Spring Rolls (Chun Juan in Chinese) are a popular food to help celebrate the Spring Festival of Chinese New Year in mainland China; hence the name! They are eaten as a symbol of wealth and prosperity because they look like little bars of gold.
Filled with noodles and vegetables, these are delicious dipped in sweet chilli, or a soy-based dipping sauce. The addition of cooked shredded chicken or duck is also an option.
Skills Check
Follow a recipe; follow food safety and hygiene rules; tidy away; crack an egg; beat an egg; handle and roll pastry; use measuring spoons and cups; use weighing scales; cut using bridge/claw knife technique safely; use a vegetable peeler safely; use a box grater safely; use the hob/oven (with adult supervision).
Equipment
Chopping board, knife, fork, vegetable peeler,box grater, large bowl, small bowls, measuring spoons, teaspoons, weighing scales, pastry brush, baking sheet, oven gloves.
Allergens: (Please note the allergens listed are indicative only. Allergens vary depending on brand; check the labels on the products you use)
Wheat; Gluten; Egg; Sesame; Soya.
May contain Milk
Ingredients (makes 20):
- 100g vermicelli rice noodles (precooked - simply cover in boiling water for 3 minute, or follow packet instructions)
- 200g raw mixed vegetables, thinly sliced (pepper, beansprouts, carrot, spring onions, Chinese cabbage)
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp fresh grated ginger, or ginger paste
- 1/2 tbsp low salt soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp Chinese 5-spice
- 5 sheets of filo pastry, cut into 4 rectangles.
- 1 egg, beaten
- Sesame seeds (optional)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6.
- Prepare the vegetables by thinly slicing them into matchstick size strips.
- Mix the garlic, ginger, soy sauce and 5-spice in a bowl.
- Beat the egg in a small bowl.
- Lay a sheet of pastry on a chopping board and place your choice of filling (noodles and vegetables) along the longer edge of the sheet. Be careful not to overfill it! Spread a little of the ginger/garlic/soy mix on top of the filling.
- Brush beaten egg around the edges of the pastry sheet and roll the spring roll up by folding both sides over the filling, and then rolling them up.
- Place the spring rolls on a baking tray and brush with a little more egg glaze. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top if using.
- Bake the rolls for 15-20 minutes until golden.
So thinking about Spring Rolls ...
Filo pastry is lower in fat than other pastries, providing no additional butter or oil is added to it.
Rice noodles are made from rice flour and water. They are low in fat and sugar, and are a source of carbohydrate.
Vegetables are so good for us! Low in fat, sugar and salt and high in vitamins and minerals.
Nutritional Information
| Energy | 416kJ/8kcal | 5% | |
| Low | Fat | 1.8g | 3% |
| Low | Saturates | 0.4g | 2% |
| Low | Sugars | 2.3g | 3% |
| Med | Salt | 0.4g | 6% |
per 60g serving
% of an adult's reference intake
Typical values per 100g: Energy 693kJ / 164kcal
Notes
A traffic light system is used on nutrition labels to make it easier to see which foods and drinks are lower in calories, fat, sugar and salt. Try and choose more ‘greens’ and ‘ambers’ and fewer ‘reds’, and stick to smaller portions of ‘reds’.
Just because a recipe or a food has a red traffic light doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat it. Understanding why a food or recipe might have a red light can be helpful. For example oily fish is high in total fat and so any recipe containing oily fish is likely to be ‘red’ for fat. But it is recommended that we eat oily fish at least once a week because the type of fat it contains is beneficial for our health.
% Reference Intakes are also shown. Reference Intakes are guidelines about the approximate amount of particular nutrients and energy required for a healthy diet (based on an average-sized woman doing an average amount of physical activity). Most children will require less than these Reference Intakes. The contribution of one serving of a food or drink to the Reference Intake for each nutrient is expressed as a percentage.
