Taco Spring Rolls

Taco Spring Rolls

I came up with this on a whim, seemed like a good idea, and it was! Very well liked by the family. This does take time as the meat mixture needs to cool to room temperature, as the key to making spring rolls is to use room temp filling, a warm filling will break the wrappers when you roll them. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 25 minutes
Course Appetizer, Lunch, Main Dish
Cuisine American
Servings 0 spring rolls

Ingredients
  

  • 500 grams ground pork, or beef, (1 lb)
  • 1 packet taco seasoning mix, (Shortcut)
  • 1 cup water
  • 120 grams lettuce, chopped, (4 oz)
  • 150 grams Cheddar cheese, or a cheese blend, shredded, (5 oz)
  • 1 package spring roll wrappers, 5.5 x 5.5 inch wrappers, at least 20 wrappers, thawed
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch
  • 1-2 tablespoons water
  • cooking oil, for frying
  • dipping sauce of your choice, salsa would be good, and in Thailand, sweet chili sauce

Instructions
 

  • Heat a non stick pan on medium heat and add the ground pork. Break it up as it cooks with your spatula.
  • Break the meat up finely and to cook until little to no pink is visible. Since I used pork, I drained the fat.
  • Once the meat is drained, add the taco seasoning packet and 1 cup of water.
  • Stir together and simmer the seasoned meat until the water is all evaporated, stirring occasionally. Once no liquid remains, remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature. If you are pushed for time, you can add the meat mixture to a mixing bowl to cool, but why dirty up another bowl, just leave it in the pan on an unused burner or counter top. To cool takes 1-2 hours.
  • Take the spring roll wrappers out of the freezer and place on the counter to thaw. Go ahead and prep the lettuce and cheese.
  • When you are ready to roll the spring roll, add the lettuce and cheese to the cooled meat mixture.
  • Give the filling a good stir to mix everything together, there, you just made the filling, which is much faster than traditional spring rolls. In a small bowl, mix together the corn starch and 1-2 tablespoons of water, this is your glue for the next step.
  • For this step, it is best to have two people, one to pull the wrappers, one to roll. Lay a spring roll wrapper, smooth side down on the counter with one corner pointed towards you. Place about 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of filling near the corner closest to you. Fold the corner nearest you up and over the filling and roll away until you are at the widest point of the wrapper. Use your fingers and dip into the glue and rub that on the two side that are away from you, be generous. Now fold one side, left or right, towards the middle, the repeat with the other side, now it should look like an open envelope. Now continue rolling away from you to complete the roll. If the point flap does not stay glued down, just dab a bit more glue on it. Repeat until the filling is all used. I made 21 rolls, you may make 18 or 25, depending on how much filling you are using. Once you have done this a few times this actually goes pretty fast. The reason for the two people is you do not want the wrappers drying or they will tear when pulling them apart.
  • And here they are all rolled. My wife and I made these at about 3 pm but did not dry them until about 10 pm, so we just covered them with foil and placed in the fridge.
  • When you are ready to fry them, heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a pan, you want it hot but not smoking. When the oil is hot, fry 4 to 5 rolls at a time until golden brown then turn over until the other side is golden brown. Drain on paper towels and continue frying in batches until all are cooked.
  • Serve with dipping sauces of your choice. Enjoy.

Notes

Low cost.
Shortcut: Taco Seasoning Mix.
Made this on a whim, I researched this idea for spring rolls and every recipe seemed way over engineered, this seemed like the most logical way, and it worked perfectly.

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