Baked rice paper rolls are a lovely snack or meal for a cold day. They are easy and quick to make yet incredibly flavourful. The combination of juicy meat with a note of curry, crispy and chewy rice wrap and sweet or savoury dip is amazingly good. It’ll make this recipe one of your favourites.
Oh, I love summer rolls and spring rolls. Usually, summer rolls are fresh, filled with fresh herbs and vegetables. In other words, the basic aim is to add as many fresh ingredients into the rice paper as possible. They are an amazing treat in the hot summer.
In winter, though, I fancy more a hot plate. And so, I made warm summer rolls. These ones are baked (not fried) and filled with juicy meat. You are going to love them. Moreover, you’ll find a mixture of textures and flavours. Within one bite you’ll experience crispy and chewy, hot and cold, juicy, salty, sweet. Oh, amazing! In short, every bite will make you want more. Wink.
Rice paper rolls perfect stuffing
Rice paper rolls are wonderful. Best of all, you can play around the recipe and be creative as much as you like. In fact, you can make them fresh or baked. More, the choice of the stuffing has no limits; from meat, fish, prawns, to rice noodles, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs and fruits.
For instance, one of the most favourite combinations for fresh summer roll stuffing is prawn and pork combined with a bunch of vegetables and herbs. But I cooked the stuffing first and gave it a wonderful wintry note.
Since I used ground meat, I had to add some vegetables as well (for the colour and taste). Therefore, I used carrots and zucchini. Zucchini is also a wonderful solution for how to keep the meat moist and juicy. To add even more flavour, I added cranberries for some sweetness and curry powder for a rich note.
In addition, I decided on making two dipping sauces (one is more of a jam). One savoury and one sweet. For example, a sweet and sour, garlic-flavoured or a chili sauce are most frequently served with summer or spring rolls. Well, I wanted something else. Something fresh and something sweet. Therefore, I made a yoghurt-zucchini dip and a cranberry jam.
How to prevent rice paper from sticking?
First of all, rice paper has to be wet. And your hands should be wet, too. In order to make the rice paper soft, you have to soak it in water for 30-40 seconds. The rice paper should be soft enough to roll yet not too soft or else it will tear apart easily.
Then, lay it on your working surface. Some say, laying it on a kitchen towel works great. However, I find it way better and more effective, using a slightly wet plate or a silicone mat. In brief, it works perfectly.
Also, some people find rolling the summer rolls complicated. But it is not that tricky. In fact, it’s not tricky at all. Fold the bottom side over the filling, then fold in the sides and roll up tightly around the filling. This applies for every summer roll, either fresh or baked.
Ingredients for around 13 baked rice paper rolls:
- olive oil
- 1 carrot (diced)
- 2 garlic cloves (chopped)
- 1/2 zucchini (grated, save 1 spoon for the dip)
- 400 g ground meat (beef & pork)
- 10-15 dried cranberries (chopped)
- 1 Tbsp of curry powder
- salt and pepper
- 13 rice papers
Ingredients for a) the yoghurt dipping sauce and b) the cranberry dipping sauce:
- 120 ml plain yoghurt
- 1 Tbsp of grated zucchini
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp of chili oil (optional)
- 2 handfuls of dried cranberries
- 1 tsp of honey
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- 120 ml orange juice (or more, if needed)
Start with preparing the filling. First, wash and dice the carrot, peel and chop the garlic, wash and grate the zucchini (remember to keep a spoon of it for the dip). Next, in a larger pan, heat the olive oil. Once it gets hot, add carrots, garlic and zucchini. Stir fry for a couple of minutes.
Then, add the ground meat, season and cook until the meat loses the pink colour. At this point, stir in the chopped cranberries and the curry powder. Cook until the meat turns to a lovely brown colour and the liquids evaporate. Then, put aside to cool.
Meanwhile, prepare the two delicious dipping sauces. For the first, white dipping sauce, mix yoghurt, one spoon of grated zucchini, salt and pepper. That’s it. Wink. Moreover, for the second, drizzle some chili oil in a saucepan. Then add the dried cranberries, honey, a pinch of salt, cinnamon and orange juice.
Once the cranberries get soft, puree them with an immersion blender. Puree so long until you get the desired consistency. However, 20-30 seconds are just fine. Wink. Scoop both dips in two lovely glasses or small bowls and keep aside.
Juicy meat stuffing with a curry note
Furthermore, cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, prepare a silicon mat and a large and shallow bowl or pan with water for soaking the rice paper. When your working space is ready, soak the first rice paper for 7-10 seconds in water.
Then lay it on a slightly wet silicon mat, spoon the meaty filling in the lower middle of it, fold the bottom side over it, then fold the sides in and roll up to get a lovely roll. Place the roll on a lightly greased parchment paper.
Continue making summer rolls one by one and placing them on the baking sheet 2 cm apart. Rice paper likes to stick a lot. Wink. Anyway, once you have 3 summer rolls left, preheat the oven to 200º C. Before baking, brush the rolls with some olive oil and put in the oven for around 15 minutes or until crispy.
In conclusion, carefully remove the baked rice paper rolls from the parchment paper and serve them with two tasty dipping sauces. They can make either a wonderful party snack, lunch or a hearty evening meal.
Enjoy!
PS
If you like the recipe, if you make the recipe or if you have any new ideas how to improve or change it, let me know in the comments section below or alternatively share your photos and reactions with me on Instagram (@Passionspoon), Facebook or Twitter (@PassionSpoon1). Simply use the hashtag #passionspoonrecipes in your posts. I would love to see them! (wink)
