Spring rolls with Orange Glaze Dipping Sauce

This is the first of my vegetarian recipe posts. I refused to give up food that tastes good so we’ve found some pretty delicious recipes. This is one of them. Some of you are probably thinking, “Duh. I’ve made spring rolls every week since I was a kid” but I just started eating vegetables, so give me a break. We’ve made them twice and we’re just getting better and better at it.

Spring Rolls with Orange Glaze Dipping Sauce

Ingredients (Spring Rolls)

–Veggies- Really, you can just use any vegetable that you have handy for the innards of the spring roll. We’ve used any combination of bell pepper, onion, cabbage, carrot, broccoli, cilantro, etc.  Before we stuffed them, we cooked the veggies a little. The first time, Alex lightly sauteed the veggies in olive oil but they got a little greasy afterwards. The second time, he just steamed them in some water and it was really delicious.

–Spring Roll wrappers- found ours in the produce section at Kroger

–EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

1. Chop up the veggies and steam them in a few inches of water until they’ve reached a consistency that won’t make you gag. Mix them together in a large bowl.

2. Using the wrapping instructions on the back of the spring roll packaging, wrap up your Spring rolls.

3. Heat a few tablespoons of  olive oil (our stove was on 5 heat setting out of a possible 9 but I’m also not sure how the cavemen who invented our stove rated heat, so that  might not be an accurate measure. The higher the heat, the crispier the shells, but olive oil burns so you don’t want it too high). Cook the spring rolls for a few minutes on each side (front and back) until they’re golden brown.

4. Enjoy the heck out of them.  (A note about leftovers. The first time we made them, Alex cooked them all and then we put the extras in the fridge. They got a little soggy. They were still good, just not as good as the fresh ones. The second time, we tried to save the extras uncooked so that we could cook them when we were ready. Unfortunately, after a day in the fridge, there was a mini nuclear meltdown when all the spring roll wraps melted together and everything fell apart before we could get it in the pan. So, that didn’t work either. We’ll let you know if anything actually works.)

Orange Glaze Dipping Sauce

You know I’m all about masking the flavor of any vegetable I happen to be eating, especially if it means pureeing it and hiding the aforementioned vegetable in macaroni and cheese or brownies. This dipping sauce is darn good and it fits well with lots of different entrees. It’s a good taste-cover-up sauce, even though I will declare these spring rolls don’t need taste covered up.

Ingredients (Dipping Sauce)

-Half a can of frozen OJ (1/2 cup)

-Honey (1/4 cup)

-Ketchup (1/4 cup)

-Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix all the ingredients. You might have to pop the OJ in the microwave to thaw it a little. The amounts are from the original recipe that I used but now I just kind of eyeball it. I prefer more honey to ketchup (something about a quarter cup of ketchup in any of  my food freaks me out). You can keep it covered in the fridge.

Ah, there you go. Maybe tomorrow I will share my lemon-kale sandwich recipe with you. I tried it for the first time yesterday and it blew my mind. Literally.