Crispy spring rolls are a classic appetizer available at most Thai restaurants, but most of the time they're "satisfactory" at best. That is, until I came across this recipe. And for the first time I realized how good the humble spring roll can be.
I first encountered these while working at a Thai restaurant where they would make upwards of 500 of these every week because they were so popular. One auntie would work an 8 hour shift making ONLY these awesome spring rolls. I hung around her and learned all the tricks that I'm going to share with you.
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I made some modifications to make them even better. As tasty as these were, being a small restaurant they had to be cost conscious, which reflected in the bulk of the filling being mostly noodles and cabbage. When we make these at home, we can load them up with more of the tasty stuff like shiitake mushrooms, other veggies, and even some meat!
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Ingredients
Here are all the ingredients and all the important notes you'll need to know for this recipe. For amounts and the complete instructions, check out the full recipe card below.
- Glass noodles, rehydrated and cut into 2-inch pieces. They only take 7-10 minutes to rehydrate in room temp water. Look for Thai/Chinese style glass noodles (not Korean) which are sometimes labeled as bean vermicelli or bean threads. The ingredients should ideally be made only of mung bean starch. My favourite brand is Pine Brand glass noodles from Thailand.
- Ground pork, optional. Adding meat makes it a little more substantial. You can use ground chicken instead, or even chopped up shrimp, or simply omit the pork and add an equivalent weight of all the other veggies, or you can also check out my vegetarian crispy spring rolls recipe here.
- Soy sauce. I use Thai Healthy Boy Mushroom Soy Sauce, which is my go-to soy sauce for Thai cooking, but any soy sauce you have will do.
- Ground black pepper
- Ground white pepper. This recipe is heavy on the pepper, which is one of the reasons it's so good! But it does have a kick, so if little kids will be eating them you may want to cut down on the white pepper a bit.
- Minced garlic
- Dried shiitake mushrooms, soak until soft, and finely diced. How long these take to rehydrate will vary depending on the size of the mushrooms. If using hot water, most sizes should rehydrate in 30 minutes, but if you plan ahead, you can simply soak them in room temp water for a few hours.
- Julienned green cabbage. Think coleslaw, make it look like that!
- Grated carrots
- Cilantro stems, finely chopped. Leaves would turn black once cooked and look unappetizing, so we use stems instead which are equally if not even more aromatic!
- Salt
- Sugar
- Spring roll wrappers, I use an 8-inch wrapper (20 cm) but you can make smaller ones if you wish. Do make sure these are not wrappers for egg rolls which are different.
- Egg, for sealing the wrapper
- Oil for deep frying. I use canola oil, but any neutral flavoured oil that's high heat resistant will work here. Make sure you have enough to get at least 2 inches of depth in the pot that you're using. Yes, you can bake or air-fry these. See FAQ below.
- Dipping Sauce: Sweet Chili Sauce. Though these are great even without any sauce, it certainly doesn't hurt to dip it in some sweet chili sauce which you can buy, but it's quite easy to make and it tastes so much better! Use my sweet chili sauce recipe here.
How to Make Crispy Spring Rolls
Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success.
- Saute the garlic, black pepper, and white pepper in a wok until the garlic starts to turn slightly golden.
- Add the ground pork and stir to break up the lumps until fully cooked.
- Add the noodles, cabbage, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and all of the seasonings.
- Keep tossing over medium high heat until the vegetables are wilted and the noodles are fully cooked. Add a splash of water if needed if the noodles stick to the work, or if the wok is dry but the noodles are still a bit too firm. (Tip: Go easy on any additional water. There should not be any pooling liquid at the bottom of the wok when done, you want to the filling to be dry.)
*Allow the filling to cool to no more than lukewarm before wrapping. While you wait for the filling to cool, carefully peel apart the spring roll wrappers so they are loose from each other because they will be quite stuck together after thawing. Once peeled, keep them in a stack, covered under a slightly moist kitchen towel.
- To wrap spring rolls: Place a spring roll wrapper with a corner pointing to you. Place a healing ¼ cup of filling onto the wrapper slightly off the centre towards you. Spread the filling out into a log shape, leaving about 1.5-2 inches of space on either side.
- Pull the corner of the wrapper over the filling then pull back on the filling slightly to tighten.
- Roll forward once, then fold the side corners in towards the middle.
- Roll forward a couple of times, then use your finger to paint some beaten egg along the top edges of the wrapper to help seal the roll.
- Keep rolling until the end, and now you can fry these right away or freeze them for later.
