Asian cuisine is one of my favorites cuisines to explore and cook, especially in the warmer weather like now. It contains a lot of fresh and fragrant ingredients and flavours that are so refreshing. Today’s dish is a Vietnamese classic appetizer but with my Lebanese twist.
I decided to fold some unusual ingredients that does not conventionally belong inside those rolls.
I wanted to create a Lebanese middle eastern flavours with those fun rolls. And let me tell you it was a hit!
Even my husband that doesn’t usually like blending unusual flavours and ingredients demolished a big plate of those Lebanese style summer rolls and he even liked it better than the Asian ones because he loves middle eastern kind of food.
These summer beauties are so easy to do and doesn’t take too long, perfect for summer BBQ parties and for a cold lunch box bite.
You can prepare and cut your veggies in advance and mix up the dipping sauce and rolling these bites will be ready to roll in no time. They pack up nicely and store in the fridge very well for several days so you can enjoy any leftovers or make them ahead for you lunch box.
These Lebanese flavored rolls are:
- Simple
- Fresh
- Juicy
- Crunchy
- Herby
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Savory-sweet
- Light
- Healthy
- Yet very satisfying
Inside you will find:
- Fresh mint
- Coriander
- Parsley
- purslane
- Green onions
- Lettuce
- Radish
- Turnip
- Crunchy chickpeas and walnuts
- & delicious pink turnip pickles
And to make them even more awesome, I served them with a earthy delicious tahini dipping sauce. Can it get any more delicious than that?
So let’s start rolling!
Aromatic Sweet Date Brioche “Maarouk” – annacookingconcept
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Lebanese Vegan Summer Rolls
Ingredients
For the dipping sauce:
- 4 tbsp tahini
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- ½ tbsp honey or vegan alternative, see notes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 tsp fresh ginger grated
- ¼ tsp of each: black pepper cumin powder, sweet pepper, salt
- ½ tsp sweet paprika
- 2 tsp sumac
For the summer rolls:
- 12 rice paper wrappers mine were 16 cm diameter
- 1 large cucumber julienned
- 2 turnip heads julienned
- Green onion cut into 10 cm strips
- 1 bunch fresh parsley
- 1 bunch fresh mint
- 1 bunch fresh coriander
- 1 bunch fresh purslane
- Lettuce leaves roughly cut into smaller pieces (see notes)
- Radish cut into thin circles
- ½ cup turnip pink pickles sliced evenly (see notes for recipe)
- ½ cup uncooked chickpeas soaked overnight (see notes)
- ½ cup roughly chopped walnuts
Instructions
For the dipping sauce:
- Whisk all sauce ingredients together and set aside for the flavours to marry. You can thin it with some water if you find it to thick to your liking.
For the summer rolls:
- Prepare and cut all your veggies ahead before start rolling.
- Dampen a clean kitchen towel and put on clean surface.
- To assemble spring rolls, pour some warm water into a shallow dish and immerse rice paper for only 10 seconds to soften, transfer to the damp towel.
- To the bottom third of the wrap , start with some herb leaves and chickpeas pieces and a line of radish slices on top of it, than add lettuce and layer the cucumber, turnip, onion, turnip pickles on top of it. Add some more of the herbs: mint, parsley, coriander, purslane sprinkle some more chickpeas and crushed walnuts on top. make sure you do not overfill and leave the edges empty so you can close it up.
- Gently fold over once, tuck in edges and continue rolling until seam is sealed.it is like rolling a burrito.
- I am using 16 cm diameter wraps, so I usually stick inside a 10 cm area in the middle. It may take a little practice, so don’t feel bad if your first few attempts are a fail!
- Repeat until you have run out of fillings or wrappers. Place seam-side down on the serving platter and cover with damp towel to keep fresh. Damp each roll alone just before you want to roll don’t damp all wraps at the same time. And don’t damp in water more than 10 sec it will tear up while you are rolling.
- Cut rolls in half and enjoy them fresh dipped in the tahini sauce.
- You can store leftovers wrapped individually in plastic wrap to keep them fresh for couple of days, though best when fresh.
Notes
- Honey : to keep these rolls 100% vegan I tried several vegan syrups as alternative but my absolute two favorites are maple syrup and Carob molasses دبس الخروب
- Rice wrappers: look for wholesome clean rice wrapper brand that only contain the basic ingredients. I used here the 16 cm diameter wraps but there is bigger size of 22 cm if you prefer and found easier to work with.
- Lettuce: I tried to cut my lettuce leaves into rectangle kind of shape so I can layer my filling inside it , it will be easier to roll and less risk of tearing the wraps with the crunchy fillings
- Turnip pickles: turnip pickles is a very interesting element to add in these wraps , it add a very unique flavor , texture and color to these wraps and it is one of the Lebanese ingredients that will make those rolls pop. You can check my easy recipe on how to prepare those very easily at home and you can find them in grocery stores in the middle eastern section.
- Chickpeas: you can use a can of chickpeas, but to keep the crunch and super delicious taste of the chickpeas I highly recommend using the overnight soaked one instead of the cooked one. It is just very simple to prepare, just wash and soak the dry chickpeas in water overnight and the next day you will have crunchy delicious chickpeas.
- Storing the summer wraps: you can store those wraps two ways. By wrapping each wrap individually with plastic wraps and store in fridge for two days. And you can store in a container with a damp towel on top of them and closed it very well.