Garden of Eden Spring Rolls with Creamy Peanut-Ginger Dipping Sauce

Do you love Spring?  


I do!

The explosion of colors and bursts of new life everywhere make my heart very happy.


Violas and Pansies are among the first to bloom here ~ these little jewels reseed themselves each year in abundance all over the garden. Since we garden organically with no chemicals, the flowers are edible.


 In case you're wondering, the dogs and chickens are not allowed in this part of the garden. ;-)  










Spring and Summer mean lighter meals around here, so you can probably guess where I'm going with this.

Garden of Eden Spring Rolls filled with all kinds of colorful goodness and herbs. And the bonus is ~  there no real "cooking" involved, just boil the rice noodles for 3 minutes.
The rest is a matter of rinsing the greens, discarding the tough stems, a little bit of slicing and you're ready to "roll".


This one is a combination of a couple of Spring Roll recipes, and close to the one found in the Whole Foods cookbook.
(Theirs are called Garden of Eva Spring Rolls.)


If you are gluten sensitive, it's your lucky day as these rolls (and the rice noodles in the filling) are naturally gluten free.

The wrappers (skins) are made from Tapioca flour (Manioc) and can be found in a well stocked supermarket, or Asian food store.

Brittle and translucent out of the package, they become pliable and soft when soaked for 30 seconds in very hot water, and then are ready to fill and roll.

I serve them with a simple peanut sauce;  Creamy peanut butter, finely grated ginger, sugar (or your favorite sweetener), soy sauce, lime juice, water ~ and chilies if you want it spicy.  This time, because of the delicately flavored flower blossoms, I made it without the chilies.

The ingredients for the filling are finely sliced Napa cabbage (you can use green cabbage, too), baby spinach leaves, Thai or regular basil leaves, fresh cilantro leaves, flat leaf parsley, fresh mint, thinly sliced scallions, edible flowers, and rice/bean thread noodles.

You can use any kind of organic edible petals or small flowers.

If you don't have access to edible flowers you can omit them and substitute a combination of bean sprouts, finely grated carrots, and perhaps some shredded purple cabbage.

I definitely need practice rolling the wrappers ~ they are slippery after soaking ~ making them a little more challenging to roll than Egg Roll wrappers, in my opinion.

But it doesn't matter how neatly they are rolled, they still taste fabulous . . .

Supremely fresh and healthy!

If you would like a printable copy of the recipe, you'll find it on the Once Upon a Plate Recipe Blog.

Thank you for coming by to visit today! 

~ mari