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Vegetarian Spring Rolls

Introduction & method

I've never had a spring roll from a Chinese takeaway that was remotely enjoyable, but if you make your own they'll be hot, tasty and crispy. Dead easy and yummy!

 Vegetarian Spring Rolls Recipe

Make the Filling


Make cornflour slurry - mix cornflour with an equal amount of water. Top and tail the carrots and cut them into matchsticks. Shred the cabbage. Heat sunflower oil and sesame oil in a wok or deep frying pan. Add the cabbage and carrots and cook for 1-2 minutes until softened a little. Add the bean sprouts and cook for one minute more then add soy sauce, hoisin sauce and white pepper. Slowly add some of the cornflour slurry (not all of it) until the veggies turn a bit sticky. Remove from the heat and place the veggies in a bowl to cool down completely.

Assemble the Spring Rolls


When the filling mixture is cool, remove your pack of spring roll wrappers from the freezer - they defrost pretty quickly so gently pull 3-4 from the stack to start with. Place one wrapper diagonally on the worktop with one corner pointing towards your belly. Scoop up some filling and place it in a cigar-shaped pile just below the centre of the wrapper. Fold up the corner of the wrapper closest to you, then fold over the sides of the wrapper. Continue rolling then coat the top edge of the wrapper with slurry and finish rolling to make it stick. Place the roll on a plate and make more rolls until you run out of filling. If you wish, you could freeze the rolls at this point, or refrigerate them for a day or two, or just go straight ahead and cook 'em.

Make Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce


Put the sugar, vinegar and ketchup into a small saucepan. Heat it until the sugar has dissolved. Add the 5-spice powder, stir well and remove from heat. Transfer to a small bowl and allow to cool down. The sauce should be quire thick - if you feel it's too runny, you can stir in a bit of cornflour slurry.

Cook the Spring Rolls


Pour several centimetres of sunflower oil into a wok or deep frying pan - you need enough to cover the spring rolls. Heat the oil until it shimmers, then gently lower 5-6 rolls into the oil. Cook them for 2-3 minutes until golden and crispy. Remove them from the pan and drain on kitchen paper. Cook the next batch of rolls. Serve hot or cold with the dipping sauce.


The video above is from the Keef Cooks YouTube channel. Click here to see the video recipe of Vegetarian Spring Rolls on YouTube.

 
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Ingredients & Info


FILLING
 2 medium carrots
 140 grams white cabbage
 140 grams bean sprouts
 1 tbsp sunflower oil
 1 tbsp sesame oil
 2 tbsp light soy sauce
 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE
 170 grams demerara sugar
 85 ml malt vinegar
 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
 half a tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
  SPRING ROLLS
 10-11 spring roll wrapperss
 1 litre sunflower oil

UNITS:
Metric
US Customary/Imperial

Makes 10 -11
Prep time: 10 minutes.
Cooking time: 10 minutes.
Total time: 20 minutes.