Spring Rolls: How We Roll into Spring!

Spring is in the Air!  That makes us excited because Spring is famous for delicious fruits and veggies which make for some fun food. A way to celebrate is with Spring Rolls which we think are quite a festive to roll into spring (get it? we are all about a play on words lately ( :

 

Spring8

Spring5

Spring4

Spring3

Spring2

Spring7

 

Where does the term Spring Roll come from? They are a Chinese specialty and made with cabbage and other vegetable fillings and stuffed into a thin rice paper wrapper.  We researched a little and they are known in areas such as Zhejiang in eastern China and northern China. They are usually eaten during the Spring Festival in mainland China, and that is why they are called Spring Rolls.

Making Spring Rolls is simple, clean and healthy. They are also a fun finger food and you can put all sorts of fun veggies and fruits into them.

We also love cooking with our friends, so a fun thing to do when you have friends over is to set up a Make Your Own Spring Roll bar (instead of or just before an ice cream sundae bar!) To make it look nice just lay all of your chopped fillings out on a cutting board and have everyone do their own wrappers (see below about the wrappers).This way, everyone gets to add the fillings they want. Be sure to put the dips out next to the cutting board so everyone can drizzle them on their plates or directly onto their Spring Rolls.

We sometimes overfill our rolls which you don’t want to do because the wrapper will rip. So a little of your favorite is just perfect.

What are Spring Roll Wrappers anyway?  They are made from rice and come dry and flat. You will find them in the Asian section of the grocery store. To soften them, you dip them into warm water and they become soft for our Spring Rolls (the package always has directions also). Be careful handling them because they are delicate when they are dry and wet.

What you need:

  1. Spring Roll Wrappers
  2. A bowl of warm water
  3. All your favorite fruits and veggies and herbs
  4. Cutting Board
  5. Knives
  6. Dips

Here are some of our favorite spring roll fillings. You want to cut everything very thinly.

  1. avocado
  2. cucumber
  3. apple
  4. strawberries
  5. red and green cabbage
  6. tofu
  7. kale
  8. red peppers
  9. peas
  10. edamame
  11. chives (if you keep these long, you can tie them around the rolls. See our pictures below)
  12. basil
  13. mint
  14. sesame seeds

Dips:

  1. Carrot Ginger dip
  2. Peanut Sauce
  3. Toasted Sesame oil

Enjoy the fun of Rolling Into Spring!

Emily and Lyla, The Kitchen Twins