To celebrate Lunar New Year, I am serving up lots of delicious dishes for this big day, including one of my most favourite  recipes: Vegetable Spring Rolls!

These crispy golden cylinders are filled with delicious (and vegetarian) filling made of cabbage, carrots, scallions, woodear mushrooms, thin rice noodles and some key sauces and oils. You can bake these in the oven, or deep fry them for a real treat!

One of the Best Crowd-Pleasing Recipes

These Vegetable Spring Rolls are a crowd-pleaser for many reasons. They are warm, crispy and full of delightful vegetables and noodles. Plus, they can be enjoyed by everyone—vegetarians included!

For the filling, I combine shredded carrots, cabbage, woodear mushrooms, scallions, rice noodles, and a few key Chinese sauces and oils. Then, I wrap the filling in store-bought spring roll wraps (yay for convenience!) before they are plunged into a pot of oil and are deep fried until crispy.

Once they come out of the fryer, I drain the excess oil and serve them warm with a side of plum sauce, sweet chili sauce, or hot pepper jelly!

Symbology Behind the Spring Roll

While Spring Rolls are served year-round, they are specifically eaten on Lunar New Year to symbolize wealth and prosperity.  Once the spring rolls are wrapped and fried, they become a nice golden colour, and look like small gold bars or bouillon. Whether this is true or not, you can count on me eating a TON of these on Chinese New Year!

Also, make sure to check out some of my other recipes that are perfect for Lunar New Year:

• Soy Sauce Chicken
• Pork and Chive Potstickers
• Baked Spring Rolls with Sweet Chili Sauce
• Beef Chow Mein
• Vegetable Lo Mein
• Sesame Chicken

Have a very Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! Let me know in the comments below how you are celebrating for Lunar New Year this year!

Get the Recipe!

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Melissa

Apart from dumplings, Spring Rolls are one of my favourite dim sum dishes. These crispy golden cylinders are filled with delicious (and vegetarian) filling made of cabbage, carrots, scallions, woodear mushrooms, thin rice noodles and some key Chinese sauces and oils. You can bake these in the oven, or deep fry them for a real treat!

Print Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Asian, Chinese

Servings 24 spring rolls

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 cups Napa cabbage green leaves only, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cup carrots finely grated
• 1 cup woodear mushrooms soaked and finely chopped
• 6 cups thin rice noodles vermicelli, cooked and cooled
• 3 scallions finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1/4 cup soy sauce preferably low-sodium
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
• 1 450 g package spring roll wrappers
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 litres canola oil plus 2 tabelspoons, for frying
• Plum sauce or Hot Pepper Jelly for dipping

Instructions

 

• Begin by making the filling. In a large frying pan, heat up 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the cabbage and carrots and cook for 2 minutes until just softened. Add the woodear mushrooms and cook for another 2 minutes. Next, add the rice noodles, followed by the scallions, garlic, soy sauce, hoisin, Shaoxing cooking wine, sesame oil and sugar. Mix everything together until combined then set aside to cool completely.
• In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water together then set aside until you are ready to wrap the spring rolls.
• To wrap the spring rolls, lay one spring roll wrapper onto a cutting board. Brush all four edges with some of the cornstarch mixture. Keep the rest of the spring roll wrappers covered in a damp paper towel so that they don't dry out while your assembling the spring rolls.
• Add about 2 tablespoons of filling into the center of the wrapper, moulding it into a long rectangle. Fold in the left and right sides of the wrapper to contain the filling then roll the wrapper up to seal it. Try and wrap the spring rolls tightly so that there are no air pockets and that the wrappers aren’t loose. This will ensure the wraps stay together when they are fried.
• Add the rest of the oil to a large pot or dutch oven and pre-heat the oil to 350 degrees F. Add a bit more oil if necessary (the oil should be about 3-4 inches deep). Add 4-5 spring rolls to the pot at a time and gently fry them for 2-3 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Once cooked, remove them from the pot using a pair of kitchen tongs or a wire strainer, and drain them over some paper towels.
• Let them cool for a few minutes before serving with some Plum Sauce or Hot Pepper Jelly!

Video

Notes

You can also bake the spring rolls as well.

• Simply, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Place a sheet of parchment paper on a large baking tray. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over the parchment paper. This will help make the bottom of the spring rolls crispy when they bake.
• Place the wrapped Spring Rolls on the baking sheet, ensuring that they are at least 1 inch apart. Brush additional vegetable oil over the tops and sides of the spring rolls using the pastry brush. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes (or until golden brown), flipping the spring rolls halfway through cooking.

Keyword asian appetizers, spring rolls, vegetable spring rolls, vegetarian appetizers

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