Chinese vegetable spring rolls

Not yet rated

Set aside some time and space for this. You'll find that home made Chinese Spring Rolls are tasty and well worth the effort. Karen gives us a step by step guide.

First published in 2015

My recipe for today is my own home-made version of Spring Rolls. They are a large variety of filled, rolled appetizers or Dim Sum found in East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine. The name is a literal translation of the Chinese chūn juǎn (春卷 'spring roll'). The kind of wrapper, fillings, and cooking technique used, as well as the name, vary considerably within this large area, depending on the region's culture.

My spring rolls are made with authentic Chinese ingredients as well as proper spring roll rice paper wrappers too. Although my favourite spring rolls have spice minced chicken or pork in them, I decided to make this new recipe vegetarian and vegan, so it will appeal to a wider audience. If you manage to find gluten-free rice paper wrappers, you will also be able to make these gluten-free too.

They are a little fiddly to make, so set aside some time AND space to make them! But once you get rolling, they soon come together and the results are well worth the effort.

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Vegetable spring rolls

Method

1
Prepare all the vegetables and half fill a wok with the vegetable oil for frying
2
Heat the sesame oil in another wok or frying pan and fry the spring onions until they are just soft. Add the shredded cabbage and fry for a further 2 to 3 minutes.
3
Add the grated carrot and fresh ginger and cook for 2 to 3 minutes – the mixture should be soft but the vegetables should still have a bite to them
4
Add the beansprouts, and mix well. Finally, add the five spice powder, oyster sauce and soy sauce to taste and mix again
5
Assemble the spring rolls: have a clean board available for rolling and fill a large roasting tin with hot water. Dip each wrapper in to the water for between 5 and 10 seconds until it is soft and pliable
6
Add a large spoon of vegetable mixture in the bottom part of the wrapper, then fold over the two sides of the wrapper, like an envelope, spread some of the cornflour paste on the top part of the wrapper and then tightly roll the rolls up making sure that the edges are stuck firmly with the paste
7
Heat the vegetable oil until a cube of bread browns in 1 minute. Fry the spring rolls in the hot oil for 3 to 4 minutes, turning them over half way through, until they are crispy and golden brown. Drain them and place on a plate with kitchen paper. Keep them warm in a hot oven until you need to serve them. Serve them immediately with sweet chilli dipping sauce
First published in 2015

Karen Burns-Booth is a freelance food & travel writer, recipe developer and food stylist with a passion for local, seasonal ingredients.

Get in touch

Please sign in or register to send a comment to Great British Chefs.

You may also like

Load more