Singapore Popiah - Baked Spring Roll Recipe

I love spring rolls. But I do not like them when they are deep-fried, the way it is usually done in the restaurants. That's just too much grease for me - and you know they don't use the good oils in the restaurants. SoI decided to try and make my own spring rolls at home - by baking them! I tried this yesterday, and it turned out great. Not bad for my first try.

I adapted the recipe below from a traditional Singapore Popiah (spring roll) recipe; made some changes to it to suit my own tastes.
I used store-bought frozen spring roll wrappers - the product I used is from Singapore (see the picture). All you have to do is unfreeze the wrappers, by leaving it outside the freezer in its packaging for 25 mins. Then remove the packaging, and place a damp cloth over the wrappers. The wrappers will easily separate once you are ready to apply the fillings.

Spring Roll Filling Ingredients:

Ground lean meat (optional)
Diced Onions
Diced Carrots
Diced Red Cabbage
Diced Potatoes
Ginger
Garlic
Salt
Soy Sauce
Spice Powder
Olive Oil

Procedure:

Add the olive oil to a preheated skillet set over medium to medium-high heat and cook meat, onions, carrots, cabbage and potatoes with the garlic and ginger. Then add soy sauce and spice powder and mix well. I found that the red cabbage and soy sauce gave this filling recipe a nice smoky taste. Transfer to a bowl, and keep aside to cool. Pre-heat the oven to 400F.




Now peel off the first layer of the spring roll wrapper from the stack, and spread onto a clean surface.







Place the cooked filling in a diagonal fashion. Then I added fresh uncooked spinach.








Pull one side of the flap over to close the filling.









Fold the two ends as in the picture, and proceed to roll the wrapper, pulling over the flaps to close the roll.









Place the spring rolls on a baking dish, brush olive oil over the rolls. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Garlic Pita Chips

I just love bread. Bread has received a lot of flak over the past few years. Everyone I know is into some form of a low carbohydrate diet. And bread, especially white bread, is on the to-avoid-eating list. I indulge in my fair share of breads now and then, but I have found a perfect bread that fits my requirement of being healthy, low fat, filling and tasty. That's the wheat pita bread. I love pita bread so much that I need to always have a ready stash of it sitting at home in my freezer.

Pita bread has about 110 calories. I usually fill with it with salads, tuna, lean meats or scrambled eggs to make a lunch or dinner pita sandwich wrap. But I also use pita bread to make tasty homemade snacks. Recently, I noticed that Trader Joes have on their shelves Crunchy Pita chips on the snacks aisle. Now I love shopping at Trader Joes, but I can just as easily make pita chips at home myself.

And so can you. Enjoy this simple and healthy recipe :)

Garlic Pita Chips


Ingredients

Pita Bread
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Dried Rosemary
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°. Cut pita bread into wedges (you can determine the size you want - I usually cut them into 8 wedges). Lightly coat one side of each pita bread with the olive oil using a brush. Sprinkle with garlic powder, dried rosemary, and salt to taste. Arrange pita bread wedges in a single layer on baking tray. Bake at 425° for 6 minutes or until golden.

Eat with hummus, or a low-fat dip of your choice.

This recipe has been inspired by Martha Stewart (with some of modifications).