CEIMB: Soft Asian Summer Rolls

For this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly, Teresa of A Blog About Food chose Soft Asian Summer Rolls. This is a seemingly complicated recipe that actually turns out to be pretty simple once you have everything set up.

The rice paper rounds are not something you come across everyday in the grocery store, but fortunately we have an international grocer relatively close by. We were easily able to find these there, but the smallest package we could find has like, 40 rice papers inside. Guess we'll have to keep making these summer rolls, because this recipe only yielded six!

The rest of the ingredients are basic and simple. In each summer roll, you can find shrimp, rice noodles, grated carrot, fresh basil and mint, and half a lettuce leaf. Such fresh, clean ingredients, and oh, so delicious when combined! Ellie describes these as easy to assemble once you have all the fixins' laid out, and I could not agree more. I thought this was going to be harder than it was.

Of course, it does help to have a hubby that's willing to help you roll up the rice papers so that they actually resemble summer rolls, and not misshapen lumps! My first attempt looked pretty ridiculous, but Andy was able to make them look real purty.

I decided not to make the accompanying dipping sauce for these. I still had plenty of leftover finadene sauce from last week, and I figured that this would go just as well with the rolls. Turns out it did work, although the finadene sauce was probably way spicier than Ellie's sauce! That was fine with us; the flavors were complementary, and we got to clean out our fridge a little bit.

We're no strangers to Asian spring rolls around here; I've made them before and we always like them. However, I particularly liked Ellie's version because it just tasted so fresh. All the components were healthy; one roll only contains about 90 calories and no fat. They aren't fried; they're not even baked. Most importantly, they were devoured quickly and enjoyed immensely. You can't beat that! Thanks, Teresa, for the great choice!

The recipe for the Soft Asian Summer Rolls can be found here.