Paella Spring Rolls
What is a Paella Spring Rolls?
Paella Spring Rolls is what I envision a Spanish-Vietnamese wedding would serve (and perhaps it’s already happened!). Shrimp is marinated in smoked paprika and oregano and cooked with a sofrito of onions, parsley, garlic, and of course the star ingredient of any paella – saffron. Along with sliced Chinese style sausage, the spring rolls are stuffed with Vietnamese ingredients such as rice vermicelli, Thai basil, chives and mint, and Spanish ingredients such as lima beans and roasted peppers. All of these beautifully fresh ingredients are rolled into a rice paper and the spring rolls are served with a zesty peanut-tomato sauce topped with the saffron-infused sofrito.
Where’d It Come From?
In the Spring of 2018, I took my first trip to Spain. Stationed in Madrid, I signed up for a paella cooking class with a lovely Valencian woman which took place in her quaint apartment. Walking up the steps to her home, she explained that we’d be making a traditional paella using chicken and rabbit. Having been accustomed to seafood paella and being a rabbit-eating virgin, I asked several times whether she actually said rabbit. After the third time, my friend Tiffany answered: “She said rabbit, Julee. Get over it.” That was one of my three main takeaways from that experience. The second being that you are only supposed to stir the rice one time once the ingredients are all in (the brown crust at the bottom is ideal), and the third being that Valencians have a tradition called Falles where they build giant monuments then set them on fire (do they know how to party or what?).
I don’t have any fun stories related to spring rolls, other than the fact that I always have fun eating them. Spring rolls were simply a staple in my diet growing up as a Vietnamese gal and it still is. Since it’s stuffed with tons of veggies, I like to pretend they’re healthy as I submerge them in the creamy and sodium-rich peanut sauce and inhale 20 of them.
Want to dig deeper into the roots of these dishes? Check out our Food History 101 Blog!
– Click here to learn about the origin of Paella
– Click here to learn about the history of Spring Rolls
How’s It Made?
Makes: 9 - 12 spring rolls | Passive prep time: 1 hour | Active prep/cook time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
1 lb shrimp – peeled and deveined
1 tsp smoked paprika
¼ tsp dried oregano
1 onion – diced
1 handful parsley – finely chopped
4 garlic cloves – minced
7 oz canned diced tomatoes
1 cup hoisin sauce
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup chicken broth
4 Chinese style sausages (lap xuong) – sliced at an angle
8 oz rice vermicelli
6 oz roasted red peppers (can be found in jars) – sliced into strips
½ cup frozen lima beans – thawed
1 handful Thai basil
1 handful mint
2 oz chives
5 large romaine lettuce leaves
Generous pinch of saffron
1 tbs olive oil
9 - 12 sheets of rice paper
Optional: Chili garlic sauce and chopped peanuts
Instructions:
Marinate shrimp in paprika and oregano for at least one hour.
Add oil to a pan on medium heat and lightly brown chinese sausages to render some of the fat. Remove sausages but keep oil in the pan.
On medium-high heat, cook onions, garlic and parsley for 2 to 3 minutes to make the sofrito.
Reduce heat to medium and add shrimp and saffron. Cook until shrimp is no longer translucent. Remove ingredients from pan but set shrimp aside in its own bowl. Cover the sofrito to keep warm. Slice the shrimp in half by starting as you would when butterflying a shrimp but cut all the way through.
In the same pan over medium-high heat, add diced tomatoes and cook to caramelize for a few minutes.
In a saucepan, combine hoisin sauce, peanut butter, and broth and heat on medium, stirring constantly until smooth. Turn off heat and allow sauce to cool slightly (but still warm) to a temperature that is okay for the food processor.
Combine sauce with diced tomatoes in a food processor and puree until smooth. Cover sauce and set aside to keep warm.
Cook vermicelli based on package instructions.
Prepare to roll! Place sausages, shrimp, vermicelli, rice paper, lettuce, thai basil, mint, lima beans, roasted peppers and chives on the table along with a large bowl of hot water and a plastic plate / cutting board or flat surface covered in plastic wrap (to keep the rice paper from sticking). Grab a second plate to place the rolled spring rolls.
Dip the rice paper into the hot water and rotate it until the entire rice paper is wet and place it onto your “rolling” surface. Start by adding the shrimp (about 3 - 4 halves) and sausage followed by the remaining ingredients (except chives). Keep the ingredients in a thick horizontal line with no ingredients within 1.5 inches of the rice paper border.
Now fold in the sides of the rice paper over the ingredients, add the chives horizontally to the center of the rice paper with the ends sticking out, pull the bottom of the rice paper over the ingredients and roll (this video is helpful in demonstrating the process).
Serve the spring rolls with the peanut-tomato sauce topped with the sofrito, chili garlic sauce, and chopped peanuts.
