mmmm salad rolls.

Salad rolls!

Thanks for checking out my first weekly post! Wednesdays are a perfect day to make salad rolls for dinner, for lunch or in my case for breakfast. Yum! Ready? Here we go!

Fresh stuff

Ingredients:

• 2 peeled, thinly sliced carrots, cut into 2-3 inch strips.
• 1 red pepper sliced length wise, cut into 2-3 inch strips
• 1 avocado thinly cut into 2-3 inch strips
• 2 or 3 spring onions thinly cut into 2-3 inch strips
• 1/2 English cucumber, seeded and cut into 2-3 inch strips
• 1 handful of mint-washed
• 1 handful of basil- washed
• *1/2 package thin rice vermicelli (rice noodles)
• *1 package rice paper circles.

*Both items can be found in most supermarkets.

Optional: Meat, tofu or seafood can be added to the above if desired. Today I used tofu for me and crab stick for Mike.

• 1/2 block extra firm tofu- cut and marinated for a few minutes in a splash of tamari (soy sauce) and sesame oil.
• 3 Crab sticks- pulled apart into thin strips.
• Or you could add 1 Cooked chicken breast- cut into thin strips.

Get rolling!

1. Cook and then rinse in cold water.

1.Cook your rice noodles as per the package instructions. I put mine into boiling water for about 1 minute. Rinse with cold water. Set aside.

2. Warm water

2. Put some warm water into a pan or shallow bowl and submerge your first rice paper circle for about 30 seconds then pull out gently with a spoon or a chopstick. You can also read the directions on the package but I find I always need to leave it in longer.

***Hints: This cooking time will change depending on the heat of your water. If you pull it out and it feels too hard, it needs to go in a bit longer, so submerge it again. If it feels really thin, you have left it too long and you may have issues with it tearing. You will get the hang of it with a bit of practice. I add more warm water as things go along and it gets too cold.

3. Be gentle!

3. Next place the circle on a smooth surface (I used my veggie cutting board). Get it as flat as you can- if the ends are rolling add a bit of water on your fingertips and roll it out to get it unglued.

4. Add your fillings.

4. About a 1/3 of the way down on the rice paper circle place your ingredients! Go wild with the combos but don’t overstuff it or rolling maybe an issue.

5. Cover the fillings with the top of the rice paper.

5. Now take the top part of the rice paper circle and bring it over top of you ingredients, like a little roof. Try to get the top edge of the circle to touch the base to the paper so that everything is tucked nicely inside.

6. Tuck in the sides.

6.Next, bring both of the sides of the paper in towards the middle.

7. Roll it!

7. Finally, roll the rice paper until you reach the end!

8. All done!

8. Done! Now go back to step one and do it all over again. Make them until you are out of ingredients!

9. Cut them in 1/2 if you like.

9. Cut in 1/2 and serve with a sweet chili dipping sauce.

Dip 'em!

Until next Wednesday! Happy rolling!