All the signs of spring are in effect. The sun seems to bounce up over the horizon. Birds trill jaunty scales at each other. Bewildered students stagger around campus in confusion at the sudden turn of reasonable weather.

So shake off the winter wobbles with a pile of spring rolls stuffed with crunchy vegetables, spicy lentils, and sweet peanut butter. 

Spring rolls originated in the cuisine of East and Southeast Asia. They can be sweet or savory, fried or fresh, spicy or salty or whatever else you can imagine. A common wrapper is the Vietnamese bánh tráng, a thin, edible rice paper available at several local grocery stores. Although the paper starts as a stiff disc, after a few seconds of soaking in warm water it turns into a translucent sleeve for your filling of choice.

Ingredients for the filling often include fresh crunchy vegetables, but some care must be taken when chopping up the veggies. Rice paper wraps are very fragile when they come out of the warm water, so any stiff vegetables need to be cut without square edges. A slicing technique called ‘julienning’ is useful where stiffer ingredients like cabbage and peppers are cut into long narrow strips.

This recipe also includes lentils, renowned for their proteins and satisfying background flavor. However, they will crumble out of the roll when added plain. Mixing them with peanut butter and spicy sauces will keep them from falling out and make your roll taste even better.

The trickiest part of this recipe is folding the delicate envelopes of deliciousness. Fill a wide, shallow bowl (a pie plate works well) with warm water, then place a clean dampened dish towel and serving plate next to it.

Place the rice paper in the warm water and let it sit for about ten seconds. Once the paper ripples like floating silk, it is ready to be carefully pulled from the water and placed as flat as you can on the towel. A few wrinkles around the edges always show up but try to keep the center flat.

Quickly place the filling in a line across the diameter of the paper. The longer it takes, the stickier the paper gets and the more stubborn it is to leave the towel.

Once you have your filling in place, gently fold the end and sides in and roll from the bottom up. If you have any experience folding burritos, a similar pattern is followed here.

Place the roll on the plate and start another one. The first few rolls of the beginner are often messy and difficult, but any broken rolls can be salvaged as additional filling for a fresh attempt.

Fresh spring rolls are an adventure to make and a delight to eat. They usually won’t keep for longer than a day or two in the fridge as the wraps will soak up any moisture in the filling and become even more fragile.

For the most satisfying results, eat in the sun while listening to songbirds.

Ingredients

• 6 rice paper wrappers

• 1 cup of cooked lentils

• ½ cup of chopped broccoli

• ½ cup of carrot peels (not the skin)

• ½ cup of sliced cabbage

• 1 tablespoon minced ginger

• 1 tablespoon of peanut butter

• Hot sauce to taste

Method

1. Mix lentils with peanut butter, ginger, and hot sauce. Place chopped vegetables in a bowl.
2. Soak rice paper in shallow bowl of warm water until flexible. Place on damp towel and arrange filling and vegetables. Carefully roll up like a burrito.
3. Let dry for about two minutes on plate. If two rolls stick to each other, moisten with a little water. Serve with additional dipping sauce.