Fresh Rolls

These babies are some of my favorite foods. I first had them at a Thai restaurant and since there is no place to get them around here, I have had to start making them (a familiar story for me). The first step is to make the rice noodles. They are made similarly to regular pasta. They need a bit of olive oil in the boiling water and they need constant stirring. They usually take anywhere from 5-8 minutes to get soft enough to remove from the heat. Then you want to let them cool completely.

The next step is to chop your veggies! You can use whatever you like in these...I use green cabbage, hearts of palm, cilantro, red pepper, avocado, baked tofu, cucumber, and carrots. If I don't have one (or many of these) I just use what is on hand.

The rice paper rolls need to be made now. I boil a little bit of water and then pour some of the boiling water into a pie pan. I use a pie pan because it fits the size of the rice paper. The rice paper only needs to be soaked in the hot water for about a minute and then it softens up enough to be folded and used.

I then put the softened rice paper roll on a plate and begin placing ingredients in the middle of it. You don't want to add too much food or else it won't close properly, but unlike nori these rice papers will stretch and are very forgiving. The way I fold them is by folding down the top, then each side then the bottom. Now you've done it!

I also make my own peanut sauce to dip these into. The ingredients are as follows:

1/4 cup peanut butter
A few tablespoons rice wine vinegar
A few tablespoons soy sauce
A few teaspoons toasted sesame oil
Maple sugar to taste

Sometimes I need to add coconut milk or water to this to make it the right consistency. Again it is all up to you!

Also this peanut sauce makes an excellent salad dressing!

Enjoy!