These vegan spring rolls use yuba (tofu skins) as the wrap, and are really delicious. These yuba rolls comes from Louisa Shafia’s cookbook Lucid Food.

If you haven’t worked with Yuba before it is tofu skin, and it is fantastic for making gluten-free vegan spring rolls. Yuba is sturdy and easy to work with, and when you bake it it develops a crispy texture really similar to traditional spring rolls. You can find dried yuba sheets or in the frozen section of Japanese grocers.

There are some really amazing recipes in this book.

Louisa Shafia is a chef, educator, food writer, and cookbook author, and has worked in some of the most innovative restaurants in New York and San Francisco, including Pure Food and Wine, Millennium, and Aquavit. With a penchant for fresh, local, organic cuisine, her passion for cooking is fueled by a desire to make healthy, sustainable food that is both elegant and delectable. S

Louisa’s amazing first book, Lucid Food: was nominated for best book of the year by IACP in the “Health and Special Diet” category.

With environmental issues, conservation, and food politics steadily gaining steam, and trendy buzzwords like green, organic, and locavore becoming the norm, Louisa Shafia’s Lucid Food examines the importance of sustainable eating in today’s “fast food” culture, demystifies contemporary food issues, refutes the idea that organic food is exclusive and elitist, and offers eco-conscious home cooks an approachable, convenient, affordable way to enjoy organic, local, seasonal food in a delicious and fun way.

Louisa shares 85 inventive dishes that utilize sustainable ingredients and exotic ethnic flavors. With style and originality, Shafia’s gorgeous culinary journey moves through nature’s cycles and is organized by season, to showcase the best ingredients from each part of the year. These simple but inspired green meals celebrate the joy of in-season cooking, and the pleasure of serving food that is healthy, honest, pure, free of additives, and transparently made from source to table.

Some of my favorite recipes include: Warming Asian Rutabaga Soup, Lamb’s Quarter and Pea Shoots Soup, Kale Salad with Avocado, Almonds, and Toasted Nori, Persian Stuffed Dumpling Squash with Rose Petals, Indonesian Corn Fritters, Tamarind Ketchup, Pickled Mango and Habanero Relish, Pear Kanten with Pecan Crunch, Buckwheat and Orange Zest Gingersnaps, and the Rhubarb Spritzer.

This book is an accessible guide to mindful, conscious living. With a friendly, but passionate spirit, Louisa offers a myriad of ways to green your cuisine. She offers her top tips for eco-friendly shopping and waste reduction; defines many of the top “eco-foodie words terms” such as biodynamic, wild foraged, fair-trade, genetically modified, CSA and CAFO; shares her insight into some of the most popular ingredients such as olive oil, amaranth, agar-agar, and natural sweeteners; and explains some common cooking and food preparation techniques.

Louisa also shares information about making earth-friendly food choices such as: how to find the best ingredients; supporting local food; reducing one’s carbon footprint through urban gardening; food preserving, composting; building a beehive; growing native plants to support wildlife; planting heirlooms to promote biodiversity; exploring wild edibles; choices for drinking water, and more.  For those of you who are not vegan, you will be interested in her tips for sourcing animal products produced using ethical and sustainable methods.

Explore the wonders of Louisa’s Lucid Food, and experience the magic that is created when you are in tune with the energy of the foods you eat. The famous phrase, “I’ll have what she’s having!” chants in my head like an iconic theme song when reading this book. There is real heart and soul in this book. It almost feels like a personal food diary to me. Louisa’s spirit really shines through and bounces off the page. I feel like I am in the kitchen cooking with her; and it is a fulfilling, truthful, connective experience.

Make this vegan spring rolls, and check out the Lucid Food site for more recipes.