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Summer Rolls with Peanut Tofu

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Picture summer in a better way than having summer rolls in the sunshine with your loved ones on a picnic, maybe at a lake. Doesn’t this sound like a dream? To me it does. But wait, where’s the catch? Oh yes, maybe to get those summer rolls. I mean, sure you could order them at your favourite Vietnamese restaurant but why not making them yourself? It is so easy and way cheaper.

If you have been a little active in the food scene of instagram you probably have already seen those. I think summer rolls have become very popular a few years ago and have become part of the whole health food industry. Besides that they are super duper tasty. So here we are, and I have made a recipe for you to make them at home. If you are not very familiar with summer rolls here is just a brief introduction!

What are summer rolls?

Summer rolls is a dish popular in Vietnam. They are also called rice paper rolls, or fresh spring rolls. It is believed though, that they originally come from China and only became popular in Vietnam. Anyway, today you can find them in most asian restaurants, even in Japanese or Thai ones.

These cute rolls look very much like spring rolls. Same size and shape. The difference is the filling and the preparation. Spring rolls are mostly filled with pork and vegetables and then deep fried. Summer rolls on the other hand are filled with vegetables, prawn, pork or tofu and oftentimes also rice vermicelli (super thin rice noodles). Also those are not deep-fried or prepared with any oil and they are served at room temperature or cold. Both, spring and summer rolls, come with a sauce on the side.

Are summer rolls healthy?

Definitely! Since the main component are vegetables, they are super healthy. Other than vegetables you often have rice vermicelli, which also are not unhealthy. They are not high in sugar or fat but also not super nutritious. For your source of protein you can use prawns, pork or tofu. They are all great sources of protein. Prawns and they also are not high in fat at all. Pork on the other hand can be high in fat, depending on which part you use.

Summer rolls kn general are not high kn fat because, unlike spring rolls they are not deep fried, and prepared with rarely little fat. The only fat may be used when preparing the protein source or in the sauce.

The sauce is the only thing you should look out for when you have those. They often are served with a sweet chili sauce or lots of soy sauce. Sweet chili sauce mostly has a lot of sugar in it and soy sauce is high in sodium. If you only get a little on the side, that’s more than fine just be aware of that!

so what’s in these summer rolls?

This is a vegetarian (actually vegan) version. I do not use rice vermicelli because I prefer them without (plus it is less work). So, as a base we have a bunch of vegetables. We use a mix of carrots, bell pepper, cucumber, lettuce and radishes. You could also add red cabbage or anything else of your preference.

To not keep it boring we also are adding some fruit. I absolutely love mango in here but papaya also works. But mango is better tbh. And of course avocado. What would a meal be without avocado? (btw, did you know that avocado is a fruit?) And of course, our source of protein, the peanut tofu. It adds a bunch of flavour and is so tasty. But still, it is not so flavourful yet, that’s why we are adding some more peanut sauce and, if you want, also some sriracha or hot sauce.

The rice paper

Rice paper is not such an easy thing to find. You will probably not find it at your regular supermarket but you can find it in pretty much and asian store. It has the form of a circle and is almost see through but a little white-ish. I get mine from Reishunger because it is super good, easy to get and they ship it right to your door!

I think that you will love this recipe for summer and I hope that you will enjoy both, making and eating it.

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Summer rolls with peanut tofu

a perfectly fresh and light summer dish for those hot days!

Course Appetizer, dinner, lunch
Cuisine Chinese, Vietnamese
Prep Time 25 Minuten
Cook Time 5 Minuten
Servings 2 servings
Calories 564 kcal

What you will need

  • 10 rice papers
  • 200 g tofu
  • 2 carrots
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 100 g radishes
  • 1/2 mango
  • 100 g lettuce
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1 tbsp oil

For the peanut sauce:

  • 150 ml light coconut milk
  • 2 tbsp peanut butter
  • 4 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tsp sriracha hot sauce
  • 1/2 lime
  • 1 tbsp coconut sugar or brown sugar
  • 1-2 tbsp water

How to

  1. Combine all the ingredients for the peanut sauce. Slice the tofu into 1 cm thick and about 6-7cm long strips (or hwo ever it works best for you).

