If you stopped by the baby shower I recently hosted, you’ll remember that I promised my appetizer recipes. One of the favorite appetizers were the fresh spring rolls. I recreated them for dinner. The only difference is I didn’t have red cabbage, so I had to use regular old cabbage. I definitely recommend the red cabbage because it creates such a beautiful color. Here’s how you do it:
For the Filling:
lettuce
red cabbage (or regular but red is so pretty)
julienned carrots
red thai basil
cilantro
rice stick noodles
I love the above combo, but fresh spring rolls can also contain:
avocado
green onion
red pepper
cucumber
cooked tofu
cooked chicken
cooked shrimp
You will also need Rice Paper and Rice Stick Noodles. Both of these are soaked in warm water to make the spring rolls. Just follow the package directions. You can get these products at Asian Grocery Stores.
After soaking your rice paper (one sheet at a time) and rice noodles in water, you are ready to compose your spring roll. Lay out your rice paper and layer in your toppings. Again, I did lettuce, rice noodles, cabbage (red – not pictured), carrots, cilantro and thai basil. Roll the rice paper around it. You can fold in the ends or leave the ends hanging out like the picture above. Cut in half to serve.
You can make your own dipping sauce (a spicy peanut sauce is great) or make it easy on yourself, like we did. I was actually very impressed with this Bangkok Padang Peanut Sauce we found at Safeway. This was really yummy and paired perfectly with these fresh spring rolls. After preparing the rolls for the shower, we had leftover contents and threw them all together with some of this sauce to make a little salad. Amazing! If you don’t want to go to the trouble of rolling the rice paper. Just make the salad, and you are in for a treat.
Your shower looked great! I never thought to make these in party-size quantities. On Wednesday, we used our Monday night leftovers for filling for a “just-us” sized lunch quantity for a pool date. (The stir fry was cabbage, spicy/sweet ground beef, chipped apples and onions).
YUM! I will definitely have to try these! Thanks for sharing!
-Allie @ adventuresofamiddlesister.blogspot.com