Friday, November 14, 2008

Vegetarian Salad Rolls with Nuoc Cham

Ever since tasting the yummy style salad rolls with the spicy lime dipping sauce at a Vietnamese restaurant, I have wanted to try making them myself. I picked up the dried rice wrappers at the Asian market with the intention of giving it a whirl.

It was pretty funny because when I looked at the rice wrappers, there was not a single word in English...no pictures either! However, with the internet, nothing is a mystery for long....I found a cool web page all about it here. I made the water a little too hot because the first one turned into a gummy mess, but once the water cooled down a little, they came out fine.

I know these are fabulous with mint and shrimp inside, but I just went with what I had on hand.
This is a very light and delicate starter, perfect for an asian themed party or meal. I actually made quite a few and they stood up in the fridge for 4-5 hours.

Onto the recipe:

Vegetarian Salad Rolls with Nuoc Cham

Salad rolls:
1 package round rice papers
2 carrots, shredded
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 package extra firm tofu, baked or fried
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
2 cups spinach or lettuce

Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce):
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cloves minced garlic
2-3 chopped Thai bird chiles

Mix up all the sauce ingredients and let sit while you prepare rolls.
Sprinkle tofu with garlic, ginger and soy sauce. Bake at 400 for 2o minutes. (or fry it up)
Get all the ingredients for the rolls prepared.
Heat a pan of water to almost boiling.
Soften 1 paper in the hot water.
Layer the ingredients in the wrapper and roll up tight like a burrito.
Repeat until the ingredients are gone.

For me and tall guy, it seemed like a gourmet treat to eat with our coconut chicken and sticky rice. Nummers!

9 comments:

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

These are just so pretty, aren't they?

Unknown said...

So do we get the coconut chicken and sticky rice recipes too??? It all sounds fabulous!

Deanna S. said...

Louanne - The coconut chicken recipe was in last week's Coco Times food section. If you didn't get it, I can copy it for you.

Manger La Ville said...

These sound so good. I like a peanut dipping sauce as well, but this sounds so delicious. Rice paper is pretty delicate, I always end up ripping them before filling them.

Chocolate Shavings said...

Those look delicious - and full of great color!

Dana Treat said...

For a first-timer, you did a great job! I have made these countless times and I still struggle with them.

amycaseycooks said...

What delicious and colorful rolls. I have made egg rolls but did not have too much luck with ones similar to yours.

I'll be giving your version a try. I love the dipping sauce.

Olga said...

These look beautiful and delicious. I've never made them on my own, but assisted a class at Sur La Table once when then students make them.

Anonymous said...

I noticed that you have fish sauce as an ingredient in the dip... do they make vegetarian fish sauce?

Or is this recipe not vegetarian?