Veggie Sushi Rolls 4/5 Spoons & Baked Vegetable Egg Rolls 3/5 Spoons

One thing I have learned from these two recipes is that I'm pretty damn good at rolling sushi and not so good at making egg rolls. It wasn't perfect looking but it stayed together and looked pretty enough to eat. I used this recipe and tweaked it to my own desires. The thing I love about sushi is you can make it your own and add whatever you want.



(Picture courtesy of Vegetarian Times)

Here are my tweaks for the sushi rolls:

-- I did not use the dipping sauce in the recipe. It sounds good, but I'm totally okay with just soy/tamari sauce as a dipping sauce.
-- I did not use sesame seeds because I didn't feel like toasting them. Lazy sushi says I.
-- I made 3 cups of rice and I still had a bunch of left over and made about 6 rolls. So you might want to make a little less.
-- Tofu was in the freezer and did not thaw it out in time, so once again, lazy sushi.
-- My veggies consisted of avocado, carrots, cucumber and asparagus.

Rolling sushi is not as hard as I thought it would be. I do not have a mat so I just used plastic wrap and I thought it worked really well. The only reasons I am giving this 4 instead of 5 for this specific recipe is because I believe the sushi rice was too salty and will adjust it next time I make it.

I give this recipe:

4/5 Spoons!

Now, the egg rolls. I liked these, but did not love them.



(Pictures courtesy of For the Love of Cooking)

I liked that these were baked and were pretty comparable to fried egg rolls from restaurants. The only difference really is that delivery egg rolls are chewier and whatever egg roll wrappers they use are just much better. These ones were thin and were kinda like phyllo dough to me.



My tweaks:

-- I did not use the water chestnuts, green onions or fresh ginger. I omitted the first two and used 1/2 t. ground ginger.
-- Instead of adding some salted peanuts (which I enjoy), I added crushed cashews and I think it gave it a nice salty bite.

So I probably won't make these again, but like sushi, you can add whatever you want. I will say the only reason I kept eating them is because I loved this hoisin sauce. Crazy delicious.

I give this recipe:

3/5 Spoons

Next... Tortellini with Italian "Sausage" and Fennel (yum).