Spring Rolls or How I Learned to LOVE Making Ridiculously Healthy Foods

[Reesha]

Back in 2008, I had the pleasure of spending 2 weeks in South Korea. While there, a couple of young Korean women took me out to a vietnamese restaurant where we ordered 'make your own spring rolls'. Now, this may not be news to many of you, particularly if you live on the west coast, but I'd only ever had "made for you" spring rolls and in St. Louis that typically means a spring roll wrapper filled primarily with vermicelli noodles, some cilantro, a couple of shrimp and costs about $4 for 2.

Inspired, but lacking in wrapping skill, I picked up spring roll wrappers, all the veggies I saw in the Pho place in Korea I started to make them at home.

Now that I've got some mad skillz, I eat DIY spring rolls probably 3 nights a week. It's a great way to get my greens and veggies and I really really enjoy how everything is wrapped up in one little space. And now to share some of my favorite recipes, complete with silly names

The Fishy One
Arctic Char/ Spanish Mackerel/ Idaho Farmed Trout, pan seared
Alfalfa sprouts
Julienne Cucumbers
Grated carrot
Cilantro
Squirted stripe of sweet chili lime sauce

The Beefy One
Grass-finished Eye of Round or Flank Steak, seared to desired temp and then sliced into 1cm cubes
Swiss chard, sliced into strips
Grated carrot
Squirted stripe of sriracha (warning hot!)

The All Veggie One
Sliced avocado (mashed would probably work too)
grated carrot
julienne cukes
shredded purple cabbage
alfalfa sprouts
Sweet chili sauce

I have been meaning to try to make a sort of "tex-mex" style one, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I guess the thing I like is that I don't feel limited by what I can put inside. So far I've stuck with pretty basic stuff and Vietnamese seasonings, but there's a lot of possibility. I like that at home, I'm not stuck with rice noodles as filler... instead I can use sprouts or chard as filler!

Annnd lastly, a tip: Only use water that's hot enough that your hands can still tolerate the heat. Pull out the wrapper while it's still stiff-- it will continue to soften while you fill it! Makes folding it up and rolling it easier

[Thorn]

Hmmm....you're giving me some interesting ideas here. We do a healthy amount of raw cooking in the summer not because we're raw foodies, but to avoid heating up the kitchen. Spring roll wrappers would make an interesting alternative to tortillas (clearly we're not raw food fanatics, eh?)

I'm thinking our taco filling would work great in a spring roll. It is based on this recipe: http://www.mptv.org/local_shows/recipes/?id=1

Thanks!

[Reesha]

Yeah that's another key point. I was thinking of marinading fish or chicken in lime and chili and cumin and using that as the base for my 'pico de gallo' spring roll.

Today it's going to be eye of round, purple cabbage, alfalfa sprouts and cukes

[OakLeaf]

Mmmmmmm, great ideas!

If you want to go all the way raw (and avoid heating up the kitchen even more), use zucchini sliced lengthwise, very thin, for wrappers.

[shootingstar]

Great stuff!

Fishy one, obviously one could also try:

Shrimp (poached or pan-seared after marinated lightly in oil/soy sacue)
Crabmeat
Smoked salmon
Smoked trout

Use a bit of lettuce to line wrapper skin first.
Also can use finely julienned/sticks of daikon/white radish for any type of roll.



Do you eat Swiss chard raw??

[tangentgirl]

Do you fry them or bake them?

Try them with bananas.

[badger]

I have the rice-wraps a lot in the summer when it's hot out and I don't want to use heat or have something cooler to eat. What makes or breaks for me is the sauce. I use President's Choice Memories of Szechuan peanut sauce. Without it, it's just not all that good...

Do you eat yours plain without any sauces?

[Susan]

Great ideas. I still have some of the spring roll papers around and never really knew what to fill into them - now I will give them a try tomorrow

[Reesha]

I do eat swiss chard raw!

Also, I generally use either sweet chili sauce or sriracha. I have been known to make peanut sauce by hand, but it's pretty fattening so not as of late.

[OakLeaf]

Chard is very tender when it's young! You don't know what you're missing if you only get the elephant-ear-sized leaves in the grocery store.

[Reesha]

Argh, everytime I grow chard, it gets eaten by squirrels at this very stage! Blasted varmints.

[OakLeaf]

Squirrels???

Oh man. Something ELSE to keep out of my garden. I've never had trouble with squirrels. But I probably will.

[OakLeaf]

This was like PERFECT dinner for a 92° day.

Julienne carrots, Romaine lettuce, cilantro and mai fun noodles wrapped in thin slices of daikon. I made a dipping sauce of peanut butter, honey, a little garlic, a little soy sauce, red pepper, and water to thin. Yummy.

[shootingstar]

OakLeaf: could roll in sliced raw and peeled water chestnuts with your combinationn above or any veggie combination. I love the crunch of water chestnuts. But I don't think that would marry with much avocado.

another filling to consider is pickled herring with lettuce, etc. would work.

Lightly sauteed meaty mushroom such as shitake, portebello. Then sliced into strips would be tasty. Mushroom would be marinated/sauteed lightly with soy sauce or hoisin sauce, abit of oil. another thing with veggie.

[abejita]

I make these shrimp and coconut rolls all the time. Instead of lettuce, I usually use spinach.