My Famous Spring Rolls

Not too long ago I switched gradually to a diet of mostly rice, fish and veggies in my strive to become healthier.  (Don't let my excessive baking fool you-I do not eat cake.)

And it was on one of those Saturday mornings that consist of Dunkin Donut's Coconut coffee and wearing slippers to the grocery store that I found rice paper on the bottom shelf--and thus my life was transformed.

I've had rice paper with spring rolls before at Thai restaurants (and most egg rolls are in deep fried rice paper) but I never realized how easy rice paper was to use and how versatile it was. (I've heard you can use it to decorate cakes!)

Jenna's Shrimp Spring Rolls:
1 piece of rice paper
Lettuce
Quarter of a carrot
4 pieces of shrimp
Basil
Spring Roll Sauce

Dry rice paper

Just run the rice paper under lukewarm water and set on a plate and it will quickly become soft, thin, and sticky.  Rice paper can be very delicate, so handle with care to avoid it tearing.  Also, once you move it to a plate, you don't want it to sitting in water, otherwise it won't be sticky enough.

Now add your ingredients.  The great thing about making these is that you can put whatever you want in them.  I usually stick with lettuce and carrots as a base and then add crab or shrimp and maybe red peppers.

Be sure to julienne your carrots and place them long ways so when you fold up the roll they don't stab through the rice paper 

Isn't that gorgeous?  The basil makes these spring rolls taste off the charts.

Ok, now for the fun part.

Just fold up the top and bottom...

as shown --->

  And then fold over one side and lightly gather the open side tight and roll.  It's just like rolling up a burrito.


Then take a knife and cut down the center.

And now you have a wonderful spring roll.  I use the Spring Roll Sauce found at Kroger (conveniently titled: Spring Roll Sauce)  but you can use a peanut based sauce, soy sauce, or really anything you want to.