Vegetarian spring rolls

homemade spicy peanut sauce

When it's too hot to cook, we love making Thai-style spring rolls.

The basic ingredients are rice paper and rice noodles, which can be found in the Asian section of many food markets.

You can get creative with fillings, using anything from thinly-sliced pork to shrimp to roast beef—I've even seen recipes where bacon is used as a filling.

Toss in any veggies you desire—carrots, cucumbers, radishes, Boston lettuce, cilantro, sprouts. We recently filled ours with tofu, shredded carrots, basil, scallions.



grilled tofu

The rice noodles are easy to prepare. You simply soak them in hot water until they pull apart.



draining the rice noodles

I make my spicy peanut sauce by mixing natural peanut butter, soy sauce, garlic, rice vinegar, cilantro and sriracha.

close-up spicy peanut sauce

To assemble, dip the rice paper in cold water, fill and gently roll—the delicate paper rips easily.

hand rolling

We topped our spring rolls with a little extra sriracha and completed the meal with a tossed salad simply dressed with carrot-ginger dressing.

dinner!