It would have been a perfect day to make a veggie burger for our neighborhood block party, but instead I made a lentil dal from Forks over Knives AND salad rolls.
Forks over Knives was one of the critical turning points in changing how I ate. There were two reasons: one was my daughter, and one was this film. After watching the film over three years ago, I decided to try a month eating vegan. Pretty powerful. And the strange thing is, the health reasons that started me down this path are not what keeps me on the path at all.
I’m strongly motivated not to eat meat mostly because of how it affects our planet and all who exist on it. Then knowing the suffering of the animals keeps me from being overwhelmed by the enormity of trying to affect climate change. Finally, I hope that our family will be healthier in the end for it. I do take iron and B12, and pay attention to balancing our diet, taking time to incorporate a wide variety of vegetables. A very small effort to make.
I made the lentil dal because it sounded good to me. And it tastes good to my husband and I, but honestly, the kids aren’t a big fan of it.
So, I thought I would attempt to make Vietnamese salad rolls. We have a store nearby, Bui’s Natural Tofu, that makes the best rolls and tofu. The kind I buy all the time to take to potlucks. Their lemongrass tofu is amazing, as well as the green onion tofu.
Making salad rolls was a bit more difficult than I thought because I had to bake some tofu, which required a marinade, and the peanut sauce for dipping (that part was pretty easy). I julienned some vegetables, and cooked some rice noodles. But, when I tried to assemble them, they just didn’t come together that well. I think I needed larger wraps for one thing. It wasn’t a total fail, and I want to try it again, but just not with that recipe.
If anyone has a good recipe for Asian salad rolls, please let me know!