Summer Time is for Salad Rolls

Salad rolls are great since they taste fresh and don't have to be cooked. This means you don't have to heat up your house to enjoy a good meal in the summer time. The most important part of the salad roll is the rice paper for the outside. Once you have that, the insides are up to you! If you can find a vegan "ham", this works really well. I got some from an Asian food market called Fubon made by VegeFarm. I simply cut the "ham" into long slices and cooked them before hand. You can also use cooked tofu, tempeh or seitan and simply season it with Braggs. Just vegetables for the salad rolls will work well too!

I liked cutting everything in long slices to better fill the rolls. You can fill the rolls with bell peppers (red is my favorite), green onion, avocado, carrot, cucumber, beets, cabbage, celery, greens, lettuce, spinach, kale and whatever else you can think of.

I enjoy making a sauce for the rolls. I make a Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce and use very fresh and crispy vegetables. You could also use vegetables to go with other sauces such as a sweet mustard sauce, peanut sauce, bbq sauce, sesame tamari, tahini, italian and the list can go on as far as your imagination.

The hardest part of making the salad rolls is dealing with the rice paper. These come in round circles and are dried. What I use to soften them is some warm water in a large bowl. I have found cold water does not soften the papers fast enough, and hot water makes them too soft to work with. I place three rice papers in the water at a time and it takes less than a minute to get it soft. I place a paper towel on a plate and when I take out the rice paper from the water, I straighten it out of the towel. I take a second paper towel and blot the rice paper dry. Then, I start adding fillings to the middle. I leave at least an inch on both sides of the rice paper for rolling.

Once I am done with the fillings, I wrap up the inch long ends and then roll the rest of the paper up as tightly as I can. I set it aside and start over. This will take practice!

Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce

2 Roasted Red Peppers
1/3 cup Veganaise

Blend these two ingredients in a blender or food processor until mostly smooth. This also works great for dipping artichoke hearts and asparagus. You can also use it for sandwiches instead of regular Veganaise for a great change.