Day 10 - Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Pinterest Day 10

The Pinterest recipe I looked at today was Tofu Vietnamese Spring Rolls by Minimalist Baker. I have no pictures - the food was all eaten so fast, there was nothing left.  I made this three times, and the immediate disappearance of the food did not change, LOL.

The Reasons:

Trying to find food that my son can eat, at a time when I was trying to expand my diet. Which seemed feasible for the first time in a long time, as my reactions seemed to be lower to a significant number of foods, even if they weren't gone.  

Note: I can no longer even come close to eating this.  Had this three times and reacted more each time, so the dream is dead, waah. But this is vegetarian and  gluten free so my son enjoys it. 

The Ingredients:

What I can use:

For the Spring Rolls - 

*carrots

red pepper

cucumber

1 bunch fresh cilantro

1 bunch fresh mint

*Rice Spring Roll Papers ( I used gluten free certified brown rice ones)

For the Almond Butter Dipping Sauce - 

*1 Tbsp GF soy sauce 

*1-2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Hot water to thin

For the Crispy Tofu - 

*8 ounces extra firm tofu, drained and thoroughly dried/pressed

*4 Tbsp sesame oil, divided

*3 Tbsp cornstarch

*2.5 Tbsp almond butter dipping sauce

*1 Tbsp GF soy sauce

What I can't use:

4 ounces vermicelli or rice noodles (the thinner the better)

1/3 cup salted creamy almond butter

1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce

1 Tbsp brown sugar or agave nectar

(And at the moment, everything with a * I can't use any longer, either, sigh)

The Challenges:

1. Originally, the almond butter dipping sauce was a problem because hey, no almond butter and no chili garlic sauce, but that was easily solved by using peanut butter - straight peanut butter, nothing added, I can make it myself from gluten free safe peanut that I roast myself and blend up a little, if I want. There is a gluten free certified sriracha sauce now that I used instead and it worked wonderfully. 

2. No safe rice noodles that are gluten free enough

3. I have tried to make crispy tofu in the past and always screw it up.

4. Rice paper wrappers are not always okay with me, so I was worried about trying to find something else, too.

What I did:

1. For the almond butter dipping sauce, it was easily solved by using peanut butter - straight peanut butter, nothing added, I can make it myself from gluten free safe peanut that I roast myself and blend up a little, if I want. There is a gluten free certified sriracha sauce now that I used instead of the chili garlic sauce and it worked wonderfully. 

2. I just left out the noodles, but thought about adding white rice for my son's.

3. For the crispy tofu, I actually used this recipes AND another recipe's advice on how to make it, here. I like how it turned out, better, that way. The other recipe had some good tips that were helpful.

4. I tried it with lettuce instead of rice paper wrappers and it turned out nicely.

Why did I make these choices:

I really wanted to try and approximate this recipe where I usually don't get to use some of the ingredients, like tofu or sriracha. My 'good' days of being able to eat it didn't last long, but man was it fun while it lasted!

The result:

It was so good. Seriously, sooooo good. I love this recipe. The fact that I can no longer have it makes me pretty freaking sad, so I'm going to be working on trying to figure out how I can approximate it again some time in the future. 

How would I change this:

Literally nothing. It was an awesome recipe.

Would I make it again:
Definitely. 

Allergy issues:

Oh all sorts, obviously. This is not my usual recipe and has a lot of things in it I can't usually eat, but I got to enjoy this for a short time and seriously, I will remember it fondly always!!