Mmmm, cold rolls. I have been craving them since my picnic with Ash in the park, and needed to make a set for myself! As I was off to a dinner party, it was the perfect excuse to make cold rolls: you really do need to make them for a bunch of people!
I love how versatile cold rolls are. Here I’ve thrown in a bunch of shredded carrots and beets (that I simply whizzed through the shredding blade on my food processor, so easy!), and added avocado and fresh herbs. You can also throw in other crunchy veggies like crisp lettuce, cucumber or jicama, or even sweet fruits like mango, or some brown rice vermicelli, glass noodles, or bean sprouts for filler. My main requirements are that everything is fresh fresh, and has a lot of crunch along with tons of herbs.
The dipping sauce is one of my quick & easy favourites — you can even pour it on salads, in stirfries, or over noodles. You could also use the Almond Hazelnut Dipping Sauce (from the Tofu Satay recipe) or the Cashew Almond Dressing (from the Cashew & Almond Soba Noodle Salad). Feel free to use whatever nut butter you have on hand, I tend to alternate between Almond/Cashew and Almond/Hazelnut.
If you’re making these for friends, you can do a lot of the hard work (chopping the veggies) ahead of time, then create a little assembly line station for assembly closer to party time. When you do make these, make sure to cover them with a damp tea towel (or damp paper towel will do in a pinch) so that they don’t dry out. If you’re using beets, the magenta colour will stain the wraps more the longer you let them sit.
A great trick I learned from Meghan: use two rice paper wrappers for each roll, that way if there are any rips or tears no-one will be any the wiser!
Cold Rolls with Spicy Almond Cashew Dipping Sauce
Inspired by Ashley’s Rice Paper Veggie Wraps & Meghan’s Veggie Rice Wraps, Serves 4-6
Cold Rolls
- 24 rice paper wraps
- 3 carrots, peeled & grated or julienned (cut into very thin slices)
- 3 beets, peeled & grated
- 1/4 c. fresh mint, sliced thinly into ribbons
- 1/4 c. fresh basil, sliced thinly into ribbons
- 2 avocados, halved and sliced
Almond Cashew Dipping Sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1″ nub of ginger, peeled
- 1/2 c. almond cashew butter (or any other nut butter)
- 2 tsp. tamari (or soy sauce)
- 1 Tbsp. chili garlic sauce
- 1/4 – 1/2 c. water
Fill a large, shallow container with hot water. Place two rice wrappers into the water and let it soak for 45-60 seconds or until completely softened. Remove from the water and lay out on a cutting board, one wrap on top of each other. Place some carrots, beets, mint, basil and avocado in the centre of the two wraps.
Roll the wraps up tightly, first folding in the bottom, then the sides, then rolling up the rest of the wrap. Slice in half and lay on a plate, covered with a damp tea towel until serving.
Repeat with the remaining rice wrappers and filling.
To make the Spicy Almond Cashew Dipping Sauce, mince the garlic cloves in the food processor by turning it on with the regular blade, then popping the garlic cloves in with the machine running. You can do the same with the ginger. If you don’t have the food processor, you can simply mince and grate the ginger and mix the sauce by hand or in a blender. Add the nut butter, tamari, and chili garlic sauce and blitz until all ingredients are well blended. Thin out the sauce using a bit of water, start with 1/4 c. and add blitz. You can add additional water if it is not thin enough.
Keep the damp tea towel over the plate of wraps until serving, and enjoy with the dipping sauce.
Kitchen Operas 
Hi Lindsay
Sometimes I like to print your recipes and the picture takes a lot of ink
can you tell me how to just print it without the picture..
my email address is franb@interwood.com
thanks
Hi Fran!
I’m working on a system for printing without pictures, but it might not happen right away… I shall do my best!
In the meantime, you can print the recipes by copying and pasting the webpage into Print Friendly.
One of the prettiest dishes of rolls I’ve ever seen. The colour alone was worth Lindsay’s effort. I wonder what they’d look like with some made from Golden Beets? Maybe it would be too subtle. Love your blog!
Aw, thanks Paul!!!
I think the golden beets would be *so* pretty and add just a little bit more sweetness! Great idea for next time, thank you!
They’re so colorful and gorgeous! I really want to make some…or at least eat some…and I love the dipping sauce…yummy 🙂
You should make some — they’re not THAT tough to make, and they’re super impressive and delicious!
This is great picnic food! I’m looking forward to some proper Springtime weather over the next few weeks! 🙂
Ahh, lovely! And this shows the difference of the hemispheres: we are just finishing up with our picnic weather!
Enjoy the picnics and I’ll live vicariously through your blog for our winter. 🙂