Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce

A few years ago, I tried out a few peanut sauce recipes, and gave up after none of them turned out as I had hoped.  But recently, one of my friends asked me to make salad rolls for this blog, and I was newly inspired to find a great peanut sauce recipe.  She came over to help, and after some experimenting, we settled on this recipe.  And I'm happy to report that it's yummy!

This recipe makes use of many of the ingredients necessary for my stir fry.  So, if you've got the leftover ingredients lying around, put them to good use here!  The rolls may seem tricky, but once you get the first couple done, they'll get easier and quicker to make.  I plan to whip these up as a snack on the weekends when I need to tide myself over until dinner.

I rate this recipe 5 Spoons.  I will definitely be making it again and often!

Enjoy!

Salad Rolls

rice paper spring roll wrappers

bean sprouts

sliced carrots

rice noodles, cooked and drained

fresh basil (Thai basil is the coarser variety and tastes fantastic in Asian dishes)

fresh mint

cooked shrimp, sliced in half

crushed peanuts

Peanut Sauce

makes about 1 cup

1 tsp. vegetable or sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. chili garlic paste (or more if you like some heat)

1 Tbsp. tomato paste

1/4 c. creamy peanut butter

3 Tbsp. hoisin

3/4 c. low-sodium chicken broth

dash sugar

Add oil to a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Cook the garlic and chili paste until garlic is golden.  Whisk in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring often.  Simmer sauce, stirring often, until thickened, about 1 minute.  Cool to room temperature.  Sauce may be made 3 days ahead.  Store covered in the refrigerator.

Roll ingredient lineup:

Peanut Sauce ingredient lineup:

Place a piece of rice paper into the warm water.  It will immediately start to soften.

The rice paper will completely soften in the warm water.

When the paper is soft, it gets really sticky.  This was the easiest way I

 found to let the water drip off without the edges sticking to themselves.

Carefully lay the rice paper down on a smooth surface.

And begin layering the ingredients.

Bean sprouts.

Carrot sticks.

Rice noodles.

Thai basil.

Mint leaves.

Shrimp halves.

Crushed peanuts.

Begin rolling like you would a burrito.

The rice paper is sticky and tricky, but try to roll it tightly.