I love spring rolls and I make them a lot, especially during the summer when fruits and veggies are so abundant.  Last night, I decided to make them again, but with a neat, calorie-reducing twist.

Instead of using the rice wrappers, I went with a leaf of napa cabbage.  Napa cabbage is a little more delicate than red or green cabbage with a texture sort of like a hearty lettuce leaf.  It was the perfect “wrap” for our rolls.  Inside the rolls, I used some lightly blanched broccoli (I don’t care for raw broccoli so I had to cook it a little), some grated carrots, radishes, cilantro and mint, and tofu.  Emma even helped with the dinner preparation by pulling all the mint leaves off of the stem!

On the side, I boiled up some soba noodles and topped them with the extra tofu that I had cut up.  The dressing that I made for the rolls and noodles is a peanut flavored one, instead of being peanut based.  I didn’t measure anything at all.  I threw stuff into a bowl and adjusted it until it tasted right, so sorry for not having a real recipe.  I’ll tell you what I used and you can fiddle around with your own concoction:  soy sauce (probably about 1-2 TB), Thai sweet chili sauce (~2 tsp), garlic powder (~1/4 tsp), fresh ginger, grated (~1/4 tsp), toasted sesame oil (drizzle), peanut butter (~1 tsp).  It was really good, peanut-y without being overly heavy with peanut butter.  And even though I’ve sworn off noddles, bread and rice until I drop a few pounds, at least the soba noodles are wheat and my portion was itty bitty.

While I’m on the subject of peanut butter, I want to tell you all about a new one I just tried.  I’m perfectly happy with natural peanut butter– the stuff you have to stir and then refrigerate.  If you’re going to be eating peanut butter, it’s probably the best stuff (be sure to always buy organic peanut butter).  Anyway, I saw this stuff and thought I’d try it, even though it isn’t organic.  It’s a no stir, natural peanut butter from Earth Balance.  It’s soft like how I remember Skippy or Jif being and is good, but I don’t think it’s any better tasting than the natural kind.  Maybe just more convenient because it spreads more easily.  If my choices were between Skippy and Earth Balance, I would definitely opt for the Earth Balance brand simply because all those hydrogenated oils are like a death sentence.  Did you know that people who eat hydrogenated oils are more likely to have health issues than people who don’t?  Back to the butter:  I don’t know that I’d ever buy this again, only because it’s not organic.  With all the weird things sprayed on foods to prevent naturally occuring processes (like molding and pest infestations), I’m not willing to eat the weird stuff just to have peanut butter that doesn’t separate.