Vegan spring rolls with peanut sauce and a cucumber noodle bowl bring to mind cheery thoughts of an early spring.Â
- I tested new recipes for vegan spring rolls and a cucumber noodle bowl salad. Links to the recipes are included below.
- As expected, the vegetable prep was the main time sink.
- The spring rolls were much easier to wrap than I thought they’d be, once the kinks in my process were ironed out.
- I definitely recommend giving it a try if you’ve got some time to spare one day and are hungry for a delicious, fresh and nutritious meal
Vegan spring rolls with peanut sauce on lime green fiesta plate
I started the day feeling ambitious and tried two new recipes I’ve been drooling over since the holidays. I love Asian and Asian-fusion style food, but have never been very courageous about trying the recipes. Fried rice has been my best, Asian dish to date. Today, I tamped down those fears, said YES, and dove full in. I’d like to tell you it was quick and simple, but to be honest, I think it took about four hours to put it all together and I was starving by the time I finished. The good news is that the meal was a huge hit with the hubby.
Julienned spring roll ingredients
Vegetable Prep!
Vegetable prep, of course, was the main time sink. I spent a heck of a lot of time using my julienne peeler on carrots, cucumbers and zucchinis; and finely slicing herbs and greens. The result was worth it; though, and I suspect I’ll probably be able to cut the time involved in half the next time I try this.
I followed three different recipes, two for spring rolls and one for the salad. For the spring rolls, I followed the instructions from this Medical Medium recipe for Veggie Spring Rolls. I diverged from it by adding thin rice noodles to the rolls, swapping some veggies for what I had on hand, and making a peanut sauce rather than the sauce in the recipe because… What can I say? I love peanut butter. The sauce is the Ginger Peanut Sauce from the Minimalist Baker recipe with coconut aminos substituted for the soy sauce. I used the brown rice spring roll wrappers the Medical Medium has linked in his recipe (note: that box of wrappers you receive if you order it has a LOT of wrappers. I didn’t read the product description carefully before purchasing and am going to be making spring rolls for a long time).
Spring rolls may seem intimidating to make, but I found the process to be very forgiving. If you’ve ever made burritos or enchiladas, then the wrapping process is pretty much the same. The wrappers stick together a lot better than tortillas, so you’ll find that it’s easy to stick them together. If you break them, it’s possible to patch them back together a bit, if they’re not too broken. The hardest part for me was getting the wrappers stretched out on my cutting board, and I wasted a couple of them before I figured out a strategy. Looking back on the process, I probably should have watched a few YouTube video tutorials before getting started. My number one tip is to be careful that your water isn’t too hot, so you don’t burn your finger tips.
Cucumber noodle bowl
As regards the cucumber noodle bowl, also a Medical Medium recipe, I followed the recipe exactly as-is, except that I threw the extra rice noodles left over from making the spring rolls into the bowl. It’s a simple recipe, with lime being the dominant flavor. I used dried basil, because the basil I bought only two days ago was already turning brown – sigh – possibly the basil flavor would have been stronger if I’d been able to salvage more than three leaves. I really liked this recipe and I’d definitely make it again. The hubby liked it, too, but felt it was missing some zing and suggested maybe a little rice vinegar. Personally, I don’t think it needs the vinegar.
Overall, I recommend all three recipes that I linked to above. If you’re feeling ambitious one day and hungry for some fresh, nutritious Asian cuisine, give them a try.
The julienne peeler I used was this: Priority Chef Julienne Peeler and Vegetable Peeler – 100% Stainless, Razor-Sharp Blade with Comfortable Handle and Safe to Use Versatile and Multifunctional Peel Cutter
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