Eat Me.

Anything you can do we can do vegan.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Waldorf Salad Spring Rolls


























We made the Waldorf salad spring rolls for the Fourth of July/Emily's Birthday Party and they were fantastically yummy. So yummy and fun to make I had dreams of starting my own vegan catering business serving Waldorf salad spring rolls and ... well that would be it I guess. They worked really well as party food and everyone seemed to really love them. One person thought they were individually wrapped apples at first glance and another guest (drunk) suggested since they were so good I should buy a bed and breakfast that's on the market by her house at the rock bottom price of $799,000. (But it has 8 bedrooms! And if it doesn't work out Amos and I can just have 7 kids!)

Waldorf Salad has been a favorite for over a century hopefully fueling crazy ideas the whole while. From what I have read the salad got it's name from the Waldorf Hotel (former name of Waldorf-Astoria Hotel) in New York City where it was created in 1893.

Below is the recipe. I tweaked around with the ingredients from several recipes found throughout the net. I have to warn you I have never had an original Waldorf salad (and probably won't now since they are traditionally made with mayonnaise) so can't verify how close this actually tastes to the original. I also de-constructed the salad a bit - slicing the apples thinly rather than chopping them so I could roll them up and reference the beautiful spring rolls served in Vietnamese restaurants throughout New Orleans.

Waldorf Salad Spring Rolls


You Will Need:

For the Dressing:
4 T Olive Oil
1.5 t Sugar
1 T Lemon Juice
1/8 t Salt
1/2 t Allspice
Zest of 1/2 Large Lemon

For the Filling:
1/2 C Chopped Walnuts
1/2 C Dried Fruit (I used dried cranberries)
4 C Fresh Baby Spinach
1-2 Large Apples (I used Cameo)
2-4 T Lemon Juice

12 Round Rice Papers, Broken in Half (Found at an Asian Grocery)

For the Dipping Sauce:
1/2 C Soy Yogurt or Vegan Mayonnaise
1 T Lemon Juice
1 T Sugar (Or to taste)
1-3 T Lemon Juice (to taste)
1 t Allspice

Method:

Prepare all ingredients. Wash spinach if necessary and dry then place in large bowl. Roast walnuts in a nonstick pan on the stove over medium heat stirring frequently or in a toaster oven on the toast setting until brown. Mix in medium bowl with dried fruit. Wash and halve apples. Slice apples thinly (1/8") removing nasty bits of the core. In a medium bowl pour 2-4 T lemon juice over apples and stir gently. For the wrappers get a kettle of 4 cups of water boiling (or just warm if possible) on the stove. Clear a workspace large enough where you can lay a damp kitchen towel down and a platter on which to place the spring rolls.

Now in a medium to small bowl whisk together all ingredients in the top batch of list above. Toss 3 T of the dressing with the spinach and the additional 1T of the dressing with the walnuts and dried fruit. I prefer my greens in spring rolls rather dry so I added a quite a bit of spinach. Add dressing to spinach gradually if you think it might become too wet.

In a shallow plate pour warm water and let 1 wrapper soak for 5 seconds or until translucent and supple. Place on damp kitchen towel. Place 1 apple slice in the center of wrapper. Add approximately 1.5 t of the walnut/dried fruit mixture. Then to top it off add a bunch of spinach tucking under stems and pieces of leaf until a nice little rectangle shape not much bigger than the apple is formed. To roll fold one long side over while holding filling firmly in place. Fold short ends over then fold the remaining long side. Pull sides taught when folding to make sure filling in roll doesn't fall out when picked up or while eaten. Place on serving platter. Separate layers of spring rolls with parchment paper or other material to keep them from sticking to one another.

For the dipping sauce mix all ingredients in bowl and serve or cover and refrigerate.

Makes 24 party size rolls.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

hey that looks super yummy. i hope that you will make it for me sometime?

love
katie

Unknown said...

this looks amazing and i'm so pro-meat! i will definitely try this.