Tuna and cabbage spring rolls

It’s tempting to create a food blog dedicated to vegetable spring rolls and nothing else but I don’t think it’s wise to eat spring rolls exclusively everyday. Much as I love spring rolls, too much of anything, no matter how good, can become boring. So, let me just say that you’ll be seeing a lot of vegetable spring roll recipes in the coming days. Why? Served fresh, vegetable spring rolls are low-fat, tasty, and I don’t know what it is about the experience of cutting into a spring roll… it’s just so exciting. It’s like exposing a secret that’s been waiting to be discovered.

These spring rolls were made with grilled tuna belly, shredded cabbage and carrots. Grated garlic was added for bite and, in lieu of the traditional dipping sauce, the sauce was stirred into the filling before the spring rolls were assembled.

Serves 5 to 6.

Ingredients for tuna and cabbage spring rolls

500 g. of tuna fillets
half a head of cabbage
1 carrot
4 cloves of garlic, grated
salt
pepper
15 to 20 rice paper wrappers (click here for details)

For the sauce

1 tbsp. of hoisin sauce
1 tbsp. of chunky peanut butter
juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp. of patis (fish sauce)
1/2 tsp. of sesame seed oil

Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper. Grill or broil until done. Cool a bit and break the flesh into chunks. Discard the skins.

While the fish cooks, prepare the vegetables. Shred the cabbage finely as though you were making cole slaw. Do the same with the carrot.

Boil a pot of water. Blanch the shredded cabbage and carrot for about 2 minutes, drain then dump into a bowl of iced water. Drain well.

Mix together the ingredients for the sauce. Stir in the grated garlic.

Place the tuna and vegetables in a bowl. Add sauce and toss well.

Soften the rice paper in warm water (click here for a visual instruction). Place about a tablespoonful of filling at the center and roll, tucking in the sides to seal. Repeat until all the filling has been used.

To serve, sprinkle with chopped fresh cilantro. You may also want to double the amount of sauce and serve half as a dipping sauce.

Happy healthy eating.

In the mood for more food?

1. Herbed chicken and rice
2. “Fish tofu”
3. Oven-roasted crispy pata
4. Baby prawns and broccoli fried rice with oyster sauce
5. Java rice
6. Ground beef and quail eggs
7. Fish & vegetables stir-fry
8. Birthday dinner: roast turkey, vegetable salad and peach cake
9. Pork and beans
10. Red Ribbon cakes

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