Spring Rolls

I love Asian food, particularly Thai.  When we eat at our favorite Thai restaurant we order spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce for an appetizer.   These are incredibly easy to make at home.  A trip to the Asian market is in order to get a few of these ingredients like the rice papers, Thai basil, and the sweet chili sauce.  That part if always fun for me though.  It's an adventure!  Spring rolls are healthy, lo-cal, and delicious.  You can also use pork instead of the shrimp or forego the meat and make it veggie only.

Find the rice wrappers in your local Asian market.     Above is how they look dry.

• cooked Jasmine rice
• 8 rice wrappers 
• 8 large cooked shrimp - peeled, deveined and cut in half
• shredded carrot
• bean sprouts
•  chopped fresh Thai basil
• chopped fresh cilantro
• leaves  of korean lettuce, chopped
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• Run a rice paper until water for a few seconds to soften. Lay wrapper flat. In a row across the center, place 2 shrimp halves, a handful of rice, basil, carrot, bean sprout, cilantro and lettuce, leaving about 2 inches uncovered on each side. Fold uncovered sides inward, then tightly roll the wrapper, beginning at the end with the lettuce. Repeat with remaining ingredients.  Serve with peanut sauce.  For the sauce I used sweet chili sauce mixed with a little crunchy peanut butter.  This sauce is terrific.

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