Beat the winter doldrums with these bright and cheery Winter Rolls! The best of Winter’s vegetables are stuffed into these super healthy and tasty rolls, with a date-sweetened teriyaki sauce for dipping. Vegan, gluten-free, and full of goodness!
1large sweet potato or 3 carrots (peeled and shredded)
2Delicata squash* (seeds removed and thinly sliced across into rings)
1 8ouncepackage rice vermicelli or Maifun noodles**
1 8ouncepackage spring roll wrappers***
1cupcilantro leaves and tender stems (washed and trimmed)
1Tablespoonextra virgin olive oil (optional)
6-8cupspurple or green cabbage (or a combination) (about 1 head total)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F.
Lay out delicata squash rings in a single layer on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper or on a wire rack set over the baking sheet.
On a separate baking sheet, mound up cabbage and sweet potato/carrot shreds, spreading out to cover the baking sheet. Sprinkle both sheets with salt and a drizzle of olive oil, if using.
Roast both sheets for 15-20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through the cooking time if you wish.
Meanwhile, place rice noodles in a large bowl and pour boiling water over them. Allow to sit for 2 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water. If the noodles aren’t quite cooked, return the noodles to the bowl and pour boiling water over them for one more minute, then drain and rinse with cool water again.
When the delicata squash rings and cabbage/sweet potato mixture are done roasting, let cool briefly and then set up an assembly station as follows - bowl of warm water, spring roll wrappers, delicata squash slices, cabbage/sweet potato mixture, rice noodles/spaghetti squash noodles, and cilantro.
To assemble the rolls, dip a spring roll wrapper in the warm water for 30 seconds, then lay out on a clean surface with a bit of rough texture (like a cutting board). Lay out 3 slices of delicata squash in the middle of each wrapper, then add 1/4 cup of cabbage/sweet potato mixture, then another 1/4 cup of rice noodles (eyeball the amount). Top with two-three sprigs of cilantro. Fold up the winter roll like a burrito, but bringing up the bottom half up and over the filling, then folding in each side and continuing to roll up. Repeat until all the filling is used up or you run out of wrappers, whichever comes first. Any leftover filling is delicious eaten straight up or drizzled with some date-sweetened teriyaki sauce.
Notes
*A great tool to make quick work of the slicing and shredding of the vegetables is this mandoline slicer (my fav!).**I love these brown rice Maifun noodles from Annie Chun***These brown rice wrappers from StarAnise Foods are a great choice for the wrappers, and they come in a 6-pack so you can always have them at the ready.If you want to use spaghetti squash noodles instead of rice noodles (or in combination), the quickest way to get the spaghetti squash cooked is the microwave. To do this, cut the squash in half width-wise, scoop out the seeds, and generously salt the exposed flesh. Place squash halves in a microwave-safe dish (no cover or water is necessary), and let sit for 10 minutes for the salt to draw out some of the water, then microwave for 5 minutes. Check to see the doneness of the squash, and cook in 1-2 minute increments until cooked to your liking. Let cool, then brush off any visible salt and scrape the “noodles” out of the skin. See this tutorial for other spaghetti squash cooking methods.These are best eaten freshly made, but will keep 2-3 days in the refrigerator - let them come to room temperature before enjoying or the wrappers might be tough.These would be great to make with friends, assembly-line style, then you can all dig in! This is a time-consuming process on your own, but totally worth it, and all of the components can be prepared ahead of time, making the assembly time much faster.