Spring Roll Salad with Peanut Dressing (Vegan)

This vegan, Vietnamese spring roll, or more like fresh roll salad is SO good. It's everything you crave from the dip-able fresh rolls you buy at Vietnamese restaurants (or in Vietnam, lucky you!) with the spicy peanut sauce, fresh crunchy vegetables, tofu, vermicelli noodles, and crisp herbs like mint and cilantro. It's filling and satisfying while being full of flavour and light on the stomach. 

For my version, instead of baking tofu and getting it crispy I used one of my new favourite ways to cook tofu: boiling! Boiling tofu makes for the best texture, and if you're someone who presses their tofu before cooking with it, boiling it allows you to completely skip that step. The result is soft, but dense tofu thats ready for whatever next cooking method you want to do next. In this variation of boiled tofu, I let the vegetable broth do all the talking and kept the tofu simple and poached. 

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Why You'll Love This Recipe

Incredibly fresh and vibrant flavours.

Perfect for meal prep. 

Much easier than rolling your salad rolls one at a time. 

High in protein from both the poached tofu and the spicy peanut dressing that uses peanut butter powder instead of peanut butter. 

Easy to make and customize. 

Healthy, delicious, and beautiful!

What You'll Need

Extra firm tofu. This is the protein base to the salad. I generally always use extra firm tofu because the denser the tofu, the higher the protein.

Vermicelli noodles. These are the classic Vietnamese noodle. They're pretty widely available at any grocer in the Asian or International aisle, but you can also get a good deal on ingredients like this by shopping at your local Asian markets.

Peanut butter powder. This is the base to the high protein dressing. 

Liquid aminos or soy sauce. This is the second most important ingredient to your dressing!

Maple syrup. Or any preferred sweetener.

Rice vinegar or lime juice. This is for the peanut dressing, I prefer rice vinegar, but if you don't have it lime juice works great!

Fresh vegetables! I used carrot, cabbage, cucumber, mint, and cilantro. 

Substitutions

If you want to go soy free you can use another preferred protein option or stick to tofu and use a soy free tofu like fava tofu. For soy sauce use coconut aminos. 

Want more healthy fats? Use full fat peanut butter in place of the peanut butter powder. That macros will need a slight adjustment but the overall health of the dish is still amazing!

If you want to go low carb you could substitute the vermicelli noodles for a low carb noodle like konjac noodles or zucchini noodles. 

Use any preferred vegetables you like. 

Add some crushed chopped peanuts for added texture!

To cook the tofu you'll chop it into mismatch chunks and add it to boiling vegetable broth. Then you just let it cook for 20-30 minutes or until it's absorbed most of the vegetable broth.

This is what the tofu should look like at the end of boiling. The tofu should have absorbed 90% of the vegetable broth and the pan should be left with minimal to no liquids at the bottom.

Storing

These salads store great for up to 4 days in a tightly sealed meal prep containers. Just remember to keep the dressing on the side until you're ready to eat so the noodles don't absorb all the peanut dressing.

If you're in need of some good glass meal prep containers like the ones pictured, you can check out these ones I used every week for meal prep without fail. They're dishwasher, oven, and freezer safe, BPA free, and non-toxic. Perfect for weekly prep!

Please note: all calories and macros have been calculated to the best of my ability but may vary slightly.

 

Spring Roll Salad with Peanut Dressing

Recipe makes 4 servings

Macros per serving:

496 cals - 12g fat - 60g carbs - 37g protein 

 

Ingredients, Salad:

• 700g extra firm tofu 
• 1 heaping tbsp vegetable bouillon (or sub 4 cups vegetable broth)
• 150g vermicelli noodles (or 4 servings)
• 2 carrots, peeled and grated or chopped
• 2 Persian cucumbers, sliced 
• 2 cups sliced purple cabbge 
• 1 bunch mint leaves, lightly chopped (roughly 1 cup)
• 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, lightly chopped (roughly 1/2 cup)
• 1-2 jalapenos, sliced (seeded if you want less hot)

 

Ingredients, Peanut Dressing: 

(TO NOTE: this is a salad "dressing" not a thick dipping sauce. If you want a thick peanut sauce reduce the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and maple syrup by 1 tbsp each)

• 1/2 cup peanut butter powder
• 1/4 cup liquid aminos/soy sauce
• 2 tbsp maple syrup 
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp chili flakes 

 

Instructions:

1. Chop the tofu into mismatched bite size chunks and set aside. 
2. Add the 1 heaping tbsp vegetable bouillon to a pot with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil and stir until the bouillon is completely mixed through. 
3. Add chopped tofu to the boiling broth and reduce heat to medium high or a low boil.
4. Cook tofu in the broth until 90% of the broth has been absorbed by the tofu. This should take 20-25 minutes. 
5. Set the tofu aside to cool.
6. Bring 4 cups water to a boil and add vermicelli noodles. Cook until soft and cooked through. This will depend sightly on the size and brand of your noodles, mine took 6-7 minutes. 
7. Drain the noodles and immediately run cold water over the noodles to stop them from cooking any further. 
8. Prepare all the vegetables by chopping into bite size pieces: carrot, cabbage, cucumber, jalapeno, and herbs. 
9. Make the peanut dressing by adding all the peanut dressing ingredients to a bowl and whisking to combine.
10. PLATING:
11. For meal prep you can either keep the dressing on the side until ready to eat, or add the dressing to the 4 meal prep containers first so it sits on the bottom. Then build the salads on top of the dressing going from tofu, to vegetables and herbs, and noodles last. (If the noodles sit in the sauce they will absorb it over time.)
12. For enjoying right away add your noodles to the bottom of 4 bowls, top with poached tofu, vegetable, and fresh herbs, then drizzle with the peanut dressing.

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Let us know in the comments if you made this recipe and how it went for you!