allergens: soy
Get an allergy-friendly mix of delicious Asian flavors with these easy and tasty Japchae Spring Rolls with Sunbutter Sauce.
Happy new year, friends! I’m excited to bring you a 2021 filled with great new recipes, some musings and a few other things. I have a few goals for The Nut-Free Vegan this year, and they include: revitalizing my monthly mailing list (you can sign up here if you’re not already) which includes new recipes and some tidbits from my world; video! (this is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now but have already started to dive into with my Sheet Pan Potatoes O’Brien recipe); and more resources on the site (I plan on creating a lot of allergy-related pages and a helpful guide on how to go plant-based). But in the meantime, let’s kick off the new year with this recipe for Japchae Spring Rolls with Sunbutter Sauce.
It occurred to me that I don’t post a lot of Asian recipes on the site; 0ne of the only dishes I can recall is my Brussels Sprouts Fried Rice. It’s odd, because I love just about all cuisines from the East. This year I’m going to incorporate more of them here, and I think this one is a nice way to ease into it.
Ingredients
Japchae is a Korean stir-fry dish which calls for glass noodles made from sweet potatoes. Here I incorporated those into traditionally Vietnamese fresh spring rolls, replacing the usual vermicelli noodles. I also added some of the sweet and savory flavors of Japchae in the form of a tofu marinade. Mix all of that together with some fresh vegetables and you have a delicious appetizer for your next Asian dinner! And whether you have a peanut allergy or not, you’ll love the Sunbutter sauce.
The process
Making these spring rolls is a cinch. All you do is marinate and grill the tofu, chop some veggies and cook the noodles according to their packaging. Then roll ’em all up and eat! Pretty easy, right? And they’re versatile, too. If you’re not into the things I fill these with in the recipe, add whatever you like.
I wish all of you a prosperous and wonderful 2021. I think it’s going to be a good one!
Tell Me What You Think
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these Japchae Spring Rolls with Sunbutter Sauce if you make them. So drop me a comment below, and be sure to tag @nutfreevegan on social media if you’re posting photos of your version. Plus, it’s always super fun to see these dishes out in the wild!
Japchae Spring Rolls with Sunbutter Sauce
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
- juice from one lime
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
For the rolls
- 7 oz tofu cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick strips
- 8 spring roll wrappers
- 1 large bowl warm water
- 3 cups glass noodles cooked per package directions
- 1 cup spinach roughly chopped
- 1 cup carrots peeled or julienned
- 1 cup shiitake mushrooms sliced thin in 1-inch slices
For the Sunbutter sauce
- 1/2 cup Sunbutter
- 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp. agave
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 2 Tbsp. water add more if you need the sauce to thin out
Instructions
- Mix marinade ingredients together in a large bowl and add tofu. Cover and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes.
- Once tofu is done marinating, heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add tofu and cook for 4 minutes on each side. Remove the tofu and set aside to cool.
- While the tofu is cooling, prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. Set aside and start on preparing the spring rolls.
- Submerge a spring roll wrapper in the warm water for a few seconds, making sure it's fully submerged. Then set it on a flat surface and begin to load the ingredients (I found that going tofu, noodles, spinach, carrots, mushrooms works best) in the center of the wrapper, leaving room on both sides. Fold the sides of the wrapper over toward the middle and then roll it from the bottom to the top, as if it were a burrito.
These were easy to make and really good!
So glad you enjoyed them, Kim! Thank you for rating the recipe 🙂
What’s your favorite nut free brand of spring roll wrappers? The brand i used isnt friendly for nut allergies anymore and I’m having trouble finding a safe option.
Hi, Danielle. The Tanisa and Blue Dragon brands are both nut-friendly and vegan (their ingredients are rice flour, tapioca flour, water and salt). And I know Tanisa is organic, but I’m not sure about Blue Dragon. You can find the latter at Target and probably some other big stores. Tanisa might only be through Amazon though.
Hope this helps!
Hi Steven,
It is actually the Blue Dragon brand that I was using! They recently changed the packaging and I always tend to check the labels periodically because they do sometimes change things. While there aren’t peanuts or tree nuts in the ingredients, there is a “May contain peanuts and tree nuts” warning on the label now. Some may be comfortable with this but I am not. I did some research and they are not required to put this may contain label but most do to cover liability. If it was more specific, ex. Processed in the same facility or on the same equipment, I feel it would be easier to decipher what we feel comfortable with as far risk but the vague may contain statement isn’t enough for me to feel comfortable personally. I just wanted to let you know for yourself and your followers to be informed on their choice. Regarding the new information Ive learned I will be contacting the company of the products first even if they dont have a may contain label to be sure unless it is labeled nut free or states it has separate lines or rigorous cleaning and testing on their equipment. I will definitely check out that other brand though! Thanks so much and I hope this information helps your followers as well.
Thank you for the information, Danielle! I assumed that shared equipment warning was required by law, but I guess I’m not surprised to find out that it isn’t.
For what it’s worth, I double checked the Tanisa package I have and there is no warning on it.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was some sort of website database for this? I know it could never cover everything, but if it relied on group-sourcing for updates it could be pretty thorough.
Steven,
I agree a database would be awesome! Hopefully one day soon. I emailed Tanisa and got a lightening fast reply which was refreshing. They informed me that they only produce rice paper so there is no worry of any cross contamination in production for those of us with nut allergies. I ordered some right away! Looking forward to some yummy spring rolls! Glad we could help each other out with all this rice paper info. Cheers!
That’s great news, Danielle! I’ll be sure to use only Tanisa rice papers in future recipes to make sure there’s no chance of cross-contamination. Thank you for doing the research!