Ok, so this is not a campfire recipe. But it is still a camp recipe. Trust me - on a hot summer afternoon you will appreciate these fresh, cool, crunchy, cold rolls. Also, the ingredients are not fussy to pack - dried rice paper sheets plus a few whole vegetables that you can slice up at the site. How easy is that? Also, it is a nice thing to make a few days into your trip if you have some half used veggies that you want to use up. We pre-make a peanut sauce and keep it in the cooler until we get the hankering for cold rolls.
Here goes:
What you need
1 package rice paper rounds
1 carrot (peeled and julienned)
1 red or yellow pepper (seeded and julienned)
napa cabbage (julienned)
1 cucumber (peeled and julienned)
cilantro leaves
cooked rice noodles in sesame oil (if you are super fancy)
1 cup or so spicy peanut sauce*
Instructions
1. Peel, seed, cut and otherwise prepare all of your filling ingredients for the cold rolls (who doesn't like having leisurely chat over the picnic table while julienning?).
2. Fill a shallow bowl or deep plate with water.
3. Lay the first rice paper round in the water until it softens.
4. Pull the rice paper out and allow the excess water to drip off.
5. Place the moistened rice paper on a plate or flat surface.
6. Place one to two of each ingredient on the centre of the rice paper. Make sure to lay all the veg in the same direction.
7. Then experiment with your favorite rolling techniques. I like to fold over the left side, fold down the top, fold up the bottom and then complete it by folding over the right side.
8. Repeat until you have an appropriate sized mountain of cold rolls.
9. Serve with peanut sauce for dipping.
* We like this recipe by the wonderfully, inspirational Robin Robertson, author of Vegan Planet and many other essential cookbooks.
