Spring rolls are one of our go to meals because we can use up any veggies we have in the fridge! It does take a while to roll these, especially when you are new to it. However we have now become faster at this and deeply enjoy it.
In this recipe we chose not to list specific amounts of vegetables as we will often cut up a lot of veggies and then wrap up as many as we feel like eating. We often wrap more the next day when we want to eat more. Additionally, because we use this to clean out the veggies we have in our fridge, we use this as a template and then adjust how much of each vegetable we use. For example, we have cabbage heavy spring rolls if we have lots of cabbage and not a lot of carrots, etc.
Prep time: 20 minutes, total time depends on how fast you are at wrapping and how many you make.
Serves: we didn’t write this recipe with a specific portion size in mind, feel free to make as many as please you. If you are new to this, start small and then size up from there.
Ingredients
Spring roll wrappers
lettuce
grated carrot
sliced cabbage
mint leaves
basil leaves
bean sprouts
for the scrambled egg:
4 large eggs
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
for the sauce:
1/4 cup avocado oil
1 inch ginger
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup almond butter
2 tbsp tamari
2 tbsp coconut aminos
1 tsp sriracha
Whisk all the “for the scrambled eggs” ingredients in a small bowl. Preheat a large frying pan with some olive oil to medium or medium high heat. Pour in the egg and scramble to your liking.
Rinse the lettuce, pat dry, and tear into 3 inch long rough ovals. Grate carrots. Thinly slice cabbage. Rinse mint and basil and remove leaves from stems. Rinse bean sprouts.
To make the sauce, start by mincing garlic and ginger. Heat a pan to medium high with oil and add the garlic and ginger. Cook, stirring constantly, until they are fragrant. Either turn off the heat (if using electric stove) or turn the heat very low (if using gas stove). Then add the almond butter and stir until it melts into the oil and becomes soft and liquid-y. Add the tamari, coconut aminos, and sriracha. Stir, put in a bowl, and set aside.
Next, make a spring roll station. Fill a wide shallow pan with 1/2 inch water. Using cold water the spring roll wrappers will take longer to soften, hot water makes the softening process faster. Make this choice based on how much time you want to roll the spring rolls. For example, if you want to move at a slower pace, cold water could be a good option. If you want to and are able to fill and wrap quickly, hot water is a good choice.
Next to the water, clear a surface to roll on. We like to do this on a large wooden cutting board. Then next to the cutting board place a large plate to put the finished spring rolls. Along the top and sides of this set up, place all of the fillings you prepared above (except the sauce) for easy reaching!
To roll, soften a rice wrapper by fully submerging in the water. Most spring roll wrappers have a subtle raised texture on one side. Once the wrapper has mostly lost its surface texture it is soft enough to work with. It should be soft enough to work with but not so soft that it sticks to everything a ton/breaks easily. Experiment until you find something that feels easy(ish) to work with. At first this task might feel challenging however it gets easier with practice. Once it is soft enough, spread this in front of you on the cutting board. If you’ve spread it on the cutting board and realize it isn’t soft enough you can wait 30 seconds or a minute as it will continue to soften — running your finger along it will help. Also note if it is very soft it will continue to soften as you assemble the ingredients so if you are slow to put all the ingredients on the wrapper you will want to pull it out less soft to account for that time. As you get fast at layering the ingredients you can work with a softer wrapper since it won’t sit there as long.
At the bottom, we have a video of how to roll these, and we will also describe it here: place a piece of lettuce in the center of the wrapper. Then make a log shaped pile of cabbage on top of the lettuce. Add pieces of scrambled of egg on top of the cabbage. Then add a couple of bean sprouts and then the grated carrot. Add mint and basil leaves across the top. Lift the part of the wrapper closest to you and fold up over your pile of vegetables. Fold in each side. Then roll away from you until completely rolled. Then place on plate and start another one!
Serve with sauce and enjoy!