Vegan Spring Rolls
Most of us eat spring rolls as a starter in restaurants, a few of us will admit buying them as a frozen snack from time to time, but only a few of us have probably made them at home yet. But in fact, it's easier than you think and gives you plenty of options for fillings, which is why for us, they are a wonderful way to use up leftover veggies.
The only “challenge“ is the spring roll wrappers as there is no real alternative such as puff pastry. You can find frozen wrappers in larger supermarkets; we usually grab a package in Asian supermarkets. However, you can also make the wrappers from scratch – here's a simple recipe from China Sichuan Food.
As soon as you have the spring roll wrappers, the games begin: you can fill the spring rolls with glass noodles and vegan meat and fish substitutes or just stick to the simple vegetable option, which we'll do today. We decided to deep fry the spring rolls (surprise!), but you could also steam them.
Vegan Spring Rolls
Ingredients
- 15 spring roll wrappers
- 1 carrot
- 200 g (7 oz) pointed cabbage
- 25 g (1 oz) ginger
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 mushrooms (e.g. button mushrooms, shiitake, or king oyster mushrooms)
- 2 scallions
- 50 g (2 oz) mung bean sprouts
- 1 tsp rice wine
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp starch
- 1 tbsp water
- sesame oil for frying
- vegetable oil for deep-frying
- sweet chili sauce for serving
Instructions
Remove spring roll wrappers from the freezer and let defrost. Cut carrot and pointed cabbage into fine stripes. Finely chop ginger and garlic, and chop mushrooms. Finely slice scallions.
Heat sesame oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry carrot and pointed cabbage for approx. 4 - 5 minutes. Add ginger, garlic, mushrooms, scallions, and mung bean sprouts and keep frying for approx. 5 minutes. Add rice wine and soy sauce, season with salt and sugar and continue frying for 3 - 4 minutes longer until the filling is nicely browned and softened.
The spring roll wrappers should be defrosted by now. Mix starch and water in a bowl to make a slurry and set aside. Place a tablespoon of the filling in the center of a spring roll wrapper. First, fold the left and right side into the middle to cover some of the filling already, then brush some of the starch mixture on the edges of the wrapper and roll up tightly. This way, the spring rolls should be sealed.
Heat vegetable oil in a deep frying pan or pot until it reaches 180°C/350°F. Deep fry spring rolls in batches until golden brown, then remove from the fat and let drip on some paper towels. Serve spring rolls with sweet chili sauce to dip in!