- To fry, heat 2 inches of oil to 375°F over medium high heat and fry the spring rolls for about 5 minutes until deeply golden.
- Drain on paper towel, and cool slightly before digging in.
- If you're cutting these to serve at a party, I recommend cutting on a diagonal for nicer presentation!
Advance Prep Tips
These are the perfect make-ahead freezer appetizers. At the restaurant, we made these once a week and froze them for the week. We fry them directly from frozen and you could never tell they were ever previously frozen!
But there are many ways to prep ahead. Here are all the things you can do:
- Wrap the spring rolls then freeze them for up to a few months. Fry them without thawing. They will take 2-3 minutes longer to fry from frozen.
- Make the filling up to 2 days ahead and keep in the fridge.
- Reheat them for serving: the spring rolls can be fried up to 4 hours ahead, kept at room temp, then when ready to serve, re-fry them for a minute or two or bake them in a 350°F oven for 5 minutes to recrisp.
- Wrap the spring rolls a few hours ahead. Uncooked, wrapped spring rolls can be kept in the fridge for a few hours before frying. Don't keep them wrapped for too long or the wrapper may become soggy. If you need to keep them for a long time, freeze them.
- The dipping sauce can be made well in advance and kept in the fridge indefinitely.
FAQ
Yes, they won't brown as much and will be a bit dryer, but they'll still be great. First brush them generously with oil and air fry them at 400°F (200°C) turning halfway through, for about 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Exact timing will depend on your particular air fryer, so I would check them at 10 minutes to see where they're at, and go from there. Do not crowd the air fryer to allow plenty of air flow around each spring roll.
Yes, you can also bake these. Brush them with oil then bake them on a rack in a 425°F (220 °C) oven, convection if possible, for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. They won't brown nearly as much as deep fried or even air fried ones, so they may look a bit underdone, but they will still be crispy.
The filling is gluten free if you use gluten free soy sauce, but the spring roll wrappers are made from wheat flour so they are not. You can use this filling and wrap them with rice paper wrappers instead à la Vietnamese fried spring rolls. The rice paper wrappers just need to be briefly dipped into warm water to rehydrate.
You can simply omit the pork to make these vegetarian/vegan, and then add a little more of the vegetables to make up the volume. To seal the rolls, instead of eggs, you can make a paste from all purpose flour and water. See my recipe for the ultimate vegetarian spring rolls here.
My Other Crispy Spring Rolls Recipes
- For a fully vegan recipe, try my ultimate veggie spring rolls.
- For something different that will wow your guests, these green curry spring rolls are totally awesome.
- If you have more spring roll wrappers and want to try something different, these easy curry puffs are a crowd pleaser!
Recipe
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Best Crispy Spring Rolls - Thai Style
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: Makes 12-14 pieces
Description
I didn't know spring rolls could be that good until I had these. I learned this recipe from a restaurant I worked at where they made 500 of these every week! The perfect party appetizers. You will not be disappointed.
Ingredients
- 40 g (1.4 oz) glass noodles, dry
- 120 g (4.2 oz) ground pork (optional, see note)
- 3 tsp (15 ml) soy sauce, divided
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- ½ tsp ground white pepper
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 medium size dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water until soft (at least 30 mins), then finely chopped
- 1½ cup finely shredded green cabbage (about 2-inch juliennes)
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 6 cilantro stems, finely chopped
- ½ - 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 2-3 tablespoon water, as needed
- 12-14 pieces of 8-inch spring roll wrappers, thawed
- 1 egg, beaten, for sealing the wrapper
- Oil for frying
- Dipping sauce: sweet chili sauce, store bought or homemade
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Instructions
- Soak glass noodles in room temperature water for 7-10 minutes. Drain, then cut into 2-inch pieces.
- Mix the ground pork with 1 teaspoon of the soy sauce, set aside.
- In a wok or a large saute pan, add a little vegetable oil and turn the heat to medium. Add garlic, black pepper, and white pepper; stir until garlic starts to turn colour slightly.
- Up the heat to medium high then add the pork and cook until the pork is no longer clumpy and is almost completely cooked.
- Add shiitake mushrooms, noodles, cabbage, carrots, cilantro stems, sugar,½ teaspoon of salt, and 2 teaspoon soy sauce. Toss until noodles are fully cooked and cabbage is wilted, adding a splash of water if noodles start sticking or if the vegetables are cooked but the noodles feel too chewy.
- Turn off the heat, then taste and add more salt as needed.
- Put the filling into a bowl and let cool before wrapping. While the filling is cooling, peel the wrappers apart so it’s easier when you wrap. (Spring roll wrappers tend to be hard to peel apart right out of the package, so I like to separate them before I start wrapping.)
