These Vegetarian Salad Rolls are a bright, colourful take on a Vietnamese restaurant favorite: A type of veggie-packed fresh Spring Roll!
Writing this post this morning, I’m not sure if I’m writing an upbeat recipe post for a bright, sunny dish that makes me happy, or... a eulogy?
You see, this was one of my favourite dishes at my favourite Vietnamese restaurant here in Ontario -
Dong Gia Viet Thai in Etobicoke.
You might remember them from my post, which was based on the *mind blowing* mango salad they used to serve.
AUGH. So good!
Anyway, they’re pretty far from my house, so it’s been an occasional treat, when we happen to be in the area.
Late this summer, we were in the area... but when I called to place an order, they said that they were closed for renovations, and would be opening in August.
... and as far as I can tell, that never happened.
They’re now marked as being permanently closed, their online ordering/delivery account shows up as a 404, and I am VERY sad.
RIP, Dong Gia Viet Thai 🙁
Vegetarian Salad Rolls
I’ve only ever ordered 2 things from the restaurant - the mango salad, and the cold rolls.
Their cold rolls were basically a vegetarian spring / summer roll, but with no meat (well, you could add chicken or tofu to them), but had mango AND green apple in it.
OH MAN, THEY WERE FANTASTIC.
I’d never had apple or mango* in my spring rolls, so I was immediately fascinated.
The sweetness of the mango with the crunch and tartness of the green apple worked SO well with the other ingredients, especially the red pepper and cilantro.
It was like a bright dose of summer in every bite!
There was a really great sauce drizzled on it, also. NO idea what it was - I was generally so engrossed in snarfing the rolls, I never thought to replicate it.
I guess I just assumed they’d always be available, you know? Sigh.
Sorry for the sulking.
I’m sure restaurants closing sucks for everyone, but the whole autistic “THE ONE” restaurant / food thing just makes it even crummier!
Anyway.
Here we are, with a close approximation of the Dong Gia Viet Thai Cold Rolls that I love, along with the peanut sauce that I now serve them with.
It’s a fantastic sauce and goes SO well with them... even if it isn’t *the* sauce.
Sorry!
* Note: Sometimes I make Mango Shrimp Spring Rolls now, after the Dong Gia revelation!
My Peanut Sauce Recipe
While the source material used a completely different sauce - one that I don't have access to anymore and therefore can't replicate - this peanut sauce is fantastic!
I've been playing around with it for years, usually just throwing stuff together until it tastes great. Now, I've settled on this as my actual recipe!
This sauce has a few ingredients, but they all come together for a smooth, creamy, and very flavourful peanut sauce. Definitely my favourite!
I like to use a mini food processor for this. Mine holds just 2 or 3 cups of food, and is perfect for this.
Large food processors usually don’t do a great job of things, when dealing with small amounts of ingredients.
¾ cup Creamy peanut butter
½ cup Canned coconut milk
¼ cup Cilantro
2 tablespoons Honey
2 tablespoons Gluten-Free soy sauce or tamari
1.5 tablespoon Lime or Calamansi juice
1 tablespoon Fish sauce
1 tablespoon Toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon Ginger paste
1+ teaspoon Sriracha
3 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
Measure all ingredients into a mini food processor, blitz until well combined.
Chill until serving.
How to Make Vegetarian Salad Rolls
Full recipe follows, here's the pictorial overview:
Mix cilantro and mint together, place in a small bowl. Cut mango, apple, and red pepper into thin slices.
Tear lettuce or spinach into bite-sized pieces, cut green onions into long, thin ribbons.
Place prepared fruits and veggies on a plate or work surface, along with bean sprouts. Set aside.
Fill a large bowl with very hot water.
Submerge one sheet of rice paper, then immediately submerge another one right on top of it.
Wait 3 seconds, remove both sheets from water together, and smooth out on your clean work surface.
While smoothing rice sheets out, be sure to push excess water out from between the sheets as you go.
Arrange a small handful of lettuce/spinach across the middle of the rice paper wrappers, leaving a couple of inches of wrapper on either end of the pile.
Top with a small amount of bean sprouts, sprinkle with some of the mint/cilantro mix.
Arrange remaining fruits and vegetables on the pile, being sure to keep everything lined up, nothing sticking out at weird angles.
Carefully fold about ½ of the wrapper over the pile of filling, pulling it tightly against it. Fold one of the sides up over that fold.
Fold the other side over.
Holding the rice wrapper tightly against the filling, press to squeeze out any air that could be in with the filling, then tightly roll up the spring roll.
Repeat as necessary.
Sprinkle with peanuts, serve with hoisin sauce or peanut sauce.
More Asian -and Asian Inspired- Recipes
3 Sushi Sauce Recipes
Campfire Egg Roll in a Bowl
Curried Shrimp Spring Rolls
Egg Roll in a Bowl
Egg Roll Soup Mix
Gyoza / Potstickers
Honey Jeow Glazed Cashews
How to Make Sushi Rice
Mango Salad
Pepper Crusted Tuna with Wasabi Cream Sauce
Singapore Mai Fun
Tuna Avocado Mango Maki
Ube White Chocolate Fudge
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Vegetarian Salad Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 bunch Cilantro Chopped
- 1 bunch Mint Chopped
- 1 Mango
- 1 Granny Smith Apple
- 1 Red bell pepper
- 2 cups Baby spinach or romaine lettuce
- 2 Green onions
- 1 cup Fresh bean sprouts
- 12 rice paper spring roll wrappers
- Chopped peanuts
Instructions
- Mix cilantro and mint together, place in a small bowl.
- Cut mango, apple, and red pepper into thin slices. Set aside.
- Tear lettuce or spinach into bite-sized pieces.
- Cut green onions into long, thin ribbons.
- Place prepared veggies on a plate or work surface, along with bean sprouts. Set aside.
- Fill a large bowl with very hot water.
- Submerge one sheet of rice paper, then immediately submerge another one right on top of it. Wait 3 seconds, remove both sheets from water together, and smooth out on your clean work surface. While smoothing rice sheets out, be sure to push excess water out from between the sheets as you go.
- Arrange a small handful of lettuce/spinach across the middle of the rice paper wrappers, leaving a couple of inches of wrapper on either end of the pile.
- Top with a small amount of bean sprouts, sprinkle with some of the mint/cilantro mix.
- Arrange remaining fruits and vegetables on the pile, being sure to keep everything lined up, nothing sticking out at weird angles.
- Fold about ½ of the wrapper over the pile of filling, pulling it tightly against it. Fold one of the sides up over that fold.
- Fold the other side over.
- Holding the rice wrapper tightly against the filling, press to squeeze out any air that could be in with the filling, then tightly roll up the spring roll.
- Repeat as necessary, serve with hoisin sauce or peanut sauce.
Nutrition
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