Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce
*makes approximately 8-10 (well filled) rolls

When I was working at Lifetime Television, my first real job in the big city, the office building was across the street from a Food Emporium. As a kid from Brooklyn the Food Emporium was FANCYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. I only knew Waldbaums, Key Food and Shop Rite — and every fruit and vegetable stand in Bay Ridge and on Avenue U. But I loved to go into Food Emporium on my lunch break (it was 2003, mind you) and scope out the sushi section, among many other delights that were beautifully stacked and color coded in the refrigerated “to go” section. Everything was priced way above my pay grade, every thing but one item.

In one corner of the open refrigerators, hidden behind the elegantly layered specialty sushi rolls, and plastic boxes strategically stacked with colorful sushi and sashimi — past the neon green seaweed salad, edamame and small packages of shrimp shumai — there were summer rolls. The summer rolls were encased in rice paper and stuffed to the brim with julienned vegetables and avocado. There were vegetarian options as well as three protein choices — grilled chicken, crab or shrimp. They were packaged with plastic green grass that separated every sticky rice paper roll and they came with a gelatinous, sweet and sour sauce for dipping and licking your fingers afterwards. For the $10.00 an hour I made, this $4.00 lunch was a bargain and on budget. When paired with the free green tea (that I would ice and add lemon and honey too) that I made in the break room, I felt like I was dining out in my cubicle. As I picked up the sticky rolls, dipped and took tiny bites (there were only 2 rolls or 4 pieces in a package) I ceremoniously ate and sipped tea for a full hour. After the rolls were done, I’d then use chopsticks (I’d always ask for chopsticks at checkout) to pick up any last bits of vegetables that fell out of the rolls while I was eating. Sure to get my $4.00 worth, no veggie was left behind — not on my watch.

Fast forward to 2025 as I’m summer living with my parents and trying to think of new meals to make every night of the week (you know, along with the rap sheet of standard meals that get cycled in on repeat). It’s been hot and the theme here is light and healthy with mom’s surgery recovery, Tommy’s inflammation and dad’s dementia. I try to keep meals, balanced, FUN, colorful, veggie forward, filled with healthy fats, carbs and TASTINESS. So, I pulled out my 2003 taste memory and recreated summer rolls, but instead of bathing them in a gelatinous sweet and sour sauce (that no doubt was laden with high fructose corn syrup), I whipped up a spicy and sweet peanut sauce to hit the healthy fat marker and to help with satiety for such a light meal.

These make a really great lunch, but for dinner they can be easily kept vegetarian and paired with a slaw or Asian inspired taco that has been topped with protein (think pork tender loin) or even a shrimp stir fry.

You can have fun and play with the vegetables in the summer rolls. Below are just suggestions and what I had on hand in the house, so feel free to create your very own, new, colorful and budget friendly meal memory. I like filling these rolls with colorful vegetables that are fresh and crunchy! When combined with the peanut sauce they make a very satisfying meal or snack with a lot of texture. Enjoy!

Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce
*makes approximately 8-10 (well filled) rolls

Ingredients for the rolls

1 x package of rice paper
1/2 a head of iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced (paper thin)
1 x 8 oz. bag of shredded carrots, or 4 medium carrots, julienned
1 x 8 oz. bag of shredded coleslaw, or, preferred, 1 small head of red cabbage, thinly sliced (paper thin)
1 x red, yellow and orange bell pepper, each seeded, cut in half and then julienned
1 bunch of scallions, julienned
1 x English or seedless cucumber, halved and julienned
1 large avocado, halve, pit removed thinly sliced
Optional: finely chopped cilantro to sprinkle inside of the rolls before rolling
**note: you can add thinly sliced grilled chicken, leftover pork tenderloin, crab stick (imitation crab meat) or boiled shrimp — whole or chopped, to the rolls for an additional protein source

Ingredients for the peanut dipping sauce

1/3 cup of natural, smooth peanut butter (I prefer Teddy or Skippy — natural)
1/3 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of rice vinegar
1 teaspoon of fish sauce
3 cloves of garlic, pressed or super minced
2 thumbs of ginger, grated
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
Water, as needed, to very slightly THIN the peanut sauce **note: you don’t want to water it down so add it 1 tablespoon at a time
Salted and roasted peanuts for garnish and serving

Instructions for composing the rolls

Important notes on setting up your rolling station
—Clear a table, island or work surface so your ingredients are in place and in order for assembly
—Cut out 12 pieces (approximately 4x6) of parchment paper and place them on a roasting or flat serving tray; you will be using these to cradle each roll — like a shell — so the rolls do not stick together as you make them
—Fill a large bowl with cold water; you will be using this to “wet” the rice paper because you do not want to soak the rice paper — the trick here is wetting each piece of paper enough so it’s pliable but not a mushy mess

Let’s roll
—Dip the rice paper in the