So, I bought a deep fryer last week. Never will I have to oven bake chips again! Retrospectively, it was a bad idea as I foresee a lot of deep-fried goodness in our future, which cannot be good. Someone even suggested deep fried Mars Bars.
I opted for the slightly healthier option of deep fried vegetarian spring rolls instead. They’re surprisingly easy to make; just cook up your filling, fill the spring rolls, fry and there you go! You’ll need to make a trip to your local Asian supermarket if you want an authentic filling, but really you can just use whatever you have in the fridge.
Vegetarian Spring Rolls
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 20 small spring rolls
Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetable oil for frying
- ½ packet spring roll wrappers (check the packet that it specifies for frying)
for the filling
- 100g mung bean vermicelli (glass noodles or sotanghoon), soaked for 15 minutes until soft
- 2 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce/mushroom sauce
- 1 tbsp water (or water from dried shiitake mushrooms below)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp fish sauce
- pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 small brown onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 1 small carrot, coarsely grated
- 50g fresh shiitake mushrooms, or dried shiitake rehydrated in hot water
- 50g tofu
- 1 small bunch of beans/whatever green veggie you have lying around, I used broccollini
- 3 spring onions, thinly sliced diagonally
Instructions
- Soak vermicelli in warm water, about 15 minutes until soft. They go semi-translucent when ready. Drain and reserve.
- Mix oyster sauce, water, soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce and salt in a small bowl and stir.
- Heat oil in a small frypan over medium heat and cook the onions, garlic and carrot. Add the mushrooms, tofu, green vegetable and spring onions and cook through - about 5 minutes
- Add the vermicelli and stir to combine. Add the sauce mix and cook until the water in the filling has evaporated. Taste and season as necessary.
- Separate the spring roll wrappers and use approx 1 heaped tbsp of filling for each roll - it compresses down as you wrap it. Wrap each spring roll tightly sealing with a bit of water to ensure the roll does not unravel.
- In a small pot or wok, heat remaining oil. Fry the spring rolls in batches, making sure not to overcrowd the pan until the wrappers take on a light brown colour - not until golden brown or you'll find that the filling will be burnt.
Leave a Reply