By Ilaria Catizone

With Spring well underway, it will soon be time for picnics, but this easy Rice Paper Rolls recipe is great for week-day meals as well as weekend parties.

You will need:

• Rice paper sheets
• Rice vermicelli noodles
• Assorted veggie sticks – we like cucumber, capsicum and carrot
• Herbs of your choice- we like mint
• Some protein- we like egg or tofu, or you could add your meat of choice.
• Peanut butter, hoisin sauce and soy or tamari sauce for the dip
• A bowl of boiling water to soften the noodles and the wrap paper.

Make your rolls:

1. Chop up your veggies into thin sticks and tear up your herbs
2. Prepare the dipping sauce by putting 1/3 cup of hoisin sauce into a bowl, then adding two generous tablespoons of peanut butter and a good splash of soy sauce or tamari sauce. Give it a good whisk and assess the consistency and taste. You may want to add extra soy sauce for more flavour and liquid, but if the flavour is fine and the consistency too thick, you can add a tablespoon or two of warm water to thin out the sauce.
3. If using EGG, Prepare the omelette by scrambling about 1 egg per person and spreading thinly on a non-stick pan. Let cook on medium heat until nearly done, then turn off the stove and cover the pan with a lid to let the residual heat cook the top of the omelette. Cut into strips.
4. If using TOFU, cut it into sticks and coat generously with the dipping sauce, then shallow fry in a sprinkle of olive oil or bake in a medium oven for about 10 minutes on a silicone mat.
5. If using meat or fish, I usually cook as required, and sometimes add a good dollop of Naked Byron Mayo from the Co-op. It’s vegan, so you can use it on vegetarian or vegan rolls too!
6. Place the noodles in a bowl of boiling water and mix. Remove when soft and keep the water.
7. When you are ready to eat, get everyone to choose their fillings. Pick a wrap and quickly dip it in the bowl of water reserved from the noodles, place it on your plate. Work fast or the wrap will stick to the plate! Add some noodles, herbs, veggies and protein, fold in the sides and roll. Dip in the sauce and enjoy!

These rolls are a fun easy meal and I find my fussy 4 year old eats a good amounts of veggies in these. I do however find they don’t keep very well, so they are not the best for school or work lunches. Wrapping them in moist paper or fabric might help, but really they are best made and eaten straight away!

You can find most of the ingredients used in this recipe at the Food Co-op. Check out our online product list here!