Summer Rolls and Peanut Butter-Ginger Sauce

Summer rolls are such a fun and easy way to pack in a ton of your favorite veggies! I like to throw in some tofu too for added protein. I also really like adding in strawberries to this recipe in particular because I think it pairs really well with the veggies and the peanut-ginger sauce. Like a grown-up PBJ? Apparently putting strawberries in summer and spring rolls is very controversial though, maybe on the same level as pineapple on pizza, which I will not be giving my opinion on because I don’t want to be judged 🙂

Ingredients

Summer Rolls

• Rice Paper – I have no brand preference to give you. I think they’re all about the same. They do have a tendency to break pretty easily though, so make sure you store them somewhere safe and don’t throw them!
• Extra Firm Silken Tofu – I really like Mori-Nu brand of Extra Firm Silken Tofu. It’s a shelf stable variety and sometimes I even buy it in bulk on Amazon. There are two kinds of silken tofu – refrigerated and shelf stable. They’re both about the same for these purposes. There are also different firmness levels; I like the Extra Firm personally. You’ll find the refrigerated silken tofu with its fellow tofu friends in the grocery store. The shelf stable silken tofu can be a little harder to track down, but is typically in the International Aisle of the grocery store. You can also find it at Asian grocery stores, or just buy it online either through Mori-Nu, Amazon, etc.
• Maple Syrup – I really like marinating tofu in maple syrup and soy sauce; it gives it a nice salty sweet flavor. If you don’t have maple syrup, you could sub it out for a different syrup like agave, date, etc.
• Soy Sauce – if you are gluten-free, you could sub this out for Coconut Aminos, and still get the same great flavor!
• Veggies – Baby Spinach, Shredded Carrots, Cucumber (thin long slices) – you can use different veggies if you want; these are just the ones I really like and think work well together in this recipe
• Vegan Cream Cheese – my favorite brand for this is Violife, but any of the Vegan Cream Cheeses will work great. I know this might seem like a weird ingredient but I think it adds a nice extra saltiness and some tang. Highly recommend, but of course, it’s optional!
• Strawberries – I very thinly slice my strawberries for this. Also optional; I think it would be a real tragedy if you didn’t at least try it with strawberries once though!

Peanut Butter Ginger Sauce

• Minced Garlic – I like to use fresh garlic but you could also use the minced garlic that comes in a jar. And if you don’t have either, you could use garlic powder – it just may not taste as fresh/nice.
• Grated Ginger – I use fresh ginger for this, and grate about 1/2″ of it (after peeling it).
• PB Fit Powder – I usually buy PB Fit Peanut Butter Powder, but there are other popular brands like PB2 that will work great as well. The reason I’m using Peanut Butter Powder instead of regular peanut butter is to cut down on calories and fat and improve the protein %. If you don’t care about the macros, feel free to try this with peanut butter and a little less milk!
• Soy Milk – I like to use Soy Milk for most things as my preferred non-dairy milk. You can really use any non-dairy milk though and it will work the same. The calories and macros may vary slightly though.
• Maple Syrup – see notes above
• Salt – I always wait until the end to add salt to see if I really need it. I liked the level of saltiness with 1/4 teaspoon but adjust to your tastes!

Instructions

Preparing the Tofu Ahead of Time

• Ok, you’re going to think this amount of tofu preparation is crazy but trust me, it’s worth it for the texture and it doesn’t actually cost you much time.
• Take silken tofu out of package, place in glass container. Freeze.
• Thaw tofu. Once it’s thawed, press the tofu.
• Once the tofu has been pressed for about 20 – 30 minutes, it should look kind of like it has a bunch of layers all smooshed together and it should be very firm.
• Cut the tofu into about 1/2 inch wide by 4 inch long pieces.
• In a glass container (or any kind of Tupperware, etc.), mix the marinade up – this is your soy sauce and maple syrup. I like to whisk it together so it is well mixed. Add your tofu to this mixture, put the lid on and gently shake so that the tofu is covered.
• Put in the fridge for a couple of hours so that it has time to soak in the flavors.

Making the Summer Rolls

• In a medium-low heat pan, cook the tofu chunks until they are browned and slightly crispy. You either want to use a non-stick pan or spray your pan with a small amount of oil, because these will potentially stick if you do neither. Make sure to flip occasionally so they don’t burn. This shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes total.
• While this the tofu is cooking, I usually cut my veggies up. I prefer to cut into thin, long-ish pieces that work well in the summer rolls.
• Once all of the ingredients are prepared, wet a piece of rice paper (both sides) and lay flat on a plate.
• In the middle of the rice paper, layer the tofu, cream cheese, spinach, carrots, cucumbers and strawberries.
• Depending on the temperature of the water you use, the rice paper usually starts getting soft within 30 – 60 seconds.
• Once the rice paper is soft and pliable, wrap the ends up (so your good don’t fall out when you pick it up), and then it roll it up like you would with a burrito.

Making the Peanut Butter Ginger Sauce

• You can do this part wherever it makes sense for your time management in the kitchen. I usually also do this while the tofu is cooking since the sauce only take about 5 minutes to make.
• First, mince the ginger and grate the garlic.
• In a medium-low heat sauce pan (this can be a pretty small sauce pan), cook the garlic for about 1 minute, stirring to make sure it doesn’t burn.
• Add the other ingredients and continue to stir for another 3 – 5 minutes.
• Make sure the sauce is a good consistency for dipping. If it is too thin, keep cooking until it concentrates some more. If it’s too thick, slowly add in a little more milk to thin it out.

Silly Little Haiku

Strawberries are great

Yes, even in Summer Rolls

Trust me and try it