Rice paper rolls

A nice wholesome gluten-free and dairy-free comfort food-type meal without all the fat.

This was a recipe that I stumbled upon accidentally, and have adapted it many times since the original recipe.  The original called for cabbage leaves, and we just couldn’t seem to find the right sort of cabbage that would allow us to do this.  Then, we thought of rice paper – and it worked perfectly!  If you’re avoiding grains, try using cauliflower rice for the filling and stuff it inside a red pepper – it’s awesome!

Also, the recipe calls for pork mince.  We’ve tried it with beef, pork, a combination of beef and pork and turkey mince (or ground meat for the US readers).  Out of all of them, I think the family consensus was that the turkey mince won.  I’ve also added other veggies in the rolls themselves, like spinach and this works well – just make sure you chop it very fine.

And play around with the spices.  The recipe calls for parsley – try combinations of parsley, cilantro, basil etc.  

The sky’s the limit!

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Rice paper rolls

Prep Time 35 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 1/4 long grain rice
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 4 bacon rashers finely chopped
• 2 sticks celery finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic crushed
• 400 g pork mince
• 2 tsp ground paprika
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 4 green spring onions thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup pine nuts toasted
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 1 tbs honey
• Rice paper sheets
• 500 g jar tomato-based pasta sauce

Instructions

1. Cook rice in a saucepan of boiling, salted water for about 12 minutes. Drain.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add bacon, celery and garlice. Cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally until celery is soft. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Add rice and remaining ingredients. Stir to combine.
4. Boil some water and pour into a shallow heatproof dish. Separate the rice paper and for each individual sheet, place in water until soft.
5. Place approx 2 tbs filling in centre of rice paper, fold in sides and roll up to enclose.
6. Place rolls, seam-side down, in a large ovenproof dish (14 cup capacity). Pour pasta sauce over rolls and cover dish tightly with a double layer of foil.
7. Cook in a hot oven (200C) for 1 hour or until rolls are tender and filling is cooked.
8. Garnish with parsley and serve with sour cream if desired.

Recipe Notes

The original recipe used cabbage leaves as the rolls, but it was always difficult for us to find the correct type of cabbage, and we found it works just as well with rice paper.

Adapted from Australian New Idea

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