Tessonja's Cleansing Raw Spring Rolls

Last night I made my idea of Cleansing Raw Spring Rolls. "Cleansing," meaning they don't have any heavy, dense ingredients like nut pate or rich sauces. Don't get me wrong, nut pates, Thai almond butter sauces, and maple teriyaki sauces are amazingly delicious! It's just that I was feeling a little heavy and weighed down and just wanted something light and fresh yet not boring. I love salads but I wanted to make something different. So I came up with my own spring rolls!

Recipe: I didn't exactly use measurements or anything. I just chopped up all the veggies I wanted to use and filled them in the wrappers until they were nice and full. I only wanted two rolls, so I have a ton of leftovers for today and tomorrow. These ingredients could probably make anywhere from 4 to 10 servings, depending on how big/how many spring rolls you want to make! So feel free to use as much or as little as you want!

Wrapper:

One bunch collard greens or chard (I usually use collard greens but it turns out green chard works perfectly, as well! You could also use a romaine lettuce leaf, cabbage leaves, or any other wide greens you desire)

Marinated mushroom filling:
(I just improvised with the amounts here and adjusted to taste as I went on, but here are the approximate measurements)-
10+ Shiitake or 2+ Portobello mushrooms
1 1/2 Tbsp nama shoyu or to taste
1 Tbsp sesame oil
pinch cayenne
pinch chili powder
pinch cumin
small amount of water to ensure the mushrooms are completely covered. Taste and adjust ingredients if needed. Let marinate while you work on the rest.

Veggies/toppings:
1 diakon radish, julienned
1 carrot, julienned
1/2 cucumber, julienned
1 medium red bell pepper, julienned
1 avacado, cut in slices
1 mango (optional), cut in slices
1 bunch cilantro
Bean sprouts

Take one chard leaf and cut off the end with the thick stem. Place desired amount of marinated mushrooms in the middle of the leaf (along the stem) and top with small handfulls of each of the veggies/toppings. Roll the same way you would a burrito or fold like a taco. The best (and prettiest) way is to roll the end opposit the stem (the thin, flat, wide end) over the filling, then roll one of the sides over the filling, and then roll tightly toward the other side. The result should look like a traditional spring roll or burrito, with the filling showing through the end the stem had been cut from.

By themselves, these were delicious. Light, fresh, and tasty. They also would have tasted wonderful with a sweet or savory dip, like a maple teriyaki sauce, chili-mango sauce, spicy honey mustard or spicy Thai almond butter sauce. But I chose to make a simple wasabe-nama shoyu dip, like what I use with sushi/nori rolls. It wasn't perfect though. The wasabe didn't quite complement the flavors in the roll. I think I will make a spicy honey mustard sauce for my leftovers tonight or just eat them plain.

Notes and suggestions: Most of the flavor comes from the marinated mushrooms, so use as much of the filling as you desire; more will be better if you aren't going to be using a savory dipping sauce. Another flavor factor is avacado. I love avacado and will be using more in my wraps tonight. Last night I only used two slices in each, and that just wasn't enough for me.

Serve these with an asian coleslaw. I made the cabbage coleslaw from The Raw Food Detox Diet. While it wasn't exactly an asian closeslaw, the "liquid gold elixir" dressing from the recipe has ginger, lemon, nama shoyu, and garlic, so it complemented my meal well enough. I also made creamy tomato soup from Raw Food Life Force Energy. The soup was really good and would be a perfect summer soup. It didn't really go with the meal, though. And I got full/tired of the soup after a few big spoonfuls. I would suggest serving it with raw corn chips, like the ones from Raw Food Real World.

For dessert, I made Banana Chocolate Mint ice cream topped with chopped pieces of Green and Blacks 70% dark chocolate bar.

Recipe:
3 frozen bananas (in slices)
1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder (or raw carob)
1/8 tsp peppermint extract (or try handful mint leaves)
1 Tbsp agave nectar (optional, the bananas usually make it sweet enough as-is)
1/4 70% dark chocolate bar, chopped (optional. Try cacao nibs for a truly raw alternative)

Blend all ingredients except dark chocolate bar with a small amount of water (unless you have an amazing blender like a vitamix) until smooth. If you are like me, and don't have a vita mix, you might want to leave the frozen bananas out for awhile until they start to soften up a bit. It took forever to blend those frozen bananas smooth!

The best step after this would be to place mixture in an ice cream maker. I do have one, but I was too lazy to wait so I just poured the not-so-thick mixture into a bowl in the freezer for about 10 minutes, and then ate it as it was- more like a frozen pudding than a true ice cream. But it still tasted amazing, and goes to show that you can make a ton of recipes without fancy equipment!