    Place them in the peanut sauce and let them marinate for about 1 h or longer if possible.

  2. Peel the carrots and either grate them or slice them into thin strips. Also slice the peper and cucumber into thin strips. Peel the mango and also cut it into bite sized pieces. Finely slice the radishes and chop up the lettuce.

  3. Heat up a pan with the oil. Take the tofu out of the sauce and fry on each side for about 2 minutes. Set it aside.

  4. To assemble prepare the rice paper according to package instructions. It most of the time works best when you take a kitchen towel and make it wet. Lay that on a flat surface. Then run the rice paper under water for about 3-4 seconds. Place them on the wet kitchen towl. Add a little bit of each filling and some of the remaining peanut sauce into the rice paper, rather on th elower end but not on the edge.

    First, fold in the rice paper from the bottom. Then fold in the sides and roll it up, so all of the fillings are in the rice paper and it is tightly closed. This takes a little practice but after a few it will work out.

  5. Pour the remaining sauce in a little conatiner and serve it with the summer rolls! Serve and enjoy!

Happy cooking,
Enjoy,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière

Incredibly Easy Kiwi Chia Pudding (Vegan)

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As a child we often get pudding. But usually it is made out of the package, contains hundreds ingredients we cannot even pronounce and it is really unhealthy. But it does not have to be. Neither does it have to be the classic vanilla or chocolate flavour. No, we are being way fancier and healthier here. Kiwi Chia Pudding.

Why is pudding not healthy?

Usually pudding is made out of a lot of milk, sugar, cream or butter. None of which really is healthy. Sugar, obviously is pretty unhealthy for our bodies. Cream and butter are really high in fat, which also is not healthy. And when you get chocolate pudding, you even have chocolate in there, which means you have even more sugar and fat. So this is why pudding is not healthy.

How to make healthy pudding:

This probably is way easier than you think. And you do not need super fancy ingredients. This one only contains 3 ingredients, so it is super easy. Instead of the usual cornstarch to thicken everything up, we use chia seeds. When you let them sit in a liquid overnight, they will form sort of a jelly around them, making it into a pudding consistency. It actually is way easier than traditional pudding, because you do not need to heat anything up.

Are chia seeds healthy?

Totally. You probably know this by now because you can find them in every health food store or in the health section of you food store. But why are they actually healthy? They are high in healthy Omega-3 fats (just as salmon is), in protein and also in fibre. That way they help your digestion and also provide you many other vitamins and minerals. So they basically are a super food.

What else is in this pudding?

3 more ingredients in the base. Which makes 4 in total. Isn’t that amazing? I definitely believe so! Other than the chia seeds, we have Kiwi, milk, and a sweetener. For the milk I like to use oat milk, but you can use regular milk or any other milk alternative. The sweetener I like most here is maple syrup. Other sugar alternatives are coconut sugar or date sugar.

Does it only work with Kiwis?

No! Definitely not. This is what I love about this, you can make this with any fruit you like! Use the same amount but any you love. I am sure that works just as well with berries, cherries, mango, pineapple, or whatever. This is so amazing and versatile. A great dish.

When to have it?

You can have this as a snack, a breakfast or as a dessert. I love and have it as all of those. The best way to eat it (I believe) is to top it with some (plant based) yoghurt, some more fresh fruit and granola. This combination is simply amazing!

I hope that you will enjoy this recipe and that it helps you to make healthy and tasty swaps more often! If you like it, you are free to leave a comment!

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Kiwi Chia Pudding

4 ingredients, healthy, super flavorful and extremly easy. Perfect summer dessert!

