Spa+Clinic Team If your waistline is expanding somewhat over winter and you feel the need to lighten up without sacrificing satisfaction, South East Asian food is the answer, says food blogger Dan Main.
“With it’s combination of intense flavours and subtle chilli heat to satisfy and stimulate the taste buds, there is a lightness to the food that will not leave the waistline swelling,” he says.
“Try to use seasonal vegetables where you can as they’ll give you extra natural sugars and flavour (which means less salt and sugar needs to be added), so feel free to vary the mix below, but keep the carrot/leaf/spring onion base.
“You’ll need rice paper spring roll wrappers, available from most supermarkets, health food shops or Asian stores. The rice vinegar, sesame oil, Mirin and five spice are good store cupboard ingredients to keep on hand as they help make the definitive Chinese and Vietnamese flavours.
INGREDIENTS
8 rice spring roll wrappers
1 spring onion, sliced lengthways
Equal amounts (about 1 cup each) of:
Grated carrot
Chinese leaves (pak choi, bok choi or similar) – shredded
Radish – daikon or normal radishes, grated
Chilli, finely chopped, amount to taste
Chopped coriander
Dressing
2 tsp chopped lemongrass
1 tbsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted in a dry pan
1 tsp Chinese five spice
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp mirin
2 tsp gluten free soy sauce (Tamari is the ideal option)
1 tsp sesame oil (if you’re going to have oil, make sure it tastes good)
Dipping Sauce
2 tbsp gluten free soy sauce
1 chopped red birds eye chilli (to taste)
A smidgen of minced garlic
METHOD
Combined the vegetables, coriander and add the dressing ingredients. Mix well and set aside for as long as you can be bothered (allow the flavours to develop, or some such nonsense).
Put some boiling water on a plate, then soak one rice roll in it for about 30 seconds.
Dry it on some kitchen towel and put on another plate or board to fold. To speed things up, pop another pancake in to soak before you start folding.
Place around a dessertspoon of filling just below the centre of the pancake. Try not to get too much liquid in there. Wrap the sides into the centre over the filling so that they go to the edges.
Fold the bottom flap over and tuck it in, then continue rolling until fully rolled.
Once all are rolled, set aside and mix the ingredients for the dipping sauce, then place in a small bowl, and serve!
There is one more thing you could do to these little morsels. They will still remain pretty healthy, but, er, a bit less so …
Put about 1cm of oil in a frying pan. Heat over a moderate heat (too hot and the oil will burn the spring rolls very quickly, too cold and they’ll just sit there and sweat).
Place a few rolls in the oil – try not to let them touch, otherwise you’ll end up with Siamese spring rolls.
Turn several times until golden all over, then set aside on kitchen towel.
Once all are cooked, you can give them all a quick fry again just to crisp them up (as pictured), then serve.
Serves 2 as a main, 4 as starter
