Iftar Ideas: Spring Rolls!

Ramadan Mubarak, everyone! Insha'Allah, my blog can be of use to some of you if you are strapped for ideas for the after-maghreb meal.

Today's idea is vegetarian spring rolls! They're super-tasty, though they do require some preparation.
You will need the following ingredients for this recipe:

-½ lb carrots (approximately two medium to large carrots)
-1 red bell pepper
-1 cup beansprouts
-1Tbsp vegetable oil
-1 red chili, seeded and finely chopped
-Zest and juice of one lime
-1Tbsp soy sauce
-½tsp cornstarch
-2Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
-Egg roll wrappers
-Peanut oil, for frying


Cut carrots and red pepper into thin slices. This took me forever so give yourself time.

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok and then add in the carrots, bell pepper and beansprouts to the wok. Stir fry for about two minutes, then remove the wok from the heat .

Take the lime zest and juice as well as the red chili and stir it into the contents of the wok.

Combine the soy sauce and cornstarch. In the original recipe from this cookbook, it calls for arrowroot, but cornstarch accomplishes the same thing. The difference is that cornstarch usually makes the substance cloudy as it solidified, whereas arrowroot doesn't. I used cornstarch because it is more readily available and I don't really care how cloudy the soy sauce gets.

So, mix the soy sauce and arrowroot as best you can, then add it to the wok and return the wok to the heat. Stir-fry until the veggies are well-covered with soy sauce (at least two minutes!). Stir in cilantro

Here comes the tricky part: folding up the rolls.

Start by making a thick, but not pasty mixture of flour and water.

Take a large spoonful of the stir-fry and put it in the middle of the egg roll wrapper. It should be facing you diagonally so it looks like a diamond. Take the flour mixture and spread around the edges of the wrapper.Next, fold in the two side corners to the center and dab the four corners with more flour mixture, as you see in the below picture.
Take the bottom end and fold it up. Pinch and fold in the corners at the bottom so the flour mixture will seal it up.
Finally, roll it up, starting from the bottom, folding in the sides so they're as sealed up as they can be.Voilà! Obviously, repeat this process until all the stir-fry is used up.

Okay, now you need to heat up your peanut oil for frying. Once it gets hot, drop in a few spring rolls and deep fry until crispy brown. It should take about 6-8 minutes.

I suggest serving this with white rice or even a fried rice dish would be nice. Also, serve with a sauce for dipping - whatever kind you like.

Enjoy!

THIS RECIPE IS:

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Slice carrots and bell pepper thinly. Add those and beansprouts to wok with 1Tbsp veg oil. Stir-fry two minutes remove wok from heat. Stir lime zest and juice and chili pepper into wok. Combine soy sauce and cornstarch. Return wok to heat. Add soy sauce mixture and stir-fry at least two minutes more. Stir in cilantro. Remove wok from heat. Add spoonful of stir-fry to the center of an egg roll wrapper. Roll up, using a mixture of water and flour to seal. Repeat until all stir-fry mixture is used up. Heat peanut oil. Deep-fry spring rolls until golden-brown.