Tofu Salad and Asian Spring Rolls

I saw some spring rolls on Celia's blog yesterday and knew I had to make them immediately.  I had some tofu I needed to use and decided to make a tofu salad to go with the rolls. Wowzers..this was a good lunch!

 Cube the tofu and bake it on cookie sheets sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

 Set them aside to cool.

 You can add all sorts of things to this salad.  I used shredded carrots, sliced green onions and cilantro.

 Make a sauce using 4 T. soy sauce, 2 T. rice vinegar, 2 T. honey, 2 T. grated fresh ginger, 1 tsp. fish sauce and 3 T. sesame oil.  Add the juice from 3 limes.  Whisk this thoroughly.

 Pour it over the tofu mix and toss several times before serving.

 This is a wonderful new tool I bought from GEFU, a German company.  You stick the vegetable in and twist and you get long spaghetti-like shreds.  I will be using this gadget a lot.

 To make the sauce for the spring rolls, mix 2 cloves of diced garlic, 1/4 C. lime juice, 2 T. soy sauce, 1 T. water, 1 T. peanut butter, 1 T. brown sugar and fresh diced cilantro.  Whisk until blended.

 Boil some vermicelli, drain and set aside to cool.  Shred some cabbage, carrots, green onions, cucumber and bell peppers of any color.  I also used some fresh romaine from my lettuce patch.  Dice some fresh cilantro. I added thinly slice roasted chicken.  You can also use shrimp or pork or tofu.

 Place a piece of rice pepper in a container of water where it can lay flat.  Let it soak for 5 seconds.

 Remove it and place it on a flat service.  Let the water soak in a bit.

 Place a piece of lettuce on the wrapper.  Add some of all the toppings.

 Fold the sides in towards the center and tightly roll it into a long log.  If you aren't eating these right away, wrap each one in several pieces of romaine.  Then wrap them tightly in plastic wrap.  This will keep them for drying out for a day or two.

 Sublime!

e

I seem to sneeze almost constantly these days.  If you look closely, you will see one of the reasons.  My huge old black locusts just bloomed and are dropping their blossoms and pollen.  It looks like it snowed.