(See-ya) Summer Rolls

It's that time of year when fall creeps in, slowly dissolving summer in crisp nights and 7 pm sunsets. With said fall comes school and/or a new work season, and with school/work comes a new need for easy meal preparations. In my opinion, summer rolls are a perfect example of this. You can fill them with rice noodles and pretty much whatever fresh veggies you want, and they're much more exciting than thrown-together sandwiches and last-minute salads. They're easy to make, cheap, and a true delight. Anyways, this recipe is just an example of the various summer rolls you could make - please excuse my imprecise measurements and approximations, I like to write recipes as I cook with minimal planning involved. :)

SUMMER ROLLS -rice wrappers (cheap, found in the Asian food section of any grocery store)

-rice noodles (flat, vermicelli, etc.)

-carrots, peeled into strips (see photo for the approximate portion sizes I used)

-peanuts, chopped

-snap peas, chopped

-green onion, chopped

PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE -2 heaping tbsp of unsweetened peanut butter

-2 tsp soya sauce

-1 tsp hoisin sauce

-1/2 tbsp lime juice

-pinch of chilli flakes

-1/4 tsp minced garlic

-water (enough to thin the mixture) -sesame seeds (to garnish)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Boil rice noodles in a pot. Whilst bowling, prepare other filling ingredients.

2. Place a rice wrapper on a place. Cover in hot/warm water (I used the water that I boiled the noodles in to save water + energy) till paper becomes pliable and soft, then pour the water off.

3. Place desired fillings on wrapper. Reference attached photo for rough amounts of filling (in retrospect, I would have actually used less fillings OR doubled on rice wrappers, since they ended up being a bit more fragile than expected). I layered veggies-noodles-veggies for the sake of aesthetics.

4. Roll-up the wrapper. There isn't necessarily a fancy way to do this - I'd recommend Youtubing it for precision if you so desire.

5. Whilst rolls cool (my portions produced about 5 summer rolls), mix all sauce ingredients. I heated-up the peanut butter a bit to soften it, and added water to thin it out. I'm still perfecting this sauce - but it did the job.

6. Enjoy! I already know I'm going to be thinking about these rolls longingly during my cognitive psychology class tomorrow.