Food
Real Mom, Real Recipe: Steamed Veggie Spring Rolls
Written by James Kicinski-McCoy
Photography by Photographed by CHELSAE ANNE
Oct 2, 2015
Feeding your family each day is easier said then done. For many parents, it’s actually quite a challenge. From meal planning and grocery shopping, to meal prep and leftovers, creating dishes that you, your spouse, and the kids will eat can feel like a chore. We’ve tapped one mama who’s got the nutritious family dinners down to a science. Meet Andrea (Drea), the voice behind OhDearDrea and author of the upcoming vegan/plant-based cookbook The Plantiful Table. Today the sub-tropic, south Floridian mom to Marlowe, age 5, serves up one of her go-to family recipes, Steamed Veggie Spring Rolls, and dishes about her journey with veganism and motherhood below.
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- "We really care about food over here, which is no surprise with me writing a cookbook and my husband being a chef. Our world really revolves around food and our main priority is having everyone eat as healthy and well-balanced as possible. It’s not about labels or whether or not animals should or shouldn’t be eaten. At the end of the day, we just believe in real, organic food."
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- "I decided to become vegetarian around age 14, and then vegan at 22, so for 8 years now. Being vegetarian always felt like a cop out. Like, if I didn’t want animals to be harmed, then I really should be avoiding anything that would come from them and cause them pain. I took the plunge into veganism, and two weeks later, I felt better than ever. I had constant sinus infections growing up, month after month, even through college and after. But a month after becoming vegan, I never had one again. Yeah, I care about animals, but I stayed vegan for my health. "
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- "It’s actually been rather easy. I put a huge emphasis on balanced, flavorful meals since she was super young— it’s been really important to me. Now she eats better than most adults. We haven’t run into too many challenges other than cakes at birthday parties— where we usually just try to provide a vegan option for her when we can. But to be honest, she doesn’t even like cake that much, vegan or not, so even that hasn’t been a huge issue."
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- "For me, eggs have become a somewhat regular thing. For Marlowe, it’s just a once in a while item. Honestly, I’m still a little weary of eggs but had to introduce them into my diet for awful health reasons. Now, I could probably survive again without them, but I continue to eat them, as it’s one of the only foods I know wont bother my body. Alex isn’t vegan or even vegetarian, but it was decided that Marlowe would be vegan until she chose otherwise. Since happy, cage-free eggs are widely available now, it’s not such a huge deal. We still wont eat eggs in restaurants since we know nothing of where the egg comes from. And we wont buy eggs unless we know the chickens they came from are roaming and happy. I always figured, as long as Marlowe could understand a bit about your standard factory farming vs. happy animals, then it would (have to) be okay with me to let her make her own choices. One day she decided she wanted to try eggs, so we provided her with cage-free eggs to try, and she really liked them. But like I said, it’s not an every day thing for her, just here and there."
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- "We do! Our growing season is basically the exact opposite as the rest of the country though. Being the beginning of fall, it is now time for us to start planning our garden. We have a bunch of things planted now, that stay throughout the seasons, but we’ll be filling our raised beds in just a few short weeks. Right now we have guava, passionfruit, bananas, citrus, moringa, mango, and a ton of herbs."
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- "Sadly, our go-to favorite meals are a bit all over the place right now, but in everyday normal life, we’re big soup and stew eaters, we love fresh summer rolls (and the cooked ones shared here), easy pastas, and we also absolutely love vegan homemade mac and cheese."
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- "Healthy chocolate smoothies, fruits, oatmeal, or loads and loads of things on toast."
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- "She absolutely loves to. Sure, there are some days where she rather play, but for the most part, if we’re in the kitchen, she’s in the kitchen. She loves peeling, grating, pureeing, and cutting. Since her turning five last week, we’ve made the promise that we would now be teaching her how to use an adult pairing knife."
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- "We couldn’t live without a good knife, good cutting board, and a blender."
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- "Well, before starting preschool, we would all sit down for lunch each day. With Alex being a chef, he’s away through the evening, so Marlowe and I would have dinner together each night. With Marlowe starting school now, it’s more a bit all over the place. On weekends times that she goes in for half a day, we’ll all have lunch together again. Otherwise, it’s still just me and her on our lady dates in the evening."
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- "I don’t think we’ve ever done delivery. And maybe take-out a few times? Is that crazy? Haha. Maybe once or twice a year we might get a vegan pizza to-go, but thats about it!"
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- "We’ll go to a solely-vegan restaurant maybe once a year. The local one near us is filled with mostly processed fake meats and cheeses, so we tend to avoid that. If we go out to eat, we’ll usually do restaurants that are not vegan but have a good selection of items for everyone. Asian, Mediterranean and Indian restaurants are our favorite dine-out options."
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- "I am! I did! It was A LOT of work! But I am super, super happy to say that it’s now in print and will be out in stores in early December (just in time for Christmas, wink wink). The Plantiful Table is an all plant-based cookbook with an emphasis on easy, homestyle meals that everyone will love. Most of the meals are pretty kid-friendly or have tips on how to make the meal more kid-friendly. And most recipes have leftover ideas too! In the front section, I put together tons of tips and thoughts on feeding yourself and your family—so not only is it a place to reference recipes, but hopefully also a place for people to turn to when wanting to cook more food at home for themselves or for their kids."
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- "We love fresh summer rolls so much around here—there was a point in time where we were eating them once a day, but due to some recent health issues, I haven’t been able to and wont be able to eat raw foods for quite some time. We figured, hey, let’s take our favorite meal and mix it up a bit. This recipe is great, because it’s jam-packed with veggies and germ-fighting garlic and ginger. And because the veggies are cooked, it makes them easier to digest. It’s also fun for adults and kids to make, and well, really good too! If you can, it’s great to prep all of the veggies ahead of time, maybe even the day before so they’re all nice, cooled, and easy to handle."
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INGREDIENTS
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/4 medium-sized cabbage, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 small bell pepper or 3-4 mini peppers, thinly sliced
1 large thumb of ginger, small chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1.5 teaspoon salt
A few cracks black pepper
5 scallions, chopped
1 teaspoon soy
1/2 tablespoon sesame or olive oil
Large round rice paper wrappers
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In a large pot, heat oil to low-medium heat. Add your veggies and allow to slowly cook, giving a good occasional mix. You want your veggies to mostly steam, not brown. Add ginger, garlic, salt, and pepper. Allow to cook until your veggies are fully cooked and soft. Remove the veggies from the pot, place in a large bowl, and toss in your chopped scallions and soy sauce. Place mixture in fridge or on a counter to cool completely. Once your veggies are cool, you can start making your spring rolls! Prepare a large bowl of warm water—large enough to place your wrappers in. One at a time, dip your wrappers in the water until they are soft (about 1-2 minutes). Place a small handful of veggie mixture in the middle of the soft wrapper and begin to (very) careful roll spring rolls, like tiny burritos. Place each one on a plate, making sure they don’t touch each other or they will stick.
Serve with your favorite dipping sauce or a simple soy sauce with a squirt of lime and enjoy the healthy goodness!
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- For more on Andrea and her vegan meals, visit her site OhDearDrea or follow along on her Instagram.
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