Raw Bento

Sorry for the long absence but things are hectic here at Raw Bento Headquarters. It’s been a week since my return from Moscow but I took off on a short weekend getaway to Nagano — a beautiful prefecture northwest of Tokyo — with friends and did a lot of indulging on top of little sleep.

On hindsight, I think I threw myself into raw food without much thought to transitioning (maybe that’s why I’m facing some “raw turbulence” right now; more on that later). I suppose I tend to take on the attitude of “all or nothing” sometimes but I’m glad I’m taking a step back and easing myself back into raw food after a yo-yo period of being strict and completely to-hell-with-it.

I’ve always had rice-paper spring rolls at Thai and Vietnamese restaurants but never thought to make them myself. But I must’ve seen some on a blog and thought, “That looks easy!” So I ran out to buy a 200JPY (USD1.90) pack of rice paper to make a high-raw lunch for two (well, the non-raw fiance got a cooked portion of leftover lentil curry, too).

It is seriously so easy and I am kicking myself for not trying these earlier in my raw journey.

You just need to heat up some water in a pan, let it cool to just being warm to the touch (not scalding), dip a piece of rice paper in, fish it out, place it on a dry towel, dump julienned veggies on it, and ROLL!

I used cucumber, carrot, mung bean sprouts, and coriander as my filling.

For the dip, I made a very yummy Asian sauce:

In a high-speed blender:
3 tbs almond butter
1 tbs sesame seed oil
1 tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tsp shoyu
1 date
1 tbs lemon juice

I loved these and thought they were so delicious but I think my limit is three to four spring rolls at a go. I thought it would be my lunch so I ate seven rolls which left me bloated (probably due to too much rice paper) but yet hungry two hours later. In future, I would definitely pair three rolls with a nutrient dense salad. There’s a reason why these babies are good as appetizers or a side dish.