Fresh Spring Rolls are an awesome way to use up any leftover Pulled Pork. These Smoked Pulled Pork Spring Rolls are so easy to make, even your kids can help!
Fresh Spring Rolls (Summer Rolls) with Leftover Smoked Pulled Pork
Spring rolls are a great way to use up leftover meat or vegetables. You can fry them like in many restaurants, or serve them fresh and soft, like we’re doing here.
The great thing about fresh spring rolls (or summer rolls as they are often called), is that you can put whatever the heck you want in there. Just be careful not to overload them because the delicate rice paper rips easily.
These are a twist of the traditional vegetable spring rolls made with BBQ friendly ingredients and cater more to the smoky and savory meat.
How to Prepare Pulled Pork Spring Rolls
It’s important to layout and organize all of your ingredients on a cutting board so that it’s all there and prepared when it’s time to do your stuffing and rolling. This is what the French call “mise en place” (look at me, throwing out fancy French words).
Soften the Rice Paper
- You just need to be gentle with the paper. Rice paper is solid, yet fragile at first, almost like a delicate cracker, so you must soften them before stuffing them with the filling. Like this:
- Get a large bowl of warm water, then gently place the rice paper in to get it wet, then rotate it around in the water until the paper has softened (about 5-10 seconds total). It’s so easy a 4-year old can do it.
- Then, start layering your ingredients, making sure to not fill them too full or the paper will tear.
- Finally, roll them up and fold them in on the sides, like a baby burrito.
*Tip: if you find that your paper does indeed start to tear (frustrating, right?!), just double layer with two pieces of rice paper instead of one.
Boom. You’re done.
Smoked Pulled Pork Spring Rolls (Summer Rolls) Recipe
Smoked Pulled Pork Spring Rolls
Ingredients
- 12 round rice paper wrappers, 22 cm or 25 cm size work great
- 1 small head of lettuce, I like bibb or butter lettuce
- 1 8 oz package dried rice (or “vermicelli”) noodles, cooked according to package instructions
- 2 cups smoked pulled pork
- 12 slices of pickled carrots, or other pickled vegetable
- 1 small red bell pepper, julienned
- ½ small cucumber, julienned
- 1 cup fresh bean sprouts
- Fresh herbs: mint, cilantro, (about one cup of herbs combined)
Instructions
- Fill a wide bowl with warm water. Place one piece of rice paper in the water at a time for 5-10 seconds to soften the paper (see photo demonstration above).
- Place the moistened paper flat on a plastic cutting board. Place a piece of lettuce on the bottom half of the rice paper closest to you. Layer with a few strands of the cooked rice noodles, pulled pork, carrots, cucumber, bean sprouts, and top with a combination of herbs (about 4-5 herb leaves).
- Carefully start rolling the paper about halfway. Then fold in the sides, and continue rolling.
- Repeat with remaining wrappers.
- Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.
Wine Pairing?
My favorite pairing is a crisp rosé from Spain (or rosado as they call it there).
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