Radish salad rolls

These were inspired by an image I saw somewhere on the web a few days ago. Of course trying to find it the second time is impossible with so much going on the net. They were beautiful and colourful and stuck in my mind.

The other day I was slicing a bunch of colourful radishes for a salad and remembered the image, so changed course and made a few salad rolls for lunch.

If you haven’t made salad rolls before fearing ithey are difficult to make, I urge you to reconsider. It’s just an assembly and very easy to execute. I even use ready made sauce for these in a pinch. What is important is to be organized. Do your mis en place ( setting out all the ingredients) before you start the assembly. The rest is easy.

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Here’s how:

Ingredients:

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4 oz thin rice vermicelli noodles

6 rice paper rounds
4 cups boiling water

2 cups colourful radishes, thinly sliced
2 small cucumbers, thinly slices
Butter lettuce leaves, use inner leaves
12 mint leaves
12 basil leaves

Vietnamese dipping sauce (I used Blue Dragon)

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Directions:

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Place a large plate to hold the salad rolls. Wet a piece of paper towel and lkay over the plate. Have anothe piece of wet paper towel to lay over the rolls once you make them so they don’t dry.

Place the vermicelli in a bowl, pour the boiling water over and push down to they are immersed.
Let soak for a couple of minutes, then drain and rinse under cold water,. Set aside to drain further in a colander.

Place all the filling ingredients on a tray in front of you for easy reach: the radishes, cucumber, salad green, noodles.

Pour the boiling water into a large pie plate or another dish with raised sides.
Place one rice paper in the hot water and using tongs, flip it over until softened but not mushy, about 20 seconds or so. It should be nice an pliable.

Remove the rice paper with the tongs and lay flat on you work surface.

Begin arranging the filling in a line across the centre of the rice paper. Start with radishes, then noodles, then cucumbers and lettuce.

Roll two opposite ends over the filling from the narrow side of the filling, then roll the side over, tucking in the edges to create a proper looking salad rolls. If you haven’t made it before and one got messy, just do another one using the same filling.

Place the rolls as you make them on the plate with the damp paper towel and cover with the other damp towel.

Repeat with remaining rice paper and filling.

Serve with Vietnamese dipping sauce or another asian sauce of your choice.

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