Spring rolls with
peanut sauce
These rolls are a filling, inexpensive, flexible, and delicious dish. They’re also a lot easier to make than you might think. The only real cooking you need to do is boiling the water. Don’t worry if you’re missing a few ingredients, you can put just about anything you want in spring rolls. This dish is great for parties where you have to feed a lot of people on budget. I use chicken in this recipe, but if meat isn’t your thing, feel free to substitute tofu.
Ingredients:
Thin (vermicelli) rice noodles, olive oil, spring roll paper, 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (cut into finger-sized pieces), fresh mint, cilantro (chopped), 1/2 cucumber (sliced lengthways), red bell pepper (sliced lengthways), green onion, 2 cups peanut butter, 1/2 cup honey or brown sugar, four limes, crushed chili flakes, 1/2 cup soy sauce, ginger (minced).
Method:
After slicing all your veggies, put a kettle on to boil. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, combine the peanut butter, honey, minced ginger, chili flakes,soy sauce, and the juice from the four limes in a bowl and mix it all together with a fork until smooth. Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan and fry your chicken strips. When the chicken begins to brown, add about 1/2 cup of your peanut sauce to the chicken, stirring often, making sure to leave some peanut sauce for dipping. The water should be boiled by now. Put the vermicelli noodles in a large bowl and pour the water over them until they’re covered. When the chicken is cooked all the way through, lay out all your fillings. Put some cold water on a large plate. Dip your spring roll paper in the cold water for three seconds, remove, and put on another large plate. As the paper softens and becomes sticky, fill it with whatever ingredients you want and gently roll the paper into a roll. Dip in the leftover peanut sauce and enjoy!
Tofu chow mein
Although it will cost you a bit more than $2, this chow mein recipe is leaps and bounds above the melted peanut butter on noodles you may be used to.
Ingredients:
A small piece of fresh ginger (minced), 3 cloves of garlic (minced), 1 chile (minced), firm tofu cut into strips, 1/4 cup peanut butter, 2 green onions, cilantro, 1 small bok choy (chopped), dry chow mein noodles, sesame oil (you can use peanut or vegetable oil if you don’t have sesame oil), 1 can of water chestnuts, soy sauce, 1 small lime.
Method:
Boil a pot of water. Warm up a wok or large frying pan to medium-high. When it’s hot, add a large glug of oil and tilt the pan so the oil covers the bottom. Add the chicken and stir it around until the chicken begins to brown. Add the ginger, garlic, chile, cilantro, green onions, and continue to stir the wok. Add your bok choy to the boiling water for two minutes or so and drain in a colander. Now add the peanut butter, water chestnuts with their water, soy sauce to taste, and juice from the lime to the wok. Remove from the heat, add the dry noodles and bok choy to the wok, stir the whole mixture around until the noodles are coated, and serve immediately.
If you’d like your chow mein to be a bit thicker, add a small amount of cornstarch before you remove it from the heat.