lips and enjoy!

Lay wrapper flat on work surface and place desired amounts of noodles, carrot, lettuce etc., etc., in the center. Roll the edges of the wrapper slightly inward. Beginning at the bottom edge of wrapper, tightly wrap the ingredients (think burrito). Repeat with remaining ingredients.  

Serve the Salad Rolls with dipping sauce of your choice, and sit down and enjoy.  The wraps also keep well for lunch the next day if you wrap them in plastic wrap.  That is, IF you have leftovers!

More Food

Sunday dinners used to be a fairly formal get together for me when I was growing up.  Perhaps it was for you too.  In any case, it seems I still have a little bit of that same urge these days to take the time and make something really nice for Sunday night dinner.  Yesterday we surprised ourselves and had a fabulous one - almost without planning it!

Steamed local mussels in a white wine sauce, tossed green salad with Mamma's Marvelous Dressing and home grown sprouts, finished off with a homemade coconut lime ice cream topped with fresh strawberries (ripe and on sale).

The entire meal was gluten- and dairy-free, nutritious, colourful, and, best of all it tasted really, really good!  Peter was lovingly nurturing the sprouts all week, and I had made the ice cream Saturday evening on a whim.   Well, not exactly a whim as it had been inspired by a local artisan ice cream maker (Cold Comfort) whose Rum, Banana and Coconut Ice Cream I managed to taste a month ago, and I'd seen some coconut based ice creams at the local Lifestyles Market.  After reading the list of ingredients I made up my own recipe and it worked out quite well as the taste was almost spot on.  The strawberries and mussels were on sale, and the wine, well, it was the cheapest bottle in a specialty wine store. What can I say?  Luckily there was enough wine for us as well as the mussels.  Life is good.