Mango and Herb Fresh Spring Rolls
A friend took advantage of a rare clear day in early April this year by scheduling an impromptu barbeque on his condo building’s roof. I immediately set to work preparing two veggie sides to pair with the promised meat. The funny thing is, he ended up not having the time to get the meat and it ended up being too cold to hang out on the rooftop. I was home from work late, so it took me some time to prepare these. When I arrived at his house well past sunset, nobody had eaten! So these disappeared quickly!
Once your ingredients are prepared, these are pretty simple to put together. I recommend considering these options the next time you are planning for a potluck or barbeque! I omitted the traditional bean-thread noodles to save time and substituted meat with ripe mango (typically shrimp is included) to keep things vegetarian.
Mango and Herb Fresh Spring Rolls
Ingredients (Makes 16 rolls, or 32 servings):
- Vietnamese clear spring roll wrappers
- 1 head of escarole lettuce for filling, chopped into strips
- Sweet chile sauce for dipping
- Ingredients can vary – have fun! Just keep things fresh, no dried herbs here. Here’s what I included:
- 2 ripe mangoes
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and julienned
- 1 cucumber, peeled, deseeded and julienned
- 1 red pepper, deseeded and julienned
- 1 cup of chopped thai basil (regular basil is fine)
- 1 cup of chopped fresh mint
Steps:
- Prepare a tray with parchment paper to allow your rolls to dry.
- Prepare a medium glass bowl of warm water. Use this to submerge individual spring roll wrappers to soften them.
- Prepare all of your filling ingredients – lots of chopping and dicing – and organize them into bowls. Since the wrappers dry out fast, this step is necessary to stay organized!
- Let’s make one roll. Pick up a spring roll wrapper and submerge it in the water for about 10 seconds.
- Lay the pliable spring roll on a flat surface.
- Add the julienned ingredients – some carrots, cucumber, red pepper and mango.
- Add the herbs – about 1 packed tablespoon total of basil and mint.
- Round out the roll with chopped escarole.
- Wrap the roll quickly (process pictured below) and set aside the prepared tray.
- Repeat steps 4 through 9 until all of your filling as been used up.
- To serve, chop each roll in half. Try not to pack them too tightly together so they don’t stick and rip apart. Serve with a good-sized dipping bowl of sweet chile sauce!
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Below I’ve included pictures of the filling and wrapping process – it’s much like wrapping a burrito, but if you’re new to the process, hopefully these help out!
Soften the wrapper and lay it on a flat surface. Add the julienned ingredients first – here it’s carrots, cucumber and red pepper. Then add the basil and mint. Try to align the ingredients between the second fourth section of the roll.
Now add the escarole lettuce to round out the roll. To wrap, roll the top and bottoms of the roll first to enclose the filling. Then pick up the shorter side of the roll, fold it over and try to tuck it over the lettuce. Seal the roll with the other side of the wrap and let dry. Work quickly – the rolls will take about 1 minute to dry up and seal!
Posted by Lisa on 2012-04-24 22:54:54 | FEED YOU WITH A KISS