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Healthy, Cheesy, Veggie Spring Rolls
Hey there, busy mom!
Running out of ways to make vegetables fun for your kids?
We get you. There can be different kinds of salads and dressings available at the grocery store, but sometimes, we just want our vegetables served creatively. It can't be salad all the time! So we got you. Today’s Meal Monday blog is a throwback to our Veggie Spring Rolls, which you and your kids can make together. It would be a great bonding moment, and they get to have fun with the veggies too so they’re likely to try them more.
Just a bit of a fun fact: spring rolls originated from China, but the popular, fresh, uncooked spring rolls became a staple in Vietnamese cuisine. It’s made with rice paper as a wrapper, and filled with veggies such as lettuce, legumes, and carrots, and made even better with some protein like steamed chicken bits or shrimp. The vegetables are raw (blanched at most) so they retain all their nutrients, and they enjoy it with peanut sauce. Yum! Our version is kind of similar to the Vietnamese variety, but we’ll add more veggies and we’ll use cream cheese to make it flavorful.
We know we are used to having our vegetables cooked, but let us give you an insight on why you might want to try having your vegetables eaten fresh from time to time:
When uncooked, the vegetables retain most of their nutrients, vitamins, and minerals...which is incredible for our health
We avoid using oil, butter, and other ingredients that might defeat the purpose of eating healthy
We train our body and our taste buds to enjoy the natural flavors of vegetables, and we are likely to enjoy them more in the future without the need to drench them in dressing or sauces
We can avoid overcooking the vegetables altogether, which robs the vegetables of its essential nutrients
Texture. You’ll get to enjoy the crunch of fresh greens or freshly chopped produce
We’re not saying we should always eat our vegetables raw, and it definitely depends on the types of veggies we’re going to use, but we think a little variety wouldn’t hurt!
So let’s get started.
You’ll need:
Rice paper
Kale (green and purple)
Carrots (strips or julienned)
Cucumber (strips)
A block of cream cheese (cut into strips)
Sweet and sour sauce
A container with warm water
Let’s start by washing our vegetables thoroughly. Then, chop the carrots and cucumbers into strips.
Soak the rice water in warm water for about 30 seconds to let it soften. Lay it on a plate or a chopping board. Lay a few pieces of kale, julienned carrots, cucumber, and a piece of cream cheese in the middle of the rice paper. Roll it as tightly as you can, and pull over the ends towards the center to envelop the veggies. It should be sticky enough at this point, but you can also secure the ends by dabbing a little bit of water over the edges.
We can add variety to our spring rolls by alternating the use of purple and green kale, and varying the veggies inside.
Make sure you’ll consume the spring rolls as soon as you can because these do not store well. Best to prepare it right before lunch or dinner so that the rice paper remains soft.
Serve the rolls onto a plate right after you've made them, and add sweet and sour sauce as a yummy dip. You can also use honey mustard, teriyaki sauce... whatever you and your kids prefer. This is a recipe that you can easily modify depending on your mood, taste, or whatever's available at the grocery store. Pretty convenient, huh?
And there we have it! Another creative, quick, and fun way to make enjoyable and healthy meals for our families. We hope you liked this recipe and if you did, feel free to watch the full Meal Monday video here. See you again next week!
- Micah from Mom Training