Vietnamese Spring Rolls

I love these rolls wrapped in rice paper. They are perfect for a warm day. You can find a multitude of recipes on-line for the fillings and for the sauces. Here is what we did:

For the spring roll
Cucumber, cut into long slices
Carrot, long peels
Tot Soi, washed and left whole
Basil, cut into strips
Mint, cut into strips
Parsley
Tempeh, cut into strips
Rice vermicelli

For the Sauce
1/4 C hoisin sauce
2 T almond butter
1 t rice venegar
1 garlic, crushed
1 squirt Thai hot sauce

In bowl of warm water, dip each rice paper wrapper for about 3-5 seconds (depending on rice paper thickness). Do not over soak your rice paper wrapper! Place on work service and allow rice paper to soak up water and become gelatinous and pliable (about 30 seconds to 1 minute, again, depending on the thickness rice paper).
On top 1/3 side closest to you, lay noddles and greens on the bottom for added strength to the wrapper. Then place herbs and other vegetables. Roll up spring roll about 1/3 way through, then fold in the sides.
Serve with hoisin almond dip (or any other sauce).

**Delicious. Keeper.

Steamed greens with sweet sesame dressing

Although this recipe calls for spinach, I will be trying it with the asian greens we get this week.
The recipe comes from a site in New Zealand- Ruth Pretty. I'll be serving it with marinated tempeh cut into thin strips, marinated in the teriyaki marinade from last week.

Ingredients

90g (1/2 cup) sesame seeds
90ml(6 tbsp) soy sauce
18g (1 + 1/2 tbsp) sugar

90ml (6 tbsp) mirin
salt and freshly ground pepper
750g spinach leaves (destalked)

Method

• To make Sweet Sesame Dressing: Place sesame seeds into a dry frying pan and toast till they are golden. Place sesame seeds into a mortar (or food processor fitted with a metal blade) with enough soy sauce so that seeds can be crushed with a pestle to resemble a paste. Add remaining soy sauce, sugar and mirin and mix to combine. Season to taste. Cover and refrigerate till required.
• Fill a steamer base with water and bring to the boil. Add spinach to steamer basket and steam for 3-4 minutes or till tender but still bright green. Drain well.
• Place dressing into a small non-reactive saucepan and, over gentle heat, bring to the boil. Simmer for 1-2 minutes or till dressing thickens. 

 
 










** I liked this dish. It was easy to make and the greens were delicious the next day with the sauce. One of my daughters loved the tempeh.

Steamed Asian Greens with Honey Soy Sesame Dressing

This recipe looks like a nice way to eat our LPO asian greens. I paired it with the teriyaki salmon (recipe on blog). You can find this recipe on food network.

1 1/2 pounds spinach, baby bok choy, Chinese broccoli, or a combination
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds, plus more for garnish

Pour about 1-inch of water into a wok and bring it to a boil over high heat. Put the greens into a bamboo steamer and cover. Put the steamer into the wok and steam the vegetables for about 5 minutes or until they are just tender. Meanwhile make the dressing by combining the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, oil, and 1 teaspoon sesame seeds in a small bowl. Put the cooked greens onto a serving platter, drizzle the dressing over them, and toss well to coat. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve immediately.

 **Great accompaniment to the salmon and rice. I thought the dressing was fabulous on the salmon.