Vegan Fresh Salad Spring Rolls

I realized today that I did not have a salad for a couple of days. Oh no! I always like to have a salad each day. At least on the side of something.

I wanted something really light anyway since the warm weather hit finally and we wanted to go for a long walk to a distant park. We didn't want to feel too heavy.

I made fresh spring roll wrappers with peanut sauce. This is one of the things I used to get as an appetizer in a Thai or Vietnamese restaurant or restaurants that have this on the menu. They are usually vegan by default I find.

Usually I fill them with vegetables and rice noodles but I just did the salad today. I usually add Thai basil and mint but I didn't have any and didn't feel like running to the store. Anyway it's all about the sauce.

I like to use leaf lettuce which is typical in a fresh spring roll. The other ingredients were carrots, radish, cucumber and cilantro. I also added some extra crushed peanuts.

The rice wrappers are super easy to work with, unless it's your first time. You may lose your mind trying to get it so it doesn't break.

The way I do it is to heat up water to do it faster. But not too hot or they will get too soft to work with. You may have to experiment with a couple first to see when it's right.

I'm no expert at this and have learned through trial and error but once you get the feel of them, you'll realize how easy it is.

I dip them in the very warm water until they soften to the point where you can bend them but not break. After you remove them you will see that they soften even more. Put them on a flat surface and put the veggies inside.

Roll and tuck then fold each side like an envelope. Continue to roll and tuck gently or they could break.

When they were done, I thought we had too many for the two of us but since there were no rice noodles inside it was just enough.

It's all about the sauce.
In the past before I was vegan, I would get these with a dipping sauce made of fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger, sugar and lime and other similar variations.

Nowadays I see them often coming with a vegan dip which would substitute the fish sauce for soy sauce or tamari.

I have also had it with peanut sauce which I made today but if you have a peanut allergy then of course you could leave it out. Really as far as I'm concerned you could use any sauce, or dressing that you would have in your fridge. If you don't need it to be Asian style, you could go crazy filling these up with anything. This is a great party food if we were allowed to have parties these days.

Peanut sauce

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespooons rice wine vinegar or cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar or coconut sugar or agave nectar (I used date puree)
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 or two chilies
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 or 3 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger

Thanks for stopping by!