Avocado Spring Rolls

These are not your ordinary spring rolls. I don’t remember the exact date I first tried these at The Cheesecake Factory, but I think we were in California with my boys and mother in law on a trip to Disneyland.



“Avocado spring rolls... that sounds interesting”, I thought.

“Oh we may want to order two of those” my mother-in-law's sister told us.

Well, she was right. We gobbled those up so quickly and even made an out of the way trip back to the Cheesecake Factory, a few days later, to pick up some more before our flight home. Yep, they were that good.

Since we don’t have a Cheesecake Factory in Oregon yet, I knew I needed to recreate these to share with my friends and family. So here is my version of avocado spring rolls, but you may want to double this recipe.

Dipping Sauce

1 Tbs white vinegar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
½ tamarind pulp
½ cup honey or agave
1 pinch ground saffron
½ chopped cashews
2/3 cup fresh cilantro
2 cloves garlic
2 green onions
1 Tbs sugar (optional)
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
¼ cup olive oil

In a small pot mix vinegars, tamarind paste, honey and saffron and heat for about 1 minute, until tamarind dissolves. Puree this mixture, cashews, cilantro, garlic, green onions, sugar (if using), pepper and cumin in food processor.

Pour mixture into bowl and stir in oil. Refrigerate until ready to use. Make sure to save any leftovers. This is an excellent dip for fresh veggies!

Spring Rolls

1 large avocado, pitted and diced
2 Tbs sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
1 Tbs minced red onion
½ tsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 pinch salt
Egg roll wrappers
Cornstarch and warm water to seal rolls

Gently stir together avocadoes, sun dried tomatoes, red onions, ½ tsp of cilantro and salt.

Create a glue with the cornstarch and warm water to use to hold the spring roll together.

Distributed filling evenly onto center of each egg roll wrapper

Position wrapper so the point is facing you, fold the bottom corner up so it just covers the filling. Continue rolling up from side to side fold corners in and seal with cornstarch mix.

Deep fry rolls in hot oil for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper bag.



For those of you more health conscious individuals, you can try baking them on 425 for 15 minutes then flip and cook for an additional 10 minutes.



Slice rolls diagonally across the middle and serve with dipping sauce. Oh, and be sure to take a couple for yourself, cause they’re gonna go real fast.

Nut/seed milk pulp creation

Now that we have told you how to make your own nut or seed milks, you're asking, "what do I do with the pulp you had me reserve?". Well, here is one of the latest raw nut/seed milk pulp creations, inspired by the recent Sweet Potato Pumpkin Soup.

This is a simple, yet tasty way to utilize the reserved pulps, so you don't have to waste your food or money. I don't have a name for it as of yet, and I really dislike naming things 'mock' this or 'mock' that. If I were to follow the typical 'Raw Food Recipe' trends, I would probably name it something like 'Mock Pumpkin Cheese Gnocchi'. However, I feel that this tends to give us a false conception of what the recipe should taste like and does not do justice to our palette or the food. Therefore, I believe that living food recipes should be in a category all their own. So if this looks interesting enough for you to try, let me know what you think... help me name it.

Ingredients:
Reserved pulp from nut or seed milk ( especially tasty if you use the Pumpkin Spice Milk in the Sweet Potato Pumpkin Soup recipe)
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Sea Salt to taste
Nutritional Yeast to taste
A couple of shakes of all should do. Again, taste it as you go. Start little and add more in small increments. When it comes to raw food, use the KISS principle ( Keep It Simple Silly).

When you are happy with the flavor, mold the pulp into little gnocchi shaped balls, or whatever you like. If you have a dehydrator, and have some time to wait before you eat, go ahead and put them in on low for a while. Slightly hard on the outside, chewy on the inside is PERFECT. If you are like me, and don't want to wait, no big deal- just arrange on a bed of mixed greens and add the Sweet Potato Pumpkin Soup as a sauce and enjoy right away.

Sweet Potato & Pumpkin Soup

A recent creation- this soup is creamy, sweet, savory and incredibly easy!







Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Pumpkin Spice Milk (recipe to follow)
2 Medium Sweet Potatoes
1/4 Tsp Sea Salt

Blend all till creamy and smooth in Vitamix.

Pumpkin Spice Milk ingredients:

1 Cup Raw Pumpkin Seeds (also known as Pepitas)
4 1/2 Cups Water
Pinch Sea Salt
1/4 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
4 Tbsp Raw Honey (+/-)

First blend seeds with water, then strain through nut milk bag and reserve pulp.
Next, pour milk back into Vitamix and add remaining ingredients. Blend for a few seconds and taste. If you want, start off with less honey, and continue adding more until satisfied.


To learn more about the benefits of raw pumpkin seeds and raw sweet potatoes check out the links below.

http://health.learninginfo.org/herbs/pumpkin-seeds.htm

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=64

* For those of you who would rather the soup be cooked, just leave the Vitamix on longer.