Thai Spring Rolls

Need a fun but impressive, healthful appetizer to feed a crowd? These spring rolls may be just what you're looking for. You can tweak the ingredients to fit your taste and any dietary restrictions like we did.

Ingredients

• 1/2 or so head of chopped cabbage, or 1/2-3/4 bag of broccoli slaw (We used a broccoli slaw that contained shredded broccoli, carrots, and red cabbage. We also used 2 or 3 leaves of chopped nappa cabbage.)
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1 8 ounce can bamboo shoots, chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 4-6 small mushrooms, sliced into thin pieces
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1/2 pound medium shrimp, cooked and shelled and deveined
• 1 package spring roll wrappers (We used square wrappers.)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage, slaw, carrots, bamboo shoots, green onions, mushrooms, and sprouts.
2. In a small bowl, mix the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and mirin well. Pour this into the large bowl and mix well.

3. Place a spring roll wrapper in a pan of hot water until the wrapper is soft and pliable. Depending on the temperature of your water, this could take about 15-45 seconds.
4. Carefully remove the spring roll wrapper and place it on a flat, dry surface. I used a plate that was not entirely flat, but it still worked fine. A large cutting board works nicely.
5. Place two shrimp on the wrapper about an inch away from the bottom (the side nearest you). Scoop about 1/4 cup filling onto the shrimp. Leave an inch or so on the left side and the right side empty. Gently fold the bottom end of the wrapper over the filling, and then fold the sides over, as shown in the photo.

6. Roll the spring roll up toward the top.
7. Wrap the remaining rolls until you run out of filling or wrappers.

Serve with a sweet chili sauce, or some peanut sauce.

She said

These were much easier to make than I thought they'd be, and they went really well with the sweet chili sauce, which added a bit of a kick, or the peanut sauce. We made this once without the bamboo shoots, and a second time without the mushrooms and shrimp.

He said

Our choice to make spring rolls was influenced by gluten intolerance, and among other things, we looked into whether we could do these egg-roll style (traditional egg rolls, with their won ton wrappers, have wheat). Supposedly you actually can bake or fry the rice paper spring rolls. I'm interested in trying that sometime in the future. In the meantime, these are just as much fun as you've come to expect from what your local Thai restaurant calls a spring roll. (And more, if you want to personalize the ingredients! You could always chop up the shrimp and include in the mix instead of wrapping them on the top.)