The spring rolls I’ll be presenting can be considered a paleo “cheat” Â to some people as they use rice paper. Â The inside of the spring roll can have a variety of ingredients added to them so it’s a versatile recipe.
There are a lot of strict paleo-ites who would not eat rice at all as they have no nutritional value. Â Instead, the rice adds empty calories to your diet so if you’re trying to lose weight, rice should not be in your diet.
For my ingredients, I used lettuce, carrots, cucumber, scallions and cilantro. Â Pretty simple, no?
Our local grocery store had rice paper which surprised me but I was glad I didn’t have to search all over town for it. Â They had two different kinds and I purchased the Banh Trang Rice Paper.
The springs rolls I have eaten at restaurants have a peanut sauce either inside the roll or else it’s served with an outside peanut dip. Â I decided to use cashew butter instead (paleo-ites don’t eat peanuts). Â What I did was take a couple of large tablespoons of cashew butter then I added a little bit of water to liquify it so I can pour it on top of the veggies in the spring rolls.
In order to prepare the rice paper, you need to have a bowl of water that’s either cold or warm that you will put the rice paper in (so it has to have a wide bottom).
The rice paper is very thin. Â I put it in my cold water for a couple of seconds then took it out and put it on a plate in preparation to fill it with the veggies.
The picture below appears that I was a bit chintzy with my vegetables. Â I added more after I took the picture though. Â (Don’t be so judgmental ~ laughing)
After the rice paper is filled with your veggies and sauce, you simply fold it from the bottom to the middle then fold the sides over and finally fold the top over it. Â I’m not a pro at it yet but what I did worked for me.
I decided to have a light supper and served these with baked chicken wings. Â Yum!!!!
Here’s the recipe for you to view and/or print out. Â I know you’ll enjoy them.
Ingredients
- Lettuce, 3-4 leaves sliced thin
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-2 inch thin sticks
- 1/2 cucumber, sliced thinly
- Cilantro, a handful
- Scallions, a handful
- 2-3 tablespoons cashew butter
Instructions
- Prepare the vegetables.
- In a bowl with a wide base, add cold (or warm) water, enough so that the rice paper will be covered with water.
- Take 2-3 tablespoons of cashew butter and put it in a small bowl then add a little water at a time to give it a more liquid-y consistency.
- Put the rice paper in the bowl with the water and leave it there for approximately 2-3 seconds.
- Remove the rice paper, put it on a clean plate then start adding the vegetables (or whatever ingredients you're using) to the middle of the rice paper.
- Sprinkle with the more liquid cashew butter mixture you made.
- Fold the rice paper in half over the vegetables, fold the sides towards the middle, then fold the top over to reach the middle.
- Serve immediately.
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