I was sooooo excited about dinner tonight. I had planned to make fresh spring rolls because I always love eating spring rolls at restaurants and festivals and things like that. I seriously couldn’t wait to eat dinner.
I was super hungry by dinner time as ll I had this afternoon was a banana with peanut butter.
I found a few recipes online and decided to go with the fresh spring roll with peanut sauce from Peanut Butter Boy. The experience was problematic from the beginning so I should have guessed the ending to this story.
First, I had to alter his recipe for peanut sauce. As it turns out soy sauce is all full of gluten so I couldn’t use that in the recipe. That meant when I tried to make it without it but using everything else it came out super sweet and strange. So I had to work with it but in the end came out with an awesome gluten free recipe for peanut sauce (I should have just looked one up). It was by far the best part of the meal.
Peanut Sauce Recipe
Adapted from Peanut Butter Boy
- 1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter with salt
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp crushed ginger
- 2 tsp chili powder (estimate… I just used “liberal” amounts)
- 2 tsp garlic powder (another estimate)
- liberal amount of salt to taste
Directions:
Mix everything together.
YES!
That was my favorite part of the meal. I actually ended up not liking them and only ate two of the ones I made. I think it was the combination of shrimp and cucumber that threw me off. I don’t usually like cucumber so I should have been smart and left it out. Then the shrimp also wasn’t my favorite. I would have preferred beef or chicken but at the time of planning shrimp sounded like such a good idea.
Making them also took FOREVER. We made a lot thinking we would enjoy them. Then actually eating the two I had took forever. The whole meal was just long!
I hate to waste food so we asked Kepa’s mom if she wanted to try them. Surprise, she loved them! She ate a couple and then is planning to take the rest for her lunch tomorrow. Win! That’s great because we made a lot.
They really weren’t bad, I just couldn’t get into them because of the cucumber shrimp action. I would say next time I make them I’ll make them differently, but I doubt I will make them again. It takes so long to do all the prep and put them together that I would much rather buy them from now on.
They did look great though. I was really proud of my rolling skills.
But like I said, we didn’t like them. I managed to eat two but it wasn’t a full dinner. And we had invested so much time and everything in the kitchen to make them, so we went to Burger Fuel for dinner as a backup. I ordered a small chicken sandwich on a gluten bun (ate one half) and some of the french fries.
Ah. I hate when things I make are a failure. I was so disappointed in the spring rolls. I wanted to love them. I’m just not great with making or eating Asian flavors or food. Maybe I’ll improve?
{ 7 comments }
that’s called a rice paper roll here, i think they are thai.
they are so hard to roll, seriously it’s worse than sushi/seaweed.
Hhhm, burger fuel, never heard of it. it might be here but i’m not sure. i’m glad they have a gluten free bun, wootwoot.
Yeah, fresh spring rolls made with rice paper.
Burger Fuel is a kiwi franchise. Not sure if it’s skipped over there yet.
I’m sorry they didn’t work for you Mary but I give you an “A” for effort!
A few suggestions:
If you use those last few tips, you won’t have to do any prep work for the veggies which I can see is extraordinarily time consuming. Using pre-sliced, pre-shredded or small vegetables (like those bean sprouts) makes them very easy to make. We actually prepare them the night before for lunch at work. Only takes about 5-10 minutes to make 2 for each of us. We store them in a tupperware and they stay great the next day, the rice paper gets a little more solid and sturdy and we bring some sauce on the side to dip them in.
Does gluten-free soy sauce exist? I could have sworn it does….
Thanks Nick. Chicken would have been better, but like I said at the time shrimp sounded fine. We probably won’t make them again. We don’t have packages of pre-shredded food at our grocery store, so it’s not really an option to save time. Unfortunately.
Gluten free soy sauce does exist but I don’t have any since I just recently went gluten free.
Last fall, I went to a vietnamese restaurant I think it was, and ordered spring rolls kind of like these, but when they came, it was just these hard wrappers and a bowl of water and a plate of ingredients. The woman came over and showed me, I have to soak the wrapper, then add these things and those things and the shrimp and the sugar cane and no don’t eat the sugar cane..it was so complicated and took forever to make them, I ended up just eating a couple really lopsided things, and taking everything else home, and just eating the fillings later. I love shrimp and LOVE LOVE cucumber btw. Some things are just better to get premade at a restaurant (go to one that actually makes them for you lol). I get nervous of spring rolls in case if people put peanuts in them. But theyre really yummy. Good for you for experimenting, even if it didn’t turn out!
ps i believe that our soy sauce is gluten free…they sell it in wholefoods and its sugar free so thats why we got it. its prob at ur store. well maybe.
Ahhhh! Try using nasoya egg roll wrappers, stuff with satueed veggies + asian sauce then bake! SO good and so super easy. I love spring rolls. I ate some for dinner ;)
Update: The ones that we didn’t eat or my mum didn’t eat, I shallow fried. Made them taste a LOT better IMO.