27 July 2017

Healthy Spring Summer Rolls

Have you ever realised that you just go with the flow and you desperately need to stop and stare? This has been my condition for couple of weeks recently until I just couldn't neither sleep well, nor relax. And then I decided it was time to change. Maybe not fully change everything but at least my attitude. Because in the end work is just work and "life is what you miss when you are busy making your own plans", right?

Nowadays, we are victims of a speedy life when time is precious and everything is done on our ways. But the thing is, when we are trying to recall even what we ate yesterday we can hardly remember the menu... Hm... Of course! If a person eats, watches a movie, talks to a friend and checks an extremely interesting Instagram account she has bumped into by chance and all of it simultaneously, the brain does not really concentrate on a particular activity. Which means that our body is actually not really expecting the food we are consuming at such moments and we do not even notice how we eat our daily portion in a bite. 

And therefore another trend gets even more popular. SLOW FOOD. Slow living, slow time, slow food... Whatever you call it. We have to just go back to the basics. Eating and enjoying each bite. Because that is what brings us the most benefit. Add a good company to this, cook your food together and then enjoy it at the big table. That is what a slow life should be like... 
My input in the slow living today is a wonderful recipe of spring rolls. Made in the summer but that does not matter because they taste perfect during any season. Done very quickly. And suitable even for parties.

Ingredients:
yields 8 rolls

8 rice paper sheets (*easy to find in the Asian stores)
200 g fresh salmon
1/2 avocado
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 cucumber
10 cherry tomatoes (*my choice San Marzano)
2 cups salad leaves
1 cup precooked black rice
1 cup precooked quinoa
Philadelphia cheese 
fresh herbs
soy sauce
1 tsp Wasabi

The trick with the rice paper is that you need to soak it in a cold water in order to make it flexible and sticky. So prepare a bowl with cold water and set it aside. Wash the veggies and cut them into pieces (medium size, not turning into mush). Wash salmon loin and cut it into long pieces about 1 cm wide and 0.5 cm thick. Put the first sheet of rice paper into the water and keep an eye on it. The water should just cover it. Wait until it gets flexible and take it out. Put it on a plate and start filling. So just put a salmon string into the middle, Then some rice beside it, add veggies alongside, Philadelphia and herbs. Then fold as shown below.
   
Do the same with the second sheet and continue until you wrap all of them. As you've already understood you can use any vegetables you like and be creative.The original recipe would contain sushi rice but using black rice or red rice, quinoa will be much healthier and more beneficial for you so the choice is up to you :)

Serve the rolls with say sauce mixed with wasabi. Just dip the roll into the sauce and enjoy the taste...



Fro home-made to gourmet. 

XoXo
Anastasiya