Vegetable Summer Rolls

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Recipe from epicurious.com

Delicious!! These were a perfect side dish to a summer meal.

Warning: the sauce is spicy! At least in my opinion. If you have anyone who can't take a lot of spice, go very light on putting it into the rolls, and just leave the rest out. Anyone who wants more can take it. We had people with varying levels of spice tolerance, so this is what we did.

This recipe does make quite a bit of sauce. We have a lot left over and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.

Since there were 6 of us eating, we ended up tripling the ingredient amounts. 2 rolls for each of us.

Ingredients:
Sauce:
3 T finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 t red pepper flakes
1 t vegetable oil
3 T water
1 T creamy peanut butter
1 T hoisin sauce
1 t tomato paste
3/4 t sugar

Rolls:
1 ou bean thread noodles
Salt, to taste
1 T seasoned rice vinegar
4 (8-inch) rice paper rounds
2 red-leaf lettuce leafs, halved w/ ribs discarded
1/4 c fresh mint leaves
1/4 c fresh basil leaves
1/2 c thinly sliced Napa cabbage
1/4 c fresh cilantro leaves
1/3 cup shredded carrot

Directions:
For the sauce - cook onion, garlic and red pepper flakes in oil in a small saucepan for about 4 minutes, until tender. Whisk in remaining sauce ingredients - simmer, whisking, for about 1 minute and then remove from heat and allow to cool.

Cover noodles with boiling hot water. Let sit for 15 minutes, drain well and press between paper towels to dry. Toss with vinegar and salt to taste.

Prep a work area for the rolls. What I do is lightly oil a large plate to keep rolls from sticking (keep the oil out, as you may need to re-oil once or twice). I use this plate to prep the rolls. Then I dampen a paper towel and set it on a plate or serving platter. As I set the rolls on the platter, I cover with another damp paper towel. Rice paper can dry out fairly quickly.

Place hot water in a large shallow saucepan or baking pan.

Soak 1 rice paper at a time in the water for about 15-30 seconds, until pliable - then transfer to the greased plate.

Take the red lettuce half and place it in the center of the paper, leaving about 1 inch of space. Tear leaf as needed to make it fit.

On top of the leaf drizzle on some sauce, then top it with the mint, basil, cabbage and noodles. Roll once, then add the cilantro and carrot to the crease (I did this once, then started adding it all at the same time. I'm not sure of the purpose of doing this). Fold in the sides and roll the rest of the way. Place on paper towel lined platter.

Repeat with remaining rolls. Serve rolls halved on the diagonal.

Note: if you do not serve these right away - wrap them individually in damp paper towels, and then in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Remove about 15 minutes before serving to bring to room temp.