"Trust me," he said. "They will be amazing!" he said.
"I don't know," I said... "I think people might find them too different/hard to make/complicated/unappealing/intimidating," I said.
aaaaaaaaaand he was right.
These Thai-inspired spring rolls are hands down one of my new favorite meals; I'm so glad that I trusted him! They are crunchy, sweet, spicy, and savory all at once. They were also really fun to make! Don't be intimidated, we're going to walk you through it.
We pulled out our mortar and pestle for this recipe along with our mandolin slicer. You don't necessarily need either of these kitchen tools to prepare the recipe, but they're great, affordable tools to have on hand! We use our mandolin slicer for so many different things.
Green papaya, is just a very under-ripe papaya. It has super firm texture and adds to the crisp texture and fruity sweetness of these spring rolls.
If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can use a small bowl and wooden spoon to mix all of the ingredients, but smash or mince the garlic before adding and squeeze the lime juice right into the mixture.
All of these colors. All of these flavors. Who ever said eating healthy was boring has clearly never had these!
Follow the instructions on your rice paper wrappers. Ours had us submerge the papers one by one in warm water. We found that holding each wrapper gently under water for 10-12 seconds was the perfect amount of time. Do not let the damp wrappers touch one another, or they will stick together.
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons Sugar in the Raw (or palm sugar)
1 key lime quartered
1 clove garlic
2 spicy chilies stem removed OR 1 tablespoon of Sambal (look for Sambal in the international aisle of your grocery store by the hot sauce, duck sauce, etc.)
1 Tablespoon key lime juice
2 Tablespoons fish sauce (use soy sauce to make dish vegan)
1 whole green papaya (halved and seeds removed)
2 medium sized carrots
1 chayote (found by plantains, coconuts and other exotic fruits)
1 medium size apple (we used a gala apple)
8 cherry tomatoes quartered
1/4 cup unsalted peanuts
*** We chose chayote and apples, but any crisp fruit will work! Think apples, pears, mango, etc.
You'll Need:
large bowl of warm water
Damp tea towel
Directions:
Combine the sugar, quartered lime, chilies (if using sambal instead of chilies add after mixing to taste), lime juice, and fish sauce to your mortar. Use the pestle to pulverize the ingredients into a sauce. Once all of the flavors are muddled together, set aside.
Use the mandolin (or carefully use knife) to thinly slice green papaya, and apple.
Peel your carrots and chayote before also thinly slicing.
Add you sliced green papaya, apple, carrots, chayote, quartered cherry tomatoes, and peanuts to a large bowl.
Stir in the sauce from your mortar and toss well.
Prepare your your rice wrappers as directed on the package. We found that making each roll one by one was most convenient, by submerging the rice paper for 10-12 seconds and laying flat on the damp tea towel.
Add about 1/4- 1/2 cup of filling to each rice paper. Fold the sides in and tightly roll each Spring Roll. Watch a video of us building our Spring Rolls on our Instagram page: @Darling_Dishes
Serve with fish sauce, sambal, soy sauce, or enjoy plain!