Spring Rolls

This recipe can be a intimidating, but it is well worth the effort. Depending on the size of your family, this recipe may or may not be sufficient as a main dish. For just two people, this works as a main dish, especially if you have all the ingredients available for filling the spring rolls.

For a large family the spring rolls alone may not be enough. This particular dish will take an hour or more of your time to prepare, so if you are supplementing with a main dish then you might want to make sure the other dish can cook untended.

Also, the proportions in this recipe are not exact. I measure most of these by eye or by feel. As long as the relative quantities are not significantly different from each other (leading to a significantly unbalanced flavor), you are likely to get a great product.

Tools

• Several mixing bowls
• Cutting board
• Knives
• Large pan
• Spatula or soft tongs (metal tongs will tear your wraps)

Ingredients

• Salt or fish sauce (I prefer Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because fish sauce can easily overpower the dish)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice (I just use a full, medium-sized lime)
• 1 small clove garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon honey (I don't measure this, I just drizzle it because it's easier to mix in)
• Grated carrot
• Thinly sliced lettuce/spring mix (approximately 1/4 - 1/2 inch wide)
• 1/2 cup sunflower/radish/broccoli spouts
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Thai basil leaves (I usually employ 3 to 4 leaves)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (I usually employ 6 to 12 leaves)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I generally just grab much more than this, about 1/5 - 1/4 of a store-bought batch)
• 1-2 cups yam/sweet potato/kelp/miracle noodles
• 8-16 spring roll wraps: ideally tapioca, or coconut, but rice may work
• 8-16 cooked shrimp (optional)
• 8-16 large cucumber slices (optional)
• 1-2 large avocados sliced, and cut into roughly equal-sized pieces (or shrimp-sized if you prefer, also optional)

Directions

If the shrimp is cooked but frozen then you should let it thaw; usually packages will have instructions on them.

If your shrimp is raw, you should cook it now. I recommend my sous vide shrimp recipe with an adjustment of omitting salt.

Filling

1. In a small bowl, mix the salt/fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, and honey
2. In another much larger bowl (e.g. 4-quart)  mix the grated carrot, lettuce/spring mix, sprouts, Thai basil, mint, and cilantro
3. Pour the sauce from step 1 on top of the mix from step 2 and toss to thoroughly combine
4. Prepare the yam noodles according to their instructions

Assembling

I assume that the wraps are stiff sheets which you need to soften before you can create each spring roll

1. Fill a pan with 1-2 inches of water
2. Heat that water just enough to get bubbles on the bottom of the pan, but not boiling
1. Keep the pan at this temperature
3. Submerge a single stiff wrap in the water for 10-15 seconds
1. The wrap should be soft and pliable
4. Remove the wrap using the spatula or tongs
5. Spread out the wrap on a flat surface like a plate or cutting board
6. Place a small pile of the greens in the center of the wrap
7. Add a similarly-sized small pile of noodles to the center of the wrap
8. Add 1-2 shrimp (depending on size and preference)
9. Add a cucumber slice
10. Add some avocado (according to your taste preferences)
11. Fold the wrap around the filling like a burrito
1. You might need to rinse and dry your hands to do this
2. Pull from the far side toward yourself
3. Fold the right-hand side toward the left
4. Fold the left-hand side toward the right
5. Finish up by folding the near side over, away from yourself
12. Place the finished wrap to the side, possibly on a serving plate
13. Repeat steps 3 through 12 until your ingredients are consumed (You'll probably have leftovers of something)

Notes

I modified this recipe from a similar one in "The Paleo Approach Cookbook: A Detailed Guide to Heal Your Body and Nourish Your Soul". I've made some adjustments as I tried to make this recipe work. Below are some of the things I learned along the way.

Drizzle/Dipping Sauce

The sauce used for the filling works well as a dipping sauce. You can create another batch of that sauce and just dip in it.

Thai basil

You might not find Thai basil leaves in your store. Although they add good flavor, they are not essential. You might settle for regular basil or no substitute. It's up to you. With such a rich variety of leafy greens going into these spring rolls, omitting Thai basil will still get you a tasty dish.

Sprouts

You'll notice that I gave several options for sprouts: sunflower, beet, and broccoli. The original recipe calls for either sunflower or beet sprouts, which I suspect were chosen because they were both available to the author and compatible with the Paleo AIP diet.

I have been able to find mung bean spouts anywhere, so I suspect you can too. But I am not sure mung bean sprouts are compatible with my diet. Likewise, I'm not sure that sunflower sprouts are compatible. However, I suspect that the pro-inflammatory molecules (which are why I avoid seeds of all kinds) are only in the outer layer of the sunflower seed--the seed coat and not the husk which people typically spit out. Consequently, mung bean sprouts are probably okay because they would have also shed their seed coat.

However, to be on the safe side, I still avoid mung bean sprouts. Consequently, the only other sprouts I found in my local grocery store are beet sprouts. While out visiting family I could only find broccoli sprouts. I hope you find find something reasonable at your local grocer.

One thing to note about beet sprouts is that they have the same kind of kick that regular beets do. If you use beet sprouts then you may want to use fewer sprouts than requested. For example, when making a batch of spring rolls I only use half a batch of beet sprouts (A full batch has a 3-inch by 3-inch base, so I use a 1.5-inch by 3-inch cut).

Wraps

The original recipe calls for coconut wraps. I scoured my local grocer and several specialty stores in my area and could not find those coconut wraps.

Rather than give up on this recipe I started looking for alternatives. There are a lot of different kinds of wraps out there, most of which are not compatible with the Paleo AIP recipe. For example, there are many which have gluten in them, while many others use rice (which I avoid because it is a grain).

Finally, I found tapioca wraps which do not have any other forbidden ingredients. Although starchy, if eaten in moderation they are fine so they work nicely for me.

If you do not want tapioca wraps, and you are fine with some other wrapper, go right ahead! I had to experiment to make this recipe work for me, and I'm sure you can adapt it for your own needs as well.

Also, it might be tempting to prepare a dozen or so wrappers all at once and then fill them. I find that this results in an unusable ball of tacky tapioca starch. Assembling wraps was easier for me when I softened one wrapper, filled it, and sealed it up before starting another spring roll.

Noodles

You'll also notice I gave several options for noodles: yam, sweet potato, kelp, and miracle. The original recipe called for kelp noodles but I couldn't find them anywhere. I did find something called miracle noodles which work well. I also found similarly-packaged but easier-to-use yam noodles.

However, you might not be able to find either of those noodle types in your area. I couldn't find them while visiting family so I then picked up sweet potato noodles which also worked well.

Drying your hands

After piling fillings in the middle of each spring roll wrap you may find that your fingers are a bit slimy and so your wrap will not hold itself in place as you make the spring roll burrito. That is why I suggest quickly rinsing and drying your hands before closing up the spring roll so that you can maximize adhesion of the wrapper to itself. But you should see whether or not that effort is necessary.