Best Crispy Spring Rolls I’ve Ever Had

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.

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!

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.

1. Saute the garlic, black pepper, and white pepper in a wok until the garlic starts to turn slightly golden.
2. Add the ground pork and stir to break up the lumps until fully cooked.
3. Add the noodles, cabbage, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and all of the seasonings.
4. 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.

1. 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.
2. Pull the corner of the wrapper over the filling then pull back on the filling slightly to tighten.
3. Roll forward once, then fold the side corners in towards the middle.
4. 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.

1. Keep rolling until the end, and now you can fry these right away or freeze them for later.
2. 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.
3. Drain on paper towel, and cool slightly before digging in.
4. If you’re cutting these to serve at a party, I recommend cutting on a diagonal for nicer presentation!