It never fails – the second you start a blog, life decides to make you busy! Moreover, life decides to bring a shortage of appropriate ingredients to your area. I have been holding onto the ingredients for my Thai Spring Rolls recipe for over a week now because I have been unable to locate Thai basil anywhere! But since today was Mother’s Day, I thought I’d kill two birds by using my mom’s expanse of prep space (in comparison to my own) while also treating her to the dish; she loves little more than healthy pretentious delights.
Three trips to three local stores yielded no Thai basil, so I settled for regular Italian and hopped over to mum’s. I also cheated by picking up a bottle of fancy Thai peanut sauce instead of making my own raw version. I already have a recipe written for raw peanut sauce but it’s currently too involved and ingredient heavy for me to pull off last minute. In case you are wondering, I do write first and test later. Food is too expensive for me to leave all to chance. This is why standing next to my mom’s sink, as I whipped up the perfectly planned ingredients for my Dipping Sauce (see recipe below) I realized that I fancy myself the Nicola Tesla of raw: invent in the head first, draft and build later!
Assembly of the rolls took much longer than I had anticipated, most likely because I chop and julienne like someone with a bad case of arthritis. I had also barely caught my cilantro and green onions in time, so they needed extra care. However, one of the great things about finally testing a recipe, time consuming or not, is how chef’s intuition kicks in once the heat is on (pardon the cooking pun). I had bought a papaya a week ago for another recipe and took it to my mum’s only because it too seemed moments away from going towards the light. I decided last minute to make it the “meat” of the dish and I’m so glad I did! It was the one ingredient my alter ego, Tesla, had missed. One-hour-plus and a characteristic mess later, a beautiful platter of rolls lie in wait for the feast… and thus we did until there wasn’t a sprig of cilantro left.
Thai Spring Rolls
Serves 2-6
head of Boston bib lettuce
½ papaya
1 c kelp noodles*
½ cucumber, julienned
1 medium carrot, julienned
½ red bell pepper
raw slivered almonds
6-10 Thai basil leaves
fresh cilantro sprigs
one green onion, diced
one recipe Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce
*Kelp noodles are raw, clear noodles made from kelp. I buy them at my local co-op, but I imagine they can be found online or at Whole Foods.
Dipping Sauce
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp agave nectar
2 tsp nama shoyu sauce or Bragg’s Amino Acids
1 recipe Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce (coming soon!)
1. Prepare Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce according to recipe
2. Rinse kelp noodles thoroughly and place on top of a linen towel to dry
3. Gently pluck whole leaves off washed lettuce head. Remove bulk of the spine from each leaf and cut larger leaves in half
4. Slice papaya into 2-3” long slabs, cut bell pepper into thin sticks, and prepare all other vegetables and herbs as indicated
5. Blend ingredients for Accent Sauce and pour into dipping bowls for serving
6. Place lettuce leaves on a serving platter – each leaf will make one wrap. Amount of each ingredient per wrap will depend upon leaf size, but start with placing about one heaping Tbsp of noodles per small leaf at one end of the leaf, and layer following ingredients atop noodles: bell pepper, cucumber, carrot, basil leaves, green onion, papaya
7. Spoon a dollop of peanut sauce along the length of each roll and top with almond slivers and a couple cilantro sprigs. To eat wraps: pick one up, gently wrap leaf around contents, dip in sauce and enjoy!
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