Get kids excited about healthy eating by eating the rainbow with this fun, kid-friendly veggie spring roll recipe! Perfect for ages 5+, this easy recipe uses fresh garden veggies like carrots, cucumber, and lettuce, wrapped in gluten-free rice paper. Teach your little one about Lunar New Year traditions and craft your own delicious dipping sauces. This interactive recipe is a great way to introduce new flavors and textures to picky eaters. Make healthy meals fun with these customizable veggie-packed spring rolls!
Spring Rolls: A Fresh Start!
The name for spring rolls stems from the tradition of eating these fresh and delicious spring vegetable-filled wraps during the Chinese Spring Festival, also known as Lunar New Year. During the start of Spring, crispy greens become abundant in gardens and farms around China. The thin rice paper wrapper provides a vessel to hold the many fresh ingredients together while being neutral enough to not change the flavor profile too much. Today, fresh veggie spring rolls are a symbol of new growth and renewal as they themselves are primarily filled with vegetables that are the first to flourish after a cold winter.
Are spring rolls gluten-free?
In America, we mostly associate spring rolls with what are better known as fresh spring rolls, which are usually served cold and wrapped in a rice paper wrapper, like the ones in this recipe. Fresh spring rolls are 100% gluten-free. The rice paper wrapper is typically made from just rice flour (which is gluten-free), water, and salt. Similarly, the tofu in this recipe is made from soy beans, which are also naturally gluten-free.
However, there is another type of spring roll called a fried spring roll. The filling is similar in these, except there is often meat, like ground pork, added. Since these are fried until golden and perfectly crispy, they are typically wrapped in wheat-based wrappers, which do contain gluten.
So if you are gluten-free, you will want to eat fresh veggie spring rolls, wrapped in rice paper. Avoid fried spring rolls wrapped in wheat wrappers. Also, be aware of what is in the dipping sauce you are using!
Dipping Into Deliciousness!
One of the best things about spring rolls is their veggie-forwardness. It is such a wholesome treat that you can’t help but feel like you’re nourishing your body with every bite. With such an array of veggie types, there is quite the depth of flavor as is. If you want to level up your spring rolls even more, then you’ll certainly want to make a delicious sauce to dip them in. Personally, the sauce that I think pairs best with spring rolls is a spicy chili peanut sauce. The salty, tangy, buttery, spicy flavor of it in combination with the veggies, is a whirlwind of deliciousness that is a must if you haven’t yet tried it.
After making spring rolls with hundreds of children, I have learned the importance of promoting a sauce for dipping the spring rolls in. Do some kids like the flavor of spring rolls plain? Without a doubt! Especially those who are not really sauce eaters yet. But the vast majority of children prefer a good sauce for dipping. I typically make the sauce ahead of time and make sure to really sell it when the taste test time rolls around.
**Note here – for 3rd graders and below, I tone down the spice level. For older kids, I have found that they pretty much all enjoy a moderate level of spice**
However, this is also a great time to include your child in the decision-making process and craft a delicious dipping sauce together that you both agree would go great with veggie spring rolls!
Is Soy Sauce Gluten-Free?
When we think of gluten, we often think of the most common high-gluten items like bread, pasta, and cakes. One of the gluten-containing things that many people are often unaware of is soy sauce. Soy sauce is crafted by fermenting soybeans, wheat, and salt for at least 3 months. The glutenous wheat adds a depth of flavor and even some texture to soy sauce.
For a gluten-free alternative, find a tamari soy sauce, which is typically made from just soy beans. But be sure that it still advertises that it is gluten-free!
Kids Recipe Card
Rainbow Veggie Spring Roll
Ingredients
- 10 spring roll rice paper wrappers
- 1 bell pepper red, yellow, or orange
- 1 jalapeno large
- 2 carrot large
- 1/2 head lettuce
- 1 bunch spring onions
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch mint
- 1 pack tofu extra firm
Instructions
- Kids Do – Chopping Veggies to Equal Sizes Julienne the bell pepper, jalapeno, carrot, cucumber, and lettuce into matchsticks. Slice the tofu into strips. Everything should be about 4 inches long. Chop the spring onions, cilantro, and mint.
- Adults Do – Getting the Warm Water ReadyFill a large plate or shallow bowl with warm water. The water should not be too hot for your child to touch!
- Adults Do – Demo Wrapper DunkDemonstrate gently dunking a spring roll wrapper into the warm water for about 15 seconds, until it begins to bend and soften.Explain that the wrapper will continue to soften after it is removed from the water.
- Kids Do – Wrapper Dunk Gently dunk a spring roll wrapper into the warm water for about 15 seconds, until it begins to soften.
- Adults Do – Filling Placement DemoOn a clean cutting board or plate, demonstrate carefully placing the softened wrapper and adding the spring roll fillings to the center.Emphasize keeping the fillings neatly in the center.
- Kids Do – Filling PlacementPlace the softened wrapper flat on a clean cutting board or plate.Neatly place a small amount of the vegetables and tofu in the center of the wrapper, keeping them aligned.
- Adults Do – Rolling the Spring Roll DemoDemonstrate how to fold the bottom of the wrapper up over the fillings. Then the top of the wrapper down over the fillings. Then the left side of the wrapper tightly across the fillings to the right and rolled until the spring roll is sealed.
- Kids Do – Rolling the Spring Roll Fold the bottom of the wrapper up over the fillings. Then the top of the wrapper down over the fillings. Then the left side of the wrapper tightly across the fillings to the right and rolled until the spring roll is sealed.
Taste Test Time!
- Everyone – Taste Test Time! Dip the delicious spring roll in your favorite sauce, enjoy, and repeat until all of the fillings and wrappers are used!
