Shrimp Spring Rolls

Have you ever gone through a "cleansing" of sorts? That sounds weird. You know what I mean though. Ok, maybe you don't...let me explain :)


Every time around the holidays (or when my whole family gets together for an extended amount of time) I tend to divulge myself into a huge collection of greasy foods, yummy desserts, large servings from restaurants and endless amounts of chips and dip. What can I say? I love queso. My mom & dad love eating out and my mom always has an endless amount of food on hand when the family is in town. I just lose control...especially when there is queso. 

So, a couple years ago my sister introduced me to "the cleanse". Basically, we spent the next few days or a good week eating really, really healthy. I'm talking green tea at every meal, snacking on cucumbers, not having carbs, but just vegetables and some meat. Paleolithic diet at its finest.

I get a bit bored with the whole thing pretty quickly. I can't live without that queso (I actually haven't eaten queso in a good month...insane)

At one point she (the sister) introduced me to these shrimp spring rolls. They use rice paper, but we didn't include that as a heavy carb such as bread. They were delicious and I even have them on non cleansing moments such as today. So, in honor of Asian Food night at our neighborhood parish this evening, here's a little how to for shrimp spring rolls.

I added a peanut satay dipping sauce. This would not have been allowed in the cleanse, but I haven't done that in a good year...

First things first. Go to the grocery store, get your ingredients, and chop em on up. Here's a shot of them:

Here's a better list of what you need, friends:

2-3 carrots, diced up

1 green bell pepper, diced up 

*Note: I would've gotten red but it was a whole dollar more

 3-4 green onions, chopped up

lettuce, shredded up

cooked shrimp, halved up

rice paper

asian food aisle. easy to find.

I pretty much eyeball everything. I had about 3/4 pound of shrimp and used about a half head of green lettuce. The add ins always vary depending on what I have in stock or what's on sale at the store. This is something you can change things up with. I usually always use  green onions, a bell pepper, lettuce, and shrimp. Sometimes I'll add some fresh herbs, onions, or carrots. Do what ya want. 

Once everything is chopped and diced up, put everything in a bowl and make an assembly line of goods. You will also need a pan filled with a good 1/2 inch of water and a large cutting board to form the rolls on. Once you have that, you are ready.

Step One.

Get a piece of rice paper and place it in your water-filled pan until it is fully submerged.

Leave it in there for a good 10 seconds, take it out, and place it on the board.

Step Two.

Put a little, tiny handful of lettuce on it.

Then follow with the shrimp, carrots, green onions, and bell peppers.

Step Two.

Roll the thing up up like a burrito. This takes practice, which I am still in the midst of doing each time I make these.

There you are! Delicious just plain, dipped in some soy sauce, or dipped in this thai peanut sauce...

Here is what you need for that!

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup non-sweetened, creamy peanut butter

13.5 oz. coconut milk

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup red curry paste

3/4 cup sugar

The next part is simple. Dump all of that into a good sized sauce pot, bring it to boiling while whisking constantly (unless you enjoy burnt peanut sauce), put it on simmer for about 2 minutes until it thickens a bit, and then bring it to room temp! You can keep this in the fridge for a good week or put it in the freezer. To get it back to a good consistency just heat it up and add a little bit of water...or bring it to a friends house tonight to enjoy some good Asian food!

Mark & I are off to do that...wishing we had chopsticks in hand :)