Category: Lunch

What is one to do in an incredibly rare, English heatwave? Well not turning on your oven is a very good place to start. (And of course a nice cold glass of peach iced tea wouldn’t go amiss.)

So what to write about in a food blog when you can’t heat anything up? That’s where my latest obsession comes into play.

This week I discovered sriracha and people, let me tell you, I’m never going back (and not just because it’s physically impossible). Two of the best flavours in the world, garlic and chilli, combined in one amazing sauce. I’m seriously considering putting it on everything I eat from this point on.

Sriracha really comes into it’s own in Vietnamese food, so I thought I’d have a go at making some summer rolls. They are so fresh and light, perfect on a freakishly hot summer’s day. Just make sure you wrap them tight or they’ll fall apart as you eat them like mine did!

I found the recipe for these rolls on a blog called Sprouted Kitchen. This beautifully written blog is packed full of amazing, healthy recipes. Very inspiring. The photography is incredible too, I’m a little jealous of Hugh’s skills!

I wanted to pair my rolls up with a spicy dipping sauce and Sara at Sprouted Kitchen suggests a peanut sauce. However, due to a slightly odd peanut phobia (don’t ask), I decided to attempt an almond version instead, adapting a recipe from another amazing blog, Minimalist Baker.

This blog has a special place in my heart, not just because of the simple, quick recipes, with minimal ingredients, and the beautiful pictures. But because I took their fantastic Food Photography E-course and I owe all the progress I’ve made in my photography so far to them! I still need a lot of practice but they definitely got me started in the right direction. Thanks guys!

Summer Rolls with Spicy Almond Dipping Sauce
Rolls adapted from Sprouted Kitchen
Sauce adapted from Minimalist Baker

I haven’t given precise measurements for the rolls, as you can just pop in whatever balance of veggies you’d like. You can also swap in other vegetables, like grated beetroot, radishes or sliced cucumber

Ingredients:

For the rolls:
Rice paper wraps (available in Asian shops and larger supermarkets)
Coriander leaves
Grated carrots
Sliced yellow pepper
Sliced avocado
1 tin of cooked lentils (sadly I’m too lazy to soak and cook my own)
1 – 2 tbsp sriracha (depending on how spicy you like your food)
1 tbsp sesame oil
pinch of salt

For the sauce:
1 tbsp almond butter
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tsp sriracha
1/2 tbsp honey or agave

In a small bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the dipping sauce and store in the fridge until needed.

Next, drain the lentils well (you want to get rid of as much moisture as possible), and thoroughly mix them with the sriracha, sesame oil and a pinch of salt.

Now it’s assembly time! Put a clean, damp tea towel on your work surface and fill a medium sized bowl with warm water. Take a sheet of the rice paper and soak it in the water until it’s soft (making sure it doesn’t curl up), this will take less than a minute.

Put the paper on your damp tea towel and pop a couple of coriander leaves up the centre of the sheet (this will make it look nice and pretty when it’s rolled). Then add a spoonful of lentils, some grated carrot, peppers and avocado, all down the centre of the sheet. Try not to go overboard with the amount of filling you use or you could end up with an exploded roll, like in the background of the picture below!

Roll up the rice paper like you would a burrito, i.e. fold in the top and bottom, then the right edge and then the left. If you’re struggling with this concept I’m sure some useful person will have put a video of it on youtube.

Serve straight away with the yummy dipping sauce. Any left over sauce is excellent with vermicelli noodles, veggies and tofu/chicken!