Baked quinoa and veggie spring rolls

Difficulty 2/5

The result of this recipe truly astounded me. I wanted to make spring rolls, but not the traditional ones so I started thinking what I could do to make them extra interesting. And so I decided to add quinoa! And also, I used filo sheets (fillo? phylo? Still don’t know how to write it!) instead of rice because I think it’s easier to find in most countries, and so this way you see that they are as amazing as the rice ones. I will also give you the recipe for this amazing dip so that you can indulge non-stop. I think the “difficult” part is to roll the dough and handle it. Depending on the sheets you buy, they can be very delicate or more prone to dryness.

Portions: 18-20 spring rolls

Ingredients:
For the spring rolls:
– 300g ready filo sheets
– 50g carrots, cut  into julienne (really fine strips)
– 50g red pepper, cut into julienne
– 50g soybean sprouts
– 100g quinoa
– 50g cooked corn
– 50g purple cabbage
– salt and pepper to taste
– 10ml sesame oil
– vegetable oil for painting

For the dip:
– 200 ml soy sauce
– 25ml white wine vinegar
– 100g sugar
– 1 tbsp honey
– 1 star anise
– 5g ginger, grated
– Zest from 1 lemon
– 1 garlic clove, crushed
– 2 tbsp cornstarch
– Sesame for garnish (optional)

Procedure:
1. I’ll start with the dip since it needs to cool down. Put everything in a pan and let it boil for 5min. Then pass it through a sieve and discard the aromatics.

2. Mix the cornstarch with a tbsp of cold water and dissolve. This prevents lumps from forming.

3. Add the cornstarch into the sauce little by little, letting it boil so it gets to its maximum thickness. Assess every time if you need to add more, until it reaches a consistency very similar to a syrup. Then just let it cool 🙂

4. Now for the spring rolls, cut the peppers, carrots and purple cabbage into fine strips. Also, cut off the tips from the sprouts and cut it to about the same length as the rest of the vegetables.

5. Wash throughly the quinoa and cook in water until cooked completely, it should take about 20min. Rinse and press so it releases all the water. Then mix everything up, season it and add the 10ml of sesame oil.

6. Take out 2 sheets of filo paste (return the rest to the package so they don’t dry out) and cut them into squares using scissors. Then, we’re going to paint some vegetable oil on one of them and stick it to the other. This is because the filo sheets are very thin. This will also help hydrate them. Put the filling in a line crossing from one corner to the next:

7. Now, to fold, bring one of the corners at the side of the filling over it, then fold up the edges:

8. Finally, roll it tight and put it on baking paper on a tray with the tip underneath the roll

9. Paint them with a bit of vegetable oil and pop them in the oven at 200C until golden and crispy. Mine took about 30min.

That’s it!! Enjoy this amazing recipe 🙂