Vegan She Wrote

Lazy Sunday Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Gluten-Free

Summer Rolls!

So it's Sunday. It's been a very long week. Andrew and I have both been working different hours, seeing each other for a few minutes in the morning, and for an hour or two at night (when I tend to be so tired he practically has to drag me to bed). However, today we both had the day off, and actually had time to do normal human things, like sleep in, go to the grocery store, put away laundry, clean up the multiple little craft explosions around the house, and drink many leisurely cups of tea. It's been a very nice day of calm. The crazy will start right back up again tomorrow morning, but I've made a point of trying to keep today as homework free as possible (by doing ALL of it yesterday). Though we did stop by the Fine Arts Library, where I picked up about twenty large, heavy, and beautiful books on Tudor fashion, Elizabethan Pageantry, Dior, Alexander McQueen, Fashion & Fetishism, etc. I love libraries. And I seriously love that as a graduate student I get to keep books ALL SEMESTER LONG! Muahahahhahahahahaha!

Anyway... to top off this lovely lazy Sunday, we decided to make Summer Rolls. I know, summer rolls in the fall? However, since Austin seems to have forgotten the fact that it is now mid October (today it got up to 88), these seemed quite apropos.

Summer rolls, Vietnamese style spring rolls, or fresh spring rolls (call them what you will) usually consist of raw veggies/salad, perhaps tofu, rolled in a rice paper wrapper. They're cool, sticky, crisp and delicious. And they go together fairly fast, since there's really no cooking involved (ours took a bit longer because we wanted to add some baked tofu, which took about 20 minutes to prepare), especially when you have a little assembly line going. We only used about 1/3-1/2 of our wrappers and and made about 15 good sized rolls. And they're super fun! This recipe is just what I happened to have on hand tonight- but you could put just about anything you like in these and I'm sure they'd be delicious. The peanut sauce is based on the one I use in my Pad Thai, and also ridiculously easy to make :)

Summer Rolls

1 12oz package 22cm round rice paper wrappers
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1 yellow summer squash, cut into small matchsticks/julienned
1 carrot, cut into small matchsticks/julienned
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2-3 cups mixed greens, spinach, etc.
Alfalfa sprouts
1 15oz block tofu, baked (this is my go to method for baked tofu), sliced into 1/2" strips, and cooled

Prep all of your veggies and tofu. It's best to just soak the wrappers as you go - by the time you're done filling one, the next one should be soft enough to begin filling. Follow the package directions on your wrappers for this (I ended up filling a large wide pan with very warm water, and soaking the wrappers for about 5-10 seconds). Lay your softened wrapper out on a plate or cutting board, and fill with goodies! They don't have to be pretty, just try to make sure the ends are closed to prevent the veggies from spilling out (this isn't hard since the rice paper wants nothing more than to stick to itself). Continue assembling until you run out of ingredients.