Vietnamese Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

 

For week #37 of my 2018 challenge to try one new whole-food plant-based (WFPB) recipe each week, I made these fresh vegetable spring rolls with my kids.

This is a recipe I learned from Chef Michelle Hauser, MD at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) Annual Conference last year. I participated in a workshop called “The Doctor Is In (The Kitchen),” which was a lot of fun. This is a picture I took at the event.

I love spring rolls but had never prepared them at home before. Recently I saw some spring roll “skins” in the Asian section of the grocery store, and I decided that this would be something fun to make with the kids!

My husband and I love the peanut dipping sauce. But I will say that my kids weren’t big fans. For them I think I would try a sweeter (and less spicy) dipping sauce in the future.

What I like about this recipe (besides the fact that it's healthy):

• Gorgeous food

• Fun to make

• Since the kids chose their own ingredients and made them, they were more “invested” in the process, which I feel improves their attitude about trying new things.

What I ended up using/doing:

Ingredients for the peanut dipping sauce:

• 4 Tbsp creamy natural peanut butter (ideally the only ingredient should be peanuts)

• 2 limes, juiced

• 2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce or tamari

• 2 tsp sugar

• 2 medium cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tsp chili sauce or red pepper flakes (I used Sambal Oelek chili paste.)

• If needed, extra water to thin out the sauce (I didn’t end up needing any.)

Ingredients for the spring rolls:

• Package of spring roll skins

• Lettuce leaves (I used Romaine.)

• Julienned vegetables of choice. I used red cabbage, carrots, cucumber, red bell pepper, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots. Note: This part takes the longest. Having veggies prepped ahead of time makes the process much faster.

• Small bunch of mint leaves

• Firm tofu, if you’d like (The rolls pictured above don’t have tofu, but I made some with tofu also.)

Steps:

1. Place warm water into a shallow circular dish, filling about 1/2 inch deep.

2. Dip the skins in water, just long enough to submerge both sides with water. They will feel a little firm at first but will soften as you work with them.

3. Place a lettuce leaf on top of the spring roll skin, then add julienned veggies, tofu (if using), and mint leaves on top of the lettuce. Avoid overfilling.

4. Roll the veggies up in the skin. I found this video on You Tube, which shows how to wrap spring rolls. :)

5. Serve with peanut dipping sauce, and enjoy!

This post was originally published on September 18, 2018.