Receta Tofu Spring Rolls
At the current moment, Noodle Nose is in love with spring rolls. Nay, obsessed with spring rolls. When asked what he wants for dinner he either says 'spring rolls' or 'macaroni and tree' or 'spring rolls and macaroni and tree and spring rolls with macaroni and tree inside'. I have yet to conquer that one. The day will never come. But a boy can dream, yes?
But really, who doesn't like spring rolls? (or macaroni and tree for that matter) I mean, it's an adorable little compact package stuffed full of wonderful fresh goodies and flavor. It's a surprise every bite.
These were easy as pie. The most time consuming part of this version was marinating/baking the tofu. If you really wanted to make it easy you could bypass baking your own tofu and buy pre-baked tofu at the store.
In this post I'm going to do a step by step tutorial of my spring rolls. They may not be perfectly traditional but they were tightly wrapped tasty little packages that made a lovely meal for us. They would also make great appetizers for an asian inspired party or heck, even for munching while watching the big game.
Yield: about 8-10 spring rolls
Need:
- 1 package extra firm tofu, thinly sliced into about 2 inch long pieces
- Braggs
- 2 Tablespoons spicy brown mustard
- fresh cracked pepper
- Sesame oil, for baking
- Spring roll wrappers
- Warm water (for the spring roll wrappers)
- 1 pkg rice noodles
- 1 english cucumber, matchsticked
- 1 bunch green onions, cut into about 2 inch pieces
- Carrots, matchstick style
- About 2 cups fresh mung bean sprouts
- 1/2 bunch cilantro, de-stemmed
- For the dipping sauce:
- 2 Tablespoons organic peanut butter
- 1 Tablespoon sesame seed oil
- 3 teaspoons braggs
- 2 Tablespoons agave nectar
Do:
Combine tofu, braggs, mustard and pepper in a bowl. Ensure all tofu is adequately covered then let marinate for at least 30 minutes.
To bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drizzle sesame oil on pan to prevent sticking then lay tofu pieces onto pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes then pull out pan and flip tofu. Bake for another 12-15 minutes, ensuring tofu is brown and crispy.
In a pot of salted water, bring water to a boil then submerge rice noodles. Once submerged, turn off stove and let noodles sit in the hot water. Move them around every once in a while but let them sit for 6 to 8 minutes until soft yet chewy.
Remove and strain then add them to your filling assembly line.
Get all your veg together and add it to your assembly line as well.
For your wrappers, use a large, shallow bowl. Fill with warm water and submerge your first wrapper. Let it sit in the water until it is adequately soft then remove and place on a kitchen towel for assembly.
Note: when you remove a wrapper, put another in the warm water so it can soften while you assemble.
For the sauce: combine all sauce ingredients and whip quickly with a fork. Transfer to a pretty serving bowl and set aside. Yes. It's that easy.
Now you are ready to assemble:
Spring roll wrapper, fresh from the water and ready to go
Start by placing tofu on wrapper. Start with the tofu so can see it on top when you roll it up.
To that add 4 green onion pieces and 4-6 cucumber matchsticks, depending on how large you sliced them. Mine were very small, like matchstick carrots so I had about 6
On top of that, add mung bean sprouts and matchstick carrots
Top with your noodles, which, at this point have had time to cool
To wrap, first fold the short end over your ingredients. Then tuck sides over top of that. From there carefully roll, tightening your roll as you go. See how the tofu shows with the veg as you roll it up?
Plate and move on to the next
Serve:
Serve with peanut sauce and/or braggs (or soy sauce). Good on their own, as a meal or as an appetizer.
Simple, healthy, delicious, fun to eat.
Enjoy!
Rice Noodles