Over the summer I’ve been developing and perfecting my Easy & Delicious Chinese Spring Rolls recipe. Now that we have lot’s of fresh cabbage and Serrano peppers from our garden harvest, we’ve been enjoying these on a regular basis!
There are so many things we love about these. Some of my favorite’s are that they are a budget friendly meal. Around a third of them is cabbage, around another third is rice. You can add more of any ingredient that you love and want more of, so the recipe is flexible.
Another thing we love about these (besides the fact that they are seriously delicious) is that they are easy to make gluten free. One of the family members in our home has a wheat allergy, and since I have hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, I’m not supposed to eat much wheat either. So it’s always nice to find a hit recipe that we all love that is gluten free!
Yet another thing that is noteworthy about my Easy & Delicious Chinese Spring Rolls is that they are a healthier meal. You can saute the cabbage if you like, or leave it raw.
I have several unique things that I’ve not seen anywhere else that I do differently with my Chinese Spring Rolls, like seasoning the rice wrap dipping water, and pickling the carrots, and adding Chinese 5 spice.
I think you’ll really enjoy these!
Tips for Making Easy & Delicious Chinese Spring Rolls
Something you will love about these is you can make all the filling in advance and put it in the fridge until ready to use it. The day you make them all you have to do is assemble the spring rolls. This makes these a great lunch for busy homeschool or work from home days.
The filling is of course the important base for this dish, but the peanut sauce, or dipping sauce to go with these is what really sets them off! You can buy one, or you can make your own. Our favorite comes from the Moosewood Cookbook.
Another option with the carrots is to make rice vinegar pickled carrots. My cousin who is half Filipino and raised for years in the Philippines taught me how to make and add these, but we don’t have an exact recipe yet. I’ll work on adding that as I perfect that part of the recipe! Pickled carrots need to be made a few hours in advance so they can marinate, and I always forget to do that, so I came up with a substitute way of making pickled carrots which I’ve shared. If you feel like they need salt use fish sauce instead!
As you are making these Chinese Spring Rolls, taste each ingredient layer as you go. We love STRONG flavors, but you might want to back off some of the flavors like fish sauce, Chinese 5 spice, and aminos.
Another tip, you can use soy sauce! We use coconut aminos because one of the members of the family is also allergic to soy.
Please note, do not leave the wraps to soak in the water! It took me MONTHS to figure that out! If you let them soak like many recipes say to do they end up so slimy, soggy and impossible to roll almost.
I found it works best just to dip each side of the rice wrapper in the water solution, lay it on a wooden cutting board for about 30 seconds to a minute, and then roll it up.
Last tip, if you like, you can fry these, however I found it tastes better to add less veg and more meat if you want to do that.
While you are here don’t forget to look at my other recipes HERE!
Easy & Delicious Chinese Spring Rolls
Ingredients
- 1/2 head cabbage
- 2 lbs ground turkey
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 2 matchstick carrots
- 2 cups cooked rice, saifun, or maifun noodles
- 2 eggs
- 5 tbsp rice vinegar, divided
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice
- coconut aminos or soy sauce
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 pack Rice Wrappers
- 2 tbsp olive oil for frying
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp sugar
- peanut or other sauce for dipping
- 1 jalapeno or serrano (optional)
Instructions
- Cook the Turkey, garlic & Chinese 5 spice. Add Coconut Aminos to taste.
- Scramble the eggs and add a dash of Chinese 5 spice and a few shakes of fish sauce. Fry the eggs like a thin pancake and cut into strips.
- Cook the rice, saifun or maifun as directed on package. Set aside.
- Matchstick the carrots and saute with the rice vinegar, honey, and some olive oil.
- Finely shred/chop the cabbage. You can saute it or leave it raw.
- Mix turkey, eggs, carrots, and rice or noodles together.
- For the rice wraps, make a solution of 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Stir until dissolved. Place into large enough dish to dip the wraps.
- Working with just 1 wrap at a time, dip wrap in water solution on both sides and remove. Place on board. Don't let it sit in the water!
- Add about 1/4 cup filling and roll the wrap, starting with the bottom, then sides, and finishing with rolling the top over.
