Ginger Soy Glazed Carrot Spring Rolls

Ray and I love, love, love to go to our local Thai restaurant.  There are 2 things on the menu that we always order, the Sashimi Chef's choice and the spring rolls.  The spring rolls are fresh and crisp and I love the licorice flavor of the Thai basil.  I saw on a favorite blogger's site Naturally Ella her I'm craving edition of spring rolls.  It immediately made me want to find rice paper.  We went shopping in Little Vietnam, a district in Orlando for my foodie penpal and I knew that I could make it a dual purpose trip and pick up some things for our pantry.

Sunday's are our "food prep" day where we batch cook and clean up the veggies and fruits and make everything accessible for the work week.  After we were done with that I knew today would be the perfect day for it.  

Ingredients (however this is easy to customize add or sub whatever you prefer)

1 teaspoon Persian Lime Olive Oil (sub in regular EVOO if needed)

1 teaspoon Coconut White Balsamic Vinegar

1 teaspoon Low Sodium Soy Sauce

1/2 teaspoon Ginger root- peeled and grated

2 Carrots - peeled and cut into small strips

2 Celery - cut into small strips

1/2 cup of loosely packed Artisan lettuce

4 sprigsThai Basil

5-6 sprigs Cilantro

8-Mint Leaves

4 sheets of rice paper

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a saute pan and grate in the ginger and add the carrots.  Saute over a medium low heat.  Prep and arrange the rest of the ingredients on a cutting board to make it easier when assembly begins of the rolls.  Take the carrots off the stovetop when they have a nice glaze, but still have a nice crisp to them and set on the cutting board with other ingredients.  Fill a large bowl with lukewarm water and place one rice paper in the water until it was pliable, then take it out and add the lettuce, thai basil, cilantro, mint leaves, celery and carrots.  Fold in the ends and wrap similar to a burrito. 

Viola!  We didn't use a dipping sauce this time around, but I'll be playing with different ingredients to make one for the next time.  I also made this Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle & Veggie Soup.  I'll be adding the recipe to the blog in the next couple of days. 

Roasted Tomato & Lentil Soup

We had a busy day running around and got stuck in the rain, not a little bit or rain, like monsoon pour.  So I started craving homemade soup and remembered seeing an entry from Linda Wagner's Nutrition to invigorate mind, body, and spirit's blog and started thinking of making something along those lines, but adding in lentils.  We got home and I immediately got working in the kitchen.

I preheated the oven to 350 and on parchment lined roasting pan added for about 15 minutes :
9 vine tomatoes cut in half
2 cloves of elephant garlic
1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of serrano honey vinegar (substitute balsamic)
pinch of sea salt
freshly grated black pepper

I rehydrated the 1 cup of dry lentils over the stove top with 2 cups of water for 15 minutes on medium high heat while the tomatoes were roasting and in a different pan I sauteed on the stovetop with a drizzle of EVOO:
3 green onions diced
1/2 yellow onion diced
1 teaspoon of hot chili pepper flakes.

I then combined both of the contents of the saute pan and roasting pan into the food processor and pulsed for 45 sec to a minute with 3 sprigs of fresh thyme and one sprig of fresh oregano and drained the lentils.  I then added the tomato mixture and the lentils back to the sauce pan and added 1/2 tablespoon of organic brown sugar and left the heat on medium low to simmer for another 10 minutes.  I spooned into a bowl and added diced green onions on top.

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