Light spring rolls

Kaja sent me this recipe for spring rolls, supposedly as a gift for the approaching anniversary. To be honest, I’d have preferred the spring rolls themselves, but… Highly recommended.

„These are a healthy version of spring rolls, because they aren’t fried and don’t have a heavy filling. I actually made them for several reasons: first, I had a chicken breast to use up; second, I didn’t have many ingredients I could use for another chicken breast dish; and finally, last of all, I’d bought some rice paper a while ago and it had been waiting all this time for me to make these cold spring rolls.

So the timing was perfect, with everything in my favour. They’re very good, light and actually easy to make. You can also put pretty much anything you fancy inside: I used what I happened to have in the fridge. But I’ll certainly try other vegetables. I’d also like to make a version with rice noodles sometime, which would make them more substantial; unfortunately, I didn’t have any at home this time.”

At a glance:

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Serves: this made 20 spring rolls, which sounds like a lot, but the portion only left two people moderately satisfied; then again, this is more a dish for nibbling than for filling up.

How many calories: few; it’s a light dish.

Ingredients for light spring rolls:

• 5 leaves of Chinese cabbage
• 1 chicken breast (that is, one whole breast, meaning two halves)
• Half a red pepper
• 1 medium tomato
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small piece of fresh ginger (about half a thumb)
• salt
• 2 packs of small rice paper wrappers (I think each pack contains 12 sheets; you can use large wrappers, which will be easier to roll)

Recipe for Kaja’s spring rolls:

I started by preparing the chicken, because it needs to cool a little before filling the wrappers. I cut the chicken into small strips. I heated a frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, added the chicken pieces, then added the grated garlic and ginger.

I seasoned everything with salt and fried it briefly until the chicken was lightly browned. I took the meat off the heat. I washed the vegetables. I stacked the Chinese cabbage leaves and cut them into thin strips, then did the same with the pepper and tomato (some fresh cucumber or carrot would also be good here; I didn’t have any).

The ingredients were ready, so I set up my spring-roll wrapping „station”. I spread a tea towel on the worktop, set out a large plate of water (for soaking the wrappers) and prepared a plate for the finished rolls. I worked a little like an assembly line, making several at once rather than one after another… Anyway, I took a wrapper, soaked it in the water, laid it on the towel and repeated this with a few more wrappers, as many as would fit on the cloth at once (side by side, of course, not on top of each other).

Then I put a little cabbage, a strip of pepper and tomato, and a piece of chicken on each soaked wrapper. I rolled up each wrapper in turn, like a Polish croquette or a stuffed cabbage roll: first roll it forward once, then fold the sides in and keep rolling forward to the end. It’s important not to add too much filling, or you may struggle to roll them up. Set the finished spring rolls on a plate and keep going with the remaining wrappers until all the ingredients are used up.

I arranged the finished spring rolls around the plate and served a small bowl of hot chilli sauce in the middle (shop-bought, from a bottle).

Voilà a! Or rather, Itadakimasu!