#coldroll

        On the few nights a week I end up not cooking, my partner and I spend more time than necessary deliberating on what we can pick up. We go through the large pile of take out menus, spend countless minutes browsing the forums on yelp and try to decipher what we're craving by calling out different food groups.

About 1/3 times I blurt-out that I'm craving one thing and one thing only. This usually sends him pulling at his hair, as there's very few places to order it from, resulting in many more wasted minutes of no food on the dinner table. Sorry love. 

What is this mystery food you ask? We'll I've written about it before and I could literally eat it everyday. Bonus: Sirachi is a great flavor companion, but most importantly this dish is incredibly healthy and diversible.

I'm talking about the COLD ROLL. The food that lets you open your fridge, take whatever you have in it, and stuff it in a rice wrapper. Well, with some sense of precision and thought of course. I don't recommend a casserole leftover or sandwich meats (I'm hoping you don't have sandwich meats), but rather some fresh veggies, some kind of a protein and an herb to bring an added taste experience.

I was having just that kind of, 'craving a cold roll' night not too long ago, but too the amazement of my partner, I was prepared to make it at home. I had a whole bunch of fresh goodies waiting to be used: sweet potato, avocado, cucumber, radicchio, yellow pepper, vermicelli, basil, mint and pumpkin seeds. I've never made a cold roll with a cooked root vegetable, so I thought that adding the pumpkin seeds would make for a nice fall dish. Just in time for pumpkin season! The cold roll doesn't need this many ingredients. They're even just as delicious with some slivers of cucumber, shreds of carrot, a wedge of tofu, sprouts, coriander and noodles.

RECIPE:

Yields - as many as you want, I made nine.

| Ingredients |

Nine rice paper wraps (any brand will do)

½ a yellow pepper cut into thin pieces

½ a radicchio cut into thin pieces

One avocado

1 quarter of a cucumber cut into thin triangle slivers

3 cups of cooked vermicelli

One large sweet potato cut into small cubes and baked until crispy

Bunch of basil

Bunch of mint

½ cup of pumpkin seeds

Sirachi or Hoisin or both for dipping

| Preparation |

Preheat oven to 450 d and cut large sweet potato into small cubes. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake for 45 minutes or until crispy. Wait until they cool to wrap.

Lay out a working table with a hot bowl of water (large enough to fit a rice wrapper in it) and all of your ingredients. It’s easier to maneuver quickly with everything laid out in front of you.

You want to use your ingredients sparingly as it's difficult to close these if you they are too stuffed. Whatever you do though, do not stinge on the ingredients. My method is as follows.

Dip wrapper into hot water until softens but still slightly stiff on edges (if will soften up out of water).

Lay out on a clean kitchen cloth.

Place the vermicelli on the bottom (small handful), on the right side two slits of yellow pepper and some radicchio, on the right side two pieces of avocado. 

Layer the sweet potato on top in addition to the mint and basil leafs

Sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top

Wrap and seal.

        I have included a video that walks you through the step-by-step guide to wrapping cold rolls. 

Eventually you'll get the hang of wrapping these and then find yourself at odds when choosing the perfect sauce to dip into: peanut, sirachi, sweet sour, hoisin, tahini...the list goes on and on. I love them all.