Mango Cucumber Rice Paper Rolls With Ginger Peanut Sauce

Light rice paper rolls stuffed with fresh mango, cucumbers, carrots, herbs and avocado dipped in a tangy ginger peanut sauce scream spring to me.  Well thanks to the corona virus, we are pretty much home bound and adjusting to our new normal. My husband works all through the day surfacing for short breaks usually to get some food while the rest of us whittle through the day. My DC clients are closed at least till end of April, so my day is pretty much my own. I start off with a little bit of quiet meditation( much needed to help my corona anxiety) fix meals, read books, clean out closets, spending whatever time my girls share with me quite content  watching shows or chatting. Evenings we play family games, sing some while my husband strums the guitar, watch movies, relaxing while catching up with snippets of current corona updates. Apart from missing working with my clients, the new normal is kinda growing on me.

One of the activities my daughters and I have been doing a lot of is cooking together. I quite like that they want my recipes, add their own spin to it and that we try out new recipes together. Like yesterday morning, we made Vietnamese rice paper  rolls. I love love rice paper rolls. Every time we eat at a restaurant which serves them, I will always order them as an appetizer or heck even as meal.  If I had to be marooned on a deserted island and I could take only one thing with me, I would probably take rice paper, make some fancy rolls/wraps with all the fresh produce on the island and maybe throw in some shrimp or fish too. Fanciful jokes aside I have always wanted to make these, and I just happened to have a whole pack of rice paper. We pulled out all the fresh produce we had which included ripe mangoes, cucumbers, carrots, some cilantro, parsley and some salad mix. I would have loved to add avocado to this mix, but I didn’t have any and going out was out of question. I did have a pack of avocado singles that I send for school lunches and I used that. We had a fun time stuffing the rolls and I love that everybody eats all that fresh produce in a roll. Its almost a raw food roll if you ask me and raw food  packed with vitamins, antioxidants and minerals is so good for you!

Assembling the wraps

Keep everything that you need handy on plates because once the rolls are ready to be stuffed, you will need to do it soon before the paper gets too sticky. You dip the rice paper rounds in water or just hold them under running water for a few seconds till they get transparent and slightly sticky. I ran them under water, but I think the next time I will dip them in water to get them more evenly hydrated. Then you line up the produce, food whatever you want to use in rows. Then you wrap tightly like swaddling a baby or wrapping a burrito. My rolls were a little messy as you can see but they tasted good and  I guess you get better with practice. I made five and they were gone quickly. I made a quick and easy satay style sauce with peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, ginger and chili sauce. It went well with the rolls.

What I would do differently

Next time I make these, and I will be making more soon perhaps as early as tonight since my kids are asking if we could have some with our usual late evening movie.  I will make the veggies more julienne so they will be easier to stuff. I will also probably sprinkle some chaat masala or some cumin over the produce/food before wrapping so that it tastes a little spicier. I am going to experiment with different combinations and am looking at trying an Indian themed chaat style roll with chickpeas, potatoes, mint sauce etc. The more rolls I make the better I will get at making these look more presentable as coined by my kids but for now I am loving my rolls and am so glad we checked one more item off my foodie bucket list.

Well everyone, be safe, be lazy or be busy doing what you love. Who knows if we will ever get so much leisure time on our hands again? For those of us with older kids esp. this mandatory quarantine must be some crazy, awesome bonding moments ( fights included) that we don’t get too often. I for one am treasuring this extra time with my family which helps me keep sane over all the corona-virus fiasco. Lets see, I worry about my older parents in India who have health issues and are under lock down too, other people in my life, some friends/family who are health care workers etc.  But hey, worrying doesn’t help so just let all those things go, let God take care of them and just live simply cherishing the little things in life that we sometimes take for granted. They say right now, staying home is one of the best ways we can help so doing that, saying a prayer for folks and trying to do anything else that helps. Stay safe everyone and thanks for stopping by! Love

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