Course bowl, Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Prep Time 5 Minuten
Chill time 4 Stunden
Total Time 4 Stunden 5 Minuten
Servings 4 puddings
Calories 245 kcal

What you will need

  • 5 kiwis
  • 50 g maple syrup
  • 80 g chia seeds
  • 200 ml oat milk

For topping:

  • 200 g yoghurt plant based if wanted
  • some granola

How to

  1. Peel the kiwis and purée them in a food processor or a high speed blender. Add the milk and liquid sweetener and mix again. Mix in the chia seeds. Divide it onto the jars. refridgerate for at least 4 hours till overnight.

  2. Before eating top with the yogurt, fresh fruit and granola.

Enjoy,
Happy Cooking,
Katie // Une Petite Cusinière

Summer Poke Bowl

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The all beloved and super trends bowl. I mean, how can you not love it? Rice, fresh seafood (or tofu), all the veggies, fresh fruits, covered with a super good sauce. What do you need more? Step away from classic and make this super tasty summer version!

What even is poke?

Poke is a traditional dish that originated in Hawaii. It usually is raw fish (just like Sashimi) over rice. This rice mostly is prepared as sushi rice. The fish usually is marinated before with soy sauce and then it all is assembled in a bowl with lots of veggies.

My poke bowl love

I have always been loving sushi. I also have always loved all kinds of bowls. And therefore I love poke bowls. Before it even was a trend I would always get it when I saw it on the menu. Because it is so good. And then, luckily, it became a trend and now you can find lots of places in Vienna that serve extremely delicious poke bowls. My absolute favourite one is HONU TIKI Bowls because they are just the best ones! Me and my bestie almost always go there to have them! Insanely good.

Since we went there (and still go there) very often, we also spent a lot of money on them. And they are not cheap. Raw and fresh seafood is pretty expensive and so are other fresh ingredients. So I thought, why not making it at home? It is easy, healthy and pretty tricking tasty.

How to build up a poke bowl:

Similar to my guide for a buddha bowl I am now gonna explain to you how to best build up a poke bowl.

  • We need to start with a base. Traditionally I would use white rice or best, – – Sushi rice if you have that on hand. It is filling and adds a nice texture. If you want to can also use greens as a base to have more of a salad version or you could also do half half.
  • Next we need our source of protein. Raw (or also cooked works fine) fish such as tuna or salmon but you can also long for tofu or grilled chicken, prawns or beef.
  • Next up our marinade. This is important because it adds a lot of flavour to your protein and the entire bowl. I love doing a teriyaki sort of marinade but feel free to do something else.
  • Of course we also need some veggies. Here you are totally free and you can add whatever you want. For me, edamame or peas, cucumbers and tomatoes are always a must! But honestly, everything works well here!
  • Not to forget: Fruits! May sound a little weird a first but it is a game changer. It adds so much sweetness and freshness to it, that’s insane! I promise you, you will love it
  • A crunch: Here I love to use spring onions, sesame seeds, nori, or some sort of nuts. This just adds such a nice twist to the texture! Absolutely love it!
  • The sauce: Maybe this is the most important part of the entire bowl! Why? Because you are going to mix everything with it, and if it is not good, everything won’t be good. Here you can long for a mayo based one (which not always is the healthiest choice) or some soy sauce or peanut sauce.

What is in this bowl?

As a base we are using Sushi rice. The one I use is from Reishunger and it is super tasty! Btw: with the code REISKATIE you can get your favourite rice for free there!

Get the rice here!

As for veggies we use peas, broccoli, tomatoes, asparagus, cucumber and wakame (these are alleges which you can get at your asian restaurant or your fish market).

Fruitwise, we are going for apricots. they are coming into season now and they are regional. If you don’t like those, go for mango instead.

Our protein is salmon or tuna. I always make both of them because in my family we like different ones. But you can also use tofu if you want a vegan version, and leave out the fish sauce in the marinade

So next on to the marinade, it is sort of a teriyaki one. Super good and addicting!

Our crunch are spring onions, which are super good here! They add a crunch and some freshness.