- Beat one egg in a bowl which you will use to seal the wrapper.
- Use a heaping ¼ cup of filling per roll, and if you need instructions for wrapping, see the pictured instructions in the post above!
- To fry, heat at least 2 inches of oil in a pot to 350°F (heat the oil to 375°F if frying from frozen). Keep the heat on medium or medium high while you fry, then add the spring rolls and fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Drain on paper towel and repeat until. If they're not browned after 5 minutes the heat is too low, if they're too browned, the heat is too high.
- Cool slightly before serving. These are great even without dipping sauce, but a dip in Thai sweet chili sauce certainly doesn't hurt!
Notes
- If not using pork, you can add a little bit extra of each of the vegetables.
Caron Addis says
Can you give the Nutritional info on these, please?
profkain says
The best! Made the pork version, a shrimp version, and a vegan version. Sealed the wrappers with water instead of egg for the vegan and that worked fine. Getting ready to make 100 for a party.
Sid Thompson says
These are so good bro
Jenny says
Can the rolls be baked instead of fried?
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Yes, details are in the FAQ in the blog post 🙂
Garry Gonzalez says
Not only beautiful but a great demonstrator too. Came across your site by accident when looking for Spring Roll recipe. From the video learned so much but need to get a few of the ingredients then by tomorrow it will go go go. Thank you so much.
Charles Moher says
I ended up bringing home the semi-translucent wrappers ? They look like the same stuff glass noodles are made of. Will those work ? Also, since I already have some red cabbage, can I use that instead of green ?
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Hi Charles, unfortunately those will not work for this recipe as they are very different. Red cabbage will be find but the colour of your filling might be a bit funny 🙂
Anabela says
I will make the spring rolls…it looks delicious.I miss a good spring roll 👍
Ida says
These are the best spring rolls I've ever eaten. So good. We swapped pork mince for chicken mince, but I'm sure both options are amazing. Going to make a lot today and freeze, these are just fantastic. Easy to make as well!
JM says
Yum, Yum, Yum. I have tried so many recipes over the years and this one is IT! I have allergies to preservatives, most notably MSG. This recipe is clean, delicious, and better than restaurants. I can't wait to eat them again!! Thank you.... 🙂
Zoie Rosca says
I’ve had a hard time finding a simple recipe which makes spring rolls like my local Thai restaurant. This one works! I added red pepper, scallions & sesame oil to the filling & I use Angel hair coleslaw mix instead of chopping up cabbage. It usually has carrots but not many. Wrappers are thawed in the fridge then, rolled up in the package to loosen them before peeling apart. Much easier. Better deep fried, but I air fried them after brushing with melted butter & vegetable oil.
Lisa says
OMG!! Delicious recipe! I will be making again….I used eggroll wrappers because I could not find the right spring rolls ones, but my family and I LOVED them (and the dipping sauce!) I have one question though…Some spring roll recipes indicate that you should cook the filling first, cool the filling, and then roll and cook. Other recipes mix up the filling raw and then fill with uncooked meat and veggies. Does it make a difference? Which is best and why? Thanks!!!
Shelly says
Idk what happened to my comment but in case it’s a duplicate, I meant to say spring roll wrappers not egg rolls. I just call everything egg rolls! Let it thaw in the fridge or counter until it is no longer rock solid but is pliable. This makes it sturdier and easier to pull them apart. I’d still use your technique but it goes much faster! Then I cover it with a towel. Thanks for sharing your recipes and sunny personality!
Shelly says
Hi Pai!
I have a trick to separate those egg rolls wrappers more easily that you may want to try. Start pulling them apart when it’s thawed just enough that it starts to be pliable. It’s been a while so I can’t remember exactly how long it takes but about 10-15 minutes on the counter should do it (or maybe 30...sorry! You gotta test it out). It should no longer be rock solid but still cold and slightly stiff. I separate them a pack at a time and cover with a towel too. My mom really doesn’t like rolling them either so when I come home to visit, she makes the filling and I wrap big batches of egg rolls for the freezer. Thanks for your kind and uplifting energy and sharing your gifts!
Joe says
Loved this recipe and really easy. Wondering how I can spice up the filling
Victoria says
Hi joe! I’m from Thailand and I make this recipe often because it really is pretty authentic, if you mean SPICE sometimes I add Thai chili peppers or red chili pepper flas to the recipe, if you just mean different ingredients you can try shrimp which is AMAZING in it! Okay with the chopped vegetables it usually goes well!