Dishes That Are Easier To Prepare Than To Order

Spring Rolls

Although there are certain ingredients  that belong to spring rolls, the truth is that you can easily mix what you quite feel like, whether it is meat or if you wish,  vegetarian fillings. 

Lets see what is recommended:

– dried Asian mushrooms
– vermicelli noodles
– Chinese cabbage
– carrot , peeled and julienned
– spring onions
– ginger , peeled and grated
– red chilli
– Thai basil
– coriander chopped
– sesame oil
–  beansprouts
– toasted and crushed peanuts
– soy sauce
– oyster sauce
– spring roll wrappers
– oil to fry
sweet chilli sauce or soy sauce to serve 

Method

Pour hot water over noodles and leave them for couple of minutes until they soften. Meanwhile, put aside, cut the vegetables in small pieces that will make it easier for them to be rolled into paper thin wrappers. Add seasoning according to taste and mix well. After that wet the rice paper on a cotton kitchen towel (you can use double layers  which prevent the rolls from breaking while frying). When the paper is soft, you can add the mixture and start wrapping, first left and then the right side. Roll them from the bottom to the top. Use a bit of water to stick the corners. 

The good news is, you can also shallow fry them, if you prefer. This way the rolls don’t break easily and you use much less oil.

Pad Thai

Ingredients: 

– 170 g dried wide rice noodles
– 2 tablespoons peanut oil
– 3 minced cloves garlic
– 2 eggs, lightly beaten
– 230 g small shrimp, peeled and deveined
– 500 g mung bean sprouts
– 50 g sliced scallion greens
– rice vinegar
– 2 tablespoons fish sauce
– 2 tablespoons brown sugar
– crushed chilli
– chopped dry-roasted peanuts
– lime wedges 

Cook and drain noodles. In a deep pan,  fry garlic, add egg and cook until you have scrambled it. Now you add shrimps and fry them until they turn pink. After this come noodles, bean sprouts, scallions, vinegar, seasoning, brown sugar, chilli and peanuts. Serve with lime wedges.

Falafel with Tzatziky

Ingredients:

– 1 kg of cooked or canned chickpea
– 100 g of parsley
– 3 pods of garlic
– 4 eggs
– 2 tablespoons of flour
– 1/2 baking powder
– 1 tablespoon cumin
– lemon
– salt
– pepper

Crush chickpea with parsley, garlic, cumin but not to a smooth paste. It should still keep a consistency of crumbles. Add eggs, flour, baking powder and seasoning. Then shape them into small round pieces that you fry or shallow fry.

Tzatziky 

– 200 g of Greek yoghurt
– 2 cucumbers
– bunch of dill
– 2 pods of garlic
– extra virgin olive oil
– salt, pepper 

Cucumber has to be cut and the soft middle portion removed. While you can grate cucumber, it is recommended to cut it instead, into very small pieces. The reason is, that this way the cucumber doesn´t loose excessive quantity of juice. Add cucumber to the yoghurt, mix with chopped dill and crushed garlic, season with salt and pepper. 

The best way is to serve these in pita bread with leafs. 

Photos: Shutterstock

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