Last but not least: the sauce. A peanut sauce. This stuff is seriously good. And seriously addicting. But also super easy!

Are poke bowls healthy?

Yes they are! Well usually, you always have exceptions. But rice is not unhealthy, raw fish is healthy because of its high protein content and it is not fried or prepared with a lot of oil. Plus, in poke bowls you always have tons of veggies, which also give you loads of vitamins, just as the fruits does. The sauce on top is not always healthy, so make sure to check what you are using. Mayo-based ones are not always healthy. What you should also look out for is that you do not always choose soy sauce based sauces because they are loaded with vitamins. So all in all, pretty healthy.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do (because I am obsessed with it) and enjoy it all throughout summer. It is such an easy one, I would really recommend making it!

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Summer Poke Bowl

A summery version of the all time favorite and healthy dish! Raw fish with plenty of veggies, rice and a super tasty peanut sauce!

Course bowl, dinner, lunch, Main Course
Prep Time 15 Minuten
Cook Time 15 Minuten
Marinating 2 Stunden
Servings 4 servings
Calories 590 kcal

What you will need

  • 600 g tuna or salmon in sashimi quality (meaning you can eat it raw)
  • 250 g rice
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 200 g broccoli
  • 100 g peas
  • 200 g asparagus green or white whatever you want, but when using white you need to peel it first
  • 1/2 large cucumber
  • 200 g tomatoes
  • some wakame optional
  • 4 apricots
  • 1 spring onion

For the marinade:

  • 50 ml soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce optional
  • 2 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 1 lime juiced
  • 1 tbsp sriracha/ hot sauce optional
  • 1 tbsp honey or maple

For the peanut sauce

  • 100 ml full fat coconut milk
  • 30 g peanut butter about 2 tbsp
  • 30 g soy sauce about 2 tbsp
  • 1 tsp hot sauce
  • 1/2 lime juiced

How to

For the fish:

  1. Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl. Cut up the fish into 1-1.5 cm sized cubes and add to the marinade. Marinate for 2 hours or longer. The longer, the more intense the flavor will be.

The rice:

  1. Prepare the rice according to package instructions. When done, remove from the heat and let cool for about 5 minutes. Then mix the rice wine vinegar with the sugar and mix it into the rice. Set aside.

The veggies & fruit:

  1. Steam or boil the broccoli, (green) asparagus, and peas for about 5 minutes in salted water, then drain. Cut the cucumber into small cubes. Half the tomatoes when using cherry tomatoes or also cut them into small cubes when using large ones.

    Depit the apricot and also cut it into small cubes. Finely slice the spring onions.

The sauce.

  1. Mix all of the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl. When it is too thick, add some water to thin it out.

Assemble!

  1. Divide the Sushi rice onto the bowls. Next add the fish with the marinade followed by all the veggies and fruit except for the spring onions. Top with the sauce and then lastly add the spring onions! Serve and enjoy!

Enjoy,
Happy cooking,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière

Iced Caramel Latte

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You are feeling the afternoon low, it is really hot and you have got a lot of things to get off your to-do list. You need an afternoon pick-me-up. A huge cup of coffee. But as tasty as coffee is, we don’t want a warming cup of coffee e when its burning hot outside. Iced coffee is the solution. Forget about the old boring one and start making yours fancy. Extra fancy and tasty.

A little coffee story

To be honest, I am the biggest coffee lover you are ever gonna meet. It is not that I am addicted to the caffeine and really need it (although sometimes this is the case) I am just obsessed with the taste. And the smell. That’s one of the reasons I love Italy. You can get a high quality, tasty coffee at every single corner. And did you know that there is a law in Italy that says that the coffee can not cost more than 1€ when you drink it at the bar. So you can go to the fanciest and most expensive coffee shop in Italy and only pay 1€ for the espresso. This country is just amazing.

