These Green Rolls Are the Perfect Summer Appetizer

I fell in love with the simplicity of fresh rolls when travelling in Bali. They’re on every menu, and they all taste amazing! It might just be the tropical heat that makes them taste so good, but I ate my weight in rolls. It was on my agenda to master making them at home, and I decided that filling them with lots of crunchy green stuff would be the game plan. I love that these are all green because, let’s face it, most of my best recipes are brown, so it’s nice to change things up! Even if you can’t quite get the hang of rolling them on your first go, it all tastes the same in the end. And just wait until you get that creamy green curry dipping sauce in your mouth. It’s fantastic!

(Related: This Vegan Sloppy Joe Dish Makes a Healthy Comfort Food)

All-Green Fresh Rolls With Green Curry Dipping Sauce

Makes 10 rolls

Ingredients

For the Green Curry Dipping Sauce (makes about 3/4 cup) 

• ½ cup canned coconut cream
• ¼ cup tightly packed
• fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons green curry paste
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (about 1 lime)
• 1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
• 1  teaspoon granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• Pinch chili flakes (optional)

For the Fresh Rolls

• 10 dried rice paper sheets
• 5 large green leaf lettuce leaves (ribs removed), torn in half
• 2 avocados, sliced
• ½ English cucumber, ribboned with a peeler
• 1½ cups sugar snap peas
• 1½ cups packed microgreens or sprouts
• 1½ cups fresh mint leaves
• 1½ cups fresh basil leaves
• 1½ cups fresh cilantro leaves

(Related: These Baked Peanut Butter & Jam Oat Bars Make a Quick and Healthy Breakfast)

Instructions

1. To make the green curry sauce, in a high-powered blender, add the coconut cream, cilantro, green curry paste, garlic, lime juice, vinegar, sugar, sea salt, and chili flakes. Blend until very smooth. Transfer to a small saucepan and bring to a low simmer, cooking about 2 to 4 minutes, until slightly thicker and reduced.
2. Once all your vegetables are prepped for the fresh rolls, fill a wide shallow dish that’s slightly larger than the rice paper sheets with tepid water so you can soak the whole sheet. Soak one rice paper sheet at a time, for 10 to 20 seconds. You still want to feel the cross-hatch pattern on the surface of the rice sheets. Don’t oversoak or it will be too soft and hard to roll.
3. Assemble the rolls one at a time. Lay the wet rice paper sheets on a work surface. Add a piece of the lettuce and divide the avocado, cucumber, snap peas, microgreens or sprouts, and fresh herbs among the sheets in whatever order you like. Roll one side of the rice paper over the filling, tucking it in as you start rolling again and also folding the sides in. Continue rolling until completely sealed. Place on a plate or cut in half if you prefer.
4. Serve with the green curry dipping sauce. Leftover dipping sauce will get thick from refrigeration. Add a teaspoon of water at a time to thin it out until it’s a smooth, dippable consistency.

Excerpted from Hot for Food All Day by Lauren Toyota. Copyright © 2021 by Lauren Toyota. Published by Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Next, here is Lauren Toyota’s argument for buying prepacked vegan products.