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My second Donna Hay recipe is one of my favorite recipes in general; springrolls… Not the fried variety but the fresh ones made from ricepaper. It’s so easy to make and so incredibly delicious. I made these before with a homemade sate sauce (which would also work really well here I think) and one with crispy prawns in a coating of coconut.
This one is different again as it features rice inside and chicken and ofcourse cucumber (don’t they look pretty?) I used red rice because that’s what I had lying around but you could easily use quinoa, regular rice or bulghur .
I did use the Thai basil for this recipe as I feel it is essential for the right flavors. You can use the italian basil as well, but I find the taste very different. The Thai variety has a bit of a minty flavor while the Italian one is a bit sweeter. The homemade sweet chili sauce is delicious and I’ll definitely be making this more often with recipes like this. The taste is a bit more spicy than the variety you buy in the store. Less sweet too. Try it for yourself!
Chicken springrolls with chili dressing
Ingredients
- 65 gr brown rice
- 250 ml water
- 8 ricepaper sheets
- 3 lebanese cucumbers sliced thinly lengthways
- 160 gr cooked chicken shredded
- 1 cup coriander leaves
- 1 cup Thai basil leaves
- micro basil leaves optional, als garnish
Chili dressing
- 60 ml fish sauce
- 60 ml rice wine vinegar
- 55 gr brown sugar
- 125 ml water
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 2 long red chili peppers seeds removed and finely chopped
- 2 tbsp of lime juice
Instructions
- Cook the rice according to package instructions and leave to cool.
- While the rice is cooking make the chili dressing. Put vinegar, fishsauce, garlic, water and the brown suigar in a small saucepan and dissolve the sugar while stirring
- Turn the heat up and leave to cook for 6-8 minutes or until it is reduced a bit and has become sirupy. Ad the chili and the lime and set aside to cool.
- Soften the ricepaper by dipping it in a large bowl of lukewarm water for about ten seconds. Lay down on a clean surface and put the cucumberslices on top slightly overlapping each other. Put two teaspoons of rice on one side of the cucumber, add the chicken slices, two thai basil leaves and two coriander leaves and roll tightly.
- Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Serve the springrolls with the chili dressing
Disclaimer:
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
These are sooo pretty with the cucumber!
Thanks so much Gina!
These sound delicious! The look beautiful! I just made spring rolls myself today with shrimp, cucumber and fresh herbs, but I couldn’t quite get mine to look as pretty as yours do! Will have to try making these next
Wrapping the cucumber that way is actually quite easy to do and it does make them look really neat and organized without any hassle at all!
Hi Simone,
even if light, they might be very tasty. The perfect choice for this period. Wonderfull!
Giovanna
O they are definitely tasty! 😉
I love spring rolls too! And although I usually have mine fried, I really do like this lighter version. I’ll bet the flavor is better — it sure sounds like it is. Thanks for this.
Thanks John. I don’t really know why I never make the fried versions. Maybe I should give them a try more often too as I do like the crispyness a lot as well.
I love something like this for a meal. It’s different and it’s fun to put together.
Thanks Maureen and it’s totally delicious and quite versatile too!