I know that I am rather an exception. Not many people love a strong, short black espresso. It does have a bitter taste, which makes it easy to dislike it. And with all the big coffee chains like Starbucks and their extra fancy coffee creations it’s easy to fall in love with these pimped up drinks. So I decided to create a healthier version of those. And it turned out amazing. Although I barely drink coffee with milk or anything else in it, I really adore this one! It’s tasty, healthy, quick and super good.

Is coffee healthy?

Like most things, it can be. Or to say it differently, it is in it’s purest form. Coffee actually is high in antioxidants and it helps to speed up your digestion. Too much is not good for you because it raises your heart rate. This is totally fine if you are a very active person and have a low heart rate naturally, but if you have a rather high one, you should not overdo it and pay attention to this. Also, probably the most popular aspect of coffee, it wakens you up and gives you energy. Great in the morning, bad in the evening. Of course, there is decaf coffee but this still contains caffein. Only a fraction of the normal one but still. So even decaf coffee in the evening may cause sleep problems.

Unfortunately, coffee oftentimes is made unhealthy. Since the taste of coffee is a little bitter and not everyone’s favourite, oftentimes milk and sugar is added. Which is totally alright when you just add a sprinkle of sugar and a splash of milk to make an espresso macchiato. Everything is good in moderation. But as soon as you drink 2 cappuccinos a day with one package of sugar each, this quickly adds up to a bunch of calories and lots of sugar. Black coffee without anything has basically 0 (or a max of 5 cals per cup). A cappuccino, on the other hand, has about 165 calories. Without sugar. With sugar it can easily have 200 hundred. When you are eating a healthy diet but still drinking many of milk- heavy coffees, this can be frustrating because you may not see any results.

What’s in this coffee?

I was trying to keep it simple when I created that recipe. Because no one has energy for hours in the kitchen when we want coffee. The sweetness and caramel taste comes from the dates, a little bit of vegan butter and the coconut milk. The combination is amazing. You can use full fat coconut milk, but low fat works as well. I would not recommend using another milk because then it looses the richness and doesn’t taste as amazing anymore. We blend it up first. Then we can either pour it in, if you want a fancy effect or blend it together. Then it is smooth I need to say. One important note: soak the dates before, because the will be way softer that way. If you have a high speed blender, this is not necessary. We also add a pinch of sea salt, this really helps to bring out the flavour.

Once we have our date „caramel“ base, we blend it up with an espresso shot, and milk. If you want to can froth the milk and reserve some of the foam for the end. If that’s too complicated for you, leave it out. Blend some ice in as well. Then serve it over some ice and done. This is a dream drink.

Perfect summer drink

It is healthier than regular lattes because we have additional fibre and protein and not only sugar. It also is a fancier version for every once in a while when you feel like switching it up! I hope you like it and if you do, feel free to leave a comment!

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Iced Caramel Latte

A perfect summer drink for the hot days. Easy, tasty, healthy. Not your average boring coffee.

Course Drinks
Prep Time 5 Minuten
Servings 2 drinks
Calories 183 kcal

What you will need

  • 2-3 dates (about 50g) if your dates are hard, soak them in hot water for 30 min- 1h
  • 100 ml low fat coconut milk (you can use full fat aswell)
  • 1 tsp vegan butter
  • a splash of water like 3 tbsp
  • a pinch of sea salt
  • 2 shots espresso
  • 200 ml oat milk (you can use any milk or plant based milk alternative)
  • 1 handful ice cubes

How to

  1. Set aside 1/3 of the milk and foam it up. (Cold foam it if you have a gadget to do so)

    Blend the dates, the coconut milk, water, pinch of sea salt and the vegan butter together until you have reached a creamy and liquid consistency. (you can make more of this caramel sauce and store it in the fridge and use whenever you want).

    Add the shots of espresso, the oat milk and half of the ice cubes. Blend again until well combined.

  2. Add the remaining ice cubes in the glasses and pour over the coffe mixture. Top with the extra foamed milk and enjoy!

I wish you all a beautiful summer and happy cooking!
Enjoy,
Katie