A Refreshing Spring Roll for your brown bag

Packing lunches have multiple benefits-you know what you are eating and its cheaper.Of course, if you compare what you pack with a fast food value meal, anything you make is expensive. I love spring rolls, usually the fried ones. But I decided to try the soft spring rolls once at a nearby Thai restaurant as a quick lunch-to-go and I loved them.
Spring rolls come from different parts of the Far East-Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese.There can be many ingredients that you can add to them- but they mainly consist of vegetables, noodles, herbs and some kind of protein(tofu, chicken ,shrimp or pork). I like making mine with shrimp as they give it the added bite without adding too much flavor. Some people like the refreshing mint, but I prefer the more subtle cilantro in my spring roll. You will find some of the ingredients in your neighborhood Chinese store. So have fun making them - my Soft Spring Rolls with Shrimp. They look colorful and taste yummy too. You can enjoy them with some duck sauce with toasted peanuts.

Ingredients: Make 4 spring rolls
Medium sized carrot -1
Scallion or spring onion -1
Cilantro-2-3 sprigs
Shrimp – 16
Toasted peanuts – 2 tablespoon
Teriyaki Sauce – A few dashes
Rice paper or Spring roll paper-4
Cellophane or rice noodles- 1 cup
Duck Sauce -to serve
Note : The last three ingredients are available in a Chinese store.

1. Wash the shrimp, clean and devein them. Cook them in the microwave for about 1 minute and let them cool to room temperature.
2. In a saucepan, heat some water till it comes to boil.Switch off the heat and soak the cellophane noodles in it with a pinch of salt.
3. Rougly grind the toasted peanuts .They should be tiny bits and not a fine powder.
4. Once the noodles are soft, drain them and let them cool to room temperature.
5. Grate the carrot.
6. Chop the scallion and the cilantro.
7. Warm some water( should not be boiling hot) and pour it in a plate.
8. Soak the rice paper in the warm water. The rice paper has some ridges and is crisp before it is soaked.It will turn soft and transparent as shown. Add some noodles, carrots, scallion, cilantro and 4 shrimps in each rolls. Add a dash of teriyaki sauce.Fold in the sides like you would fold in a package and then roll the paper to shut it close. Lay it seam side down to let the rice paper stick together. Repeat for the rest of the spring rolls.

You can serve this along with some duck sauce with toasted peanuts on top. You can also serve them cut in halves as an appetizer or as a side for your summertime barbeque. The great part of making these is they can be made a few hours ahead. Another important thing to note- no extra salt is needed as the teriyaki sauce gives it the necessary flavor.