A cool, light, Asian appetizer
To keep these fresh spring rolls from sticking to the plate and tearing open, always place them onto a damp paper towel covered plate. If you won’t be eating them immediately, cover the rolls, too. Adapted from the Fresh Avocado Spring Roll with Sweet Thai Dipping Sauce recipe on the Canadian Living website.
Ingredients
2.5 oz rice vermicelli noodles
1 carrot, shredded
3/4 cups julienne cucumbers
1/4 cup lightly packed fresh mint, chopped
1/4 cup lightly packed fresh coriander leaves, chopped
2 Tbl seasoned rice vinegar
2 tsp fish sauce
1 large avocado
12 rice paper wrappers, 8.5 inches round
Sweet Thai Dipping Sauce
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
Thai bird chili, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp salt
Method
Sweet Thai Dipping Sauce: In saucepan, bring sugar, vinegar, 1/4 water, garlic, chilies and salt to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Let cool completely. Cover and refrigerate.
In large bowl, cover noodles with boiling water; let stand until softened, about 10 minutes. Drain and chill under cold water; drain and return to bowl. In a separate bowl add carrots, cucumber, mint, coriander, vinegar and fish sauce; toss to combine. Peel and pit avocados; 6 slices to each half.
Fill a large flat bowl with hot water. Dip one rice-paper wrapper into water until pliable, 10-15 seconds; hold over the bowl until it stops dripping. Onto centre of wrapper, spoon a few tablespoons of the carrot mixture and about the same quantity of the noodles, maybe a little les. Form into log shape. Top each with 1 slice avocado. Fold bottom then sides of wrapper over filling; roll into cylinder. Place on damp towel–lined baking sheet; cover with damp towel to prevent drying out. (The damp towel is very important. If you skip this step and your rolls will stick to each other.)
These spring rolls are best eaten immediately, but if you cover them as explained above, and refrigerated, they’ll stay fresh for about six hours.
Serve with dipping sauce.
Serves 4 people – three rolls each
About 107 calories per Fresh Avocado Spring Roll.