salad rolls with miso glazed tempeh

Salad Rolls with Miso Glazed Tempeh Recipe:

Salad rolls aren't so fussy to make once you get the hand of it. You can use any veggies you like, or even fruit, and fancy them up with any number of sauces and spreads. The perfect portable meal!

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For the tempeh:

1 250g package of tempeh
3 tablespoon miso paste
2 tablespoon grape seed or other vegetable oil
2 tablespoon soy sauce (I used Bragg)
2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes.

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Preaheat your oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the tempeh into squares or rounds (mine came in a log, so I sliced 1 cm rounds off of it). Whisk together all remaining ingredients for the miso glaze. Arrange the slices of tempeh on your prepared baking sheet, and using a pastry brush, liberally brush one side of the tempeh with the miso glaze. Place the baking tray in the oven, and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven, turn the slices over, and liberally brush the other side with the glaze. Reserve remaining glaze for the salad rolls. Put the tray of tempeh back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove, and set aside to cool.

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For the salad rolls:

1 pkg rice paper wraps (my package had 12 wrappers)
mixed seasonal greens of your choice, washed and dried
1 red pepper, cut into thin strips
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
½ long English cucumber, cut into thin strips
green onions, sliced into strips
Any other veggies you may want
Miso glazed tempeh (recipe above)
Reserved miso glaze

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Arrange all of your salad roll ingredients on a plate beside you, a cutting board or other work surface in front of you, and a plate or vessel for completed salad rolls on your other side. Fill a large pie plate or cake pan with cold water.

Take one sheet of rice paper and dunk it in the cold water for a minute. You don't have to wait for it to get soft - in fact it's better if you don't as the rice paper will continue to absorb water as you work. Place the wet rice paper on your work surface, and use your pastry brush to paint a smear of miso glaze down the middle. Arrange a few slices of tempeh, some greens, and some veggies over the top. Less is more when you're first figuring out how to roll these. Now roll it up like a burrito. I generally fold one broad side over, then fold the two narrow ends up over that, and finish by rolling over onto the remaining broad side, using my fingers to keep the ingredients inside. Place the completed salad roll onto the waiting plate, and repeat until you run out of wrappers or filling.

These salad rolls are full of good stuff! Tempeh is a good source of protein, is high in dietary fiber, and the fermentation process makes digestion easier and nutrients like zinc, calcium, and iron are more bio available than in non-fermented soy products. No matter which veggies you choose for your salad rolls, they're going to be full of great stuff, like dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Eat your veggies! We know that the white rice paper wrappers aren't the best for us, but they're thin and only a small part of our salad rolls. We're moderating!

Do ahead: these salad rolls are best eaten within of a day of making them. If you're packing them to take on a long car ride, line a food storage container with a sheet of paper towel that is just ever so slightly damp (remember, the rice paper will absorb moisture, so if you make it too damp they'll turn mushy), and line the salad rolls on top. You can separate them with parchment paper if you wish. Top with another sheet of just barely damp paper towel, and close the lid.