One of the best uses you can put a mandoline slicer to is to make vegetarian cuons. I prefer to use the word cuon instead of spring rolls, because spring rolls are essentially a Chinese recipe where you dip fry the rolls, whereas cuon or goi cuon is a Vietnamese spring roll recipe that does not fry the rolls. Thus they taste a lot fresher, they are easier to digest, and, my personal impression is that they actually taste a lot better. If you want to cook the traditional cuon, you should add some stir fried minced meet to the vegetables mix, but it really does not add that much in terms of flavor so I have decided to leave it out. As far as our vegetarian cuon is concerned you are going to recognize all the ingredients I use, because they are not that extraordinary, but you may not recognize the rice sheets. These are made from simple rice flower, and you need to get them wet before you can start rolling them. They do not have any taste, just a very yummy consistency that adds a whole new level of texture to our recipe.
The ingredients you are going to need are below, but make sure to change and adapt the recipe to whatever feels good to you. I like to use
2 carrots
1 red cabbage
3 green bell peppers
1 or 2 cucumbers depending on the size
Next, all you have to do is use the mandoline slicer to julienne all of these vegetables into long, thin strips. Make sure to use the food holder even for the cabbage or the carrots. They are somewhat more difficult to cut through so you may feel like using your hands for a better grip. That is wrong for 2 reasons. For one, you are not really getting a better grip, the food holder was designed for this and it is actually a much better tool to use than your fingers, but you need to take the time to learn how to use it. Second, even if in the beginning your hands are easier to use, the slightest mistake will have you julienning your fingers instead of the carrots and then this will no longer be a vegetarian recipe.
In addition to the vegetarian cuons, you will need some delicious sauce for dipping. The easiest thing for me is to buy a bottle of sweet chili sauce because I am a huge fan. However, you could also make a Sriracha mayonnaise, which is to say mayonnaise mixed with Sriracha sauce. Ideally you should make the mayonnaise from scratch, and there are certainly a lot of recipes online. The basic instructions are to start by mixing one raw yolk, with the one from a hardboiled egg, and a teaspoon of mustard. After that start dripping in a little bit of olive oil at a time, making sure the oil is well incorporated in the egg and mustard cream before you add more. At the end you can add about a teaspoon of Sriracha sauce or however much you feel that your sauce needs.
