Colorful Spring Rolls

Made with carrots, red pepper, purple cabbage, and peanut butter tofu: these slightly sweet and gently spicy spring rolls are crave-inducing.

Pictured is half a block of tofu (half the recipe)

Colorful Spring Rolls

1 block of tofu cut in half (think of it like a sandwich and you're trying to get two pieces of bread out of it) and pressed for 30 minutes in an absorbent towel 

Ingredients: 

• corn starch (enough to coat) *
• sesame oil (to fry) *

Sauce:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 T maple syrup
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1 1/2 t Siracha (or more if you prefer more spice)
• dash of garlic powder
• 16 sheets of rice paper

Filling:

• Half of a small/medium head of purple cabbage, chopped
• 1 carrot 
• 1 red pepper

Instructions:

1. Cut each half of tofu into 8 pieces (16 total) while the sesame oil heats in frying pan
2. Toss tofu in corn starch to coat, carefully add to heating oil. Flip to coat in oil, and let fry until desired crispiness is reached, turning occasionally. 
3. While tofu fries, combine ingredients for sauce. Microwave about 30-40 seconds, whisk, and let sit until tofu is done. 
4. Cut cabbage into 1/2 inch rounds and then half those rounds. I peel these apart to create the "noodle" filling.
5. Peel carrot, toss exterior peelings or save for broth. Next peel the carrot length-wise 32 times. I do that instead of julienne-ing the carrot and then eat the rest.
6. Cut the pepper into 1/4-1/2 inch wide strips. Julienned pepper will give the pepper less texture to bite and pull out of the roll as you try to tear it away--I find strips work best. :)
7. Turn off heat and pour sauce over tofu, stirring quickly. Flip after a minute or so. 
8. Soak one sheet of rice paper in warm water as you make each roll individually. Lay the sheet out (damp service works best) and add one piece of tofu, a strip of pepper, two folded peels of carrot, and some purple cabbage. 

Enjoy! Left overs are good too, but if you let it sit out a long time before storing, the rice paper will start to dry out.

Servings: 16 rolls 

Estimated Time: 1 hour

* Recipe Notes:

• To cook without oil, press tofu and dry-fry in a non-stick pan until crispy. You can skip the corn starch, too. 
• The most time-consuming part of the recipe is preparing each roll. To save time, you can have each guest/family member roll their own for a bit of fun.