FOOD: CRUNCHY VEGGIE SPRING ROLLS WITH DIPPING SAUCE

This is obvious, but as vegans, we eat a LOT of vegetables. Like veggie poundage. Our local CSA helps a lot with our veggie needs by delivering us a lovely box of fresh organic vegetables every week. This is great because we never have a shortage of fresh veggies to eat. At the same time, as a food blogger, I find myself constantly shopping for more and more and MORE ingredients for variety. I might be a little addicted. So, our fridge is always packed to the max with fresh food, plus half-finished blog recipes, and then lots of leftovers from blog recipes… plus all kinds of funky ingredients that I’m always picking up. So sometimes I just need to clear out the fridge a little. Introducing, crunchy vegan spring rolls!

Spring rolls are perfect for those days when you’re looking through your fridge and you’re like, damn! That cabbage just won’t seem to disappear! Or maybe you have one turnip that you don’t know what to do with. Chop up all the veggies, make some crunchy spring rolls, eat some, freeze some, be happy.

Just look at all this veg!

That’s about 8 cups (loose packed) of chopped veggies, plus some aromatics. I’ve got:

Cabbage

Rainbow Chard

Carrots

Turnip

Kale

Green onion

Giner

Garlic

Cilantro

You can use anything you have on hand – peas or soybeans would be nice, maybe some mushrooms…

Now before we get too far into this, there is one very important thing regarding the wrapper. You really need to find the correct one. You want “Spring Roll Pastry”, which is a whole different level of spring roll (or egg roll) wrapper that you find in the produce section. Spring Roll Pastry is usually in the freezer section near other ethnic foods. In Austin, I’ve found Spring Roll Pastry at HEB, Fiesta, and MT Supermarket. If you can’t find it in your regular supermarket, head to your international or Asian markets and check there  I’m sure you’ll find it. Using Spring Roll Pastry will give you that special thin, crisp, restaurant quality style spring roll. The other stuff in the yellow package from the produce section is chunky and way too thick – you won’t get the same result. And yes, Spring Roll Pastry is vegan.

The next thing to keep in mind is that the Spring Roll Pastry is meant to be deep fried. We aren’t going to do that, you can get away with pan frying in a little bit of oil, but baking these doesn’t really work. In the oven, the spring rolls will become very lightly crispy but mostly soft, and they won’t turn golden. Additionally, they need to be served hot from the pan, after a short rest on some paper towels. These spring rolls will get soft if kept in a warm oven before serving. You can however fry them, cool them to room temp, freeze them, then reheat in a HOT oven – then they will get crisp. Got it? Ok.

So back to the veggies. Once you have everything chopped, sauté the vegetables in a little coconut oil. Once they start to cook down, add seasonings like tamari, hoisin, a little garlic chili sauce. Cook while folding in the sauces, until everything is cooked through. There will be a little liquid in the pan – so sprinkle some cornstarch over everything and stir it in, cooking a little longer until the liquid is thick. This will keep the filling from becoming too wet inside the spring roll wrapper.

Let the veggies cool completely  this is when I usually grab my Spring Roll Pastry and let it sit out on the counter to thaw  it doesn’t take long. This is also a good time to make a simple dipping sauce  combine some ginger, garlic, chopped scallion, tamari, rice vinegar and hoisin in a little dish. Boom! Dipping sauce!

Once your veggie filling is cool and the Spring Roll Pastry is thawed, it’s time to roll! Here’s a video of my terribly chubby hands demonstrating how to roll a spring roll. (It’s our first video! Yay!)

The trick is to use a small amount of filling, no more than two tablespoons or so, and roll tightly. For frying, you don’t need much coconut oil in the pan – just enough to cover the bottom of the pan, and up just under 1/4 of an inch. For a 12″ skillet, I used just under a 1/2 cup of coconut oil. Like I mentioned above, we’re just pan frying, not deep frying.

It’s also important to note that you don’t want to leave the rolls in the frying oil for too long. Make sure the oil is very hot, then fry them until they are just lightly golden on both sides, then take them out. If you try to get a super deep brown crust, chances are the delicate wrapper will burst in the process.

Serve immediately, and keep the leftovers in the freezer do not refrigerate  the rolls will soften.