On a recent trip, I packed spring rolls for the flight – a travel first for me. Over the years I’ve done leftover sesame noodles, veggie burgers, quinoa bites, quinoa patties, and chickpea salad – but never spring rolls. The time of year was all wrong for any sort of traditional Vietnamese-inspired spring rolls or summer rolls (it was February), but a wintery version would be fun to experiment with. Here’s where I landed: rice paper wrappers were slathered generously with an impromptu gingery-onion paste, stiff-spined lettuce leaves were added for crunch, brown sugar-rubbed tofu and mushrooms anchored everything, and lots of herbs (in this case cilantro) sealed the deal.

Make Ahead Friendly

When you have a glance at the recipe you might think it looks a bit component-y, but that’s just the nature of spring rolls. In many cases they actually come together pretty quickly. And the good news is, here, you can prep the onion paste and tofu – actually almost all of the ingredients – a day or two ahead of time.

No Dipping Sauce?

If you get the seasoning right on each of the components here, I’m going to argue, you don’t need a dipping sauce. I was aiming for a self-contained rolls, with no additional liquids going through airport security. That said, I made these a number of times in the weeks leading up to my trip, and they are certainly good with a simple soy dipping sauce. Or, I do a simple twist on peanut sauce with almond butter (in place of the peanut butter) thinned with a bit of soy sauce, splash of mirin, and either fresh lemon juice or brown rice vinegar to cut the creaminess of the nut butter. Thin with some hot water until it is the consistency you like.

On the Go

I love a good on-the-go lunch. And (real talk) while it doesn’t always happen around here, when it does, it’s always worth the effort. I did a big post about some of my favorite feel-good lunch ideas recently, and it’s worth a glance if you regularly pack a lunch for travel, work, school, or a road trip.

More Winter Recipes

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