Spring Roll Recipe with Ginger Peanut Dipping Sauce
Categories: Liver Qi Stagnation
Jennifer Wade
Spring 2010
Eastern Nutrition
March 8, 2010
Spring Roll Recipe with Ginger Peanut Dipping Sauce
10 Rice spring roll wrappers
2.5 cups Rice vermicelli
Lettuce
Bunch of Cilantro
Bunch of Basil
1 Cucumber
1 bunch green onion
20 Medium Shrimp or ½ pound of Tofu
Sauce:
2 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. water
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 tsp. brown sugar
½ cup peanuts
2 tsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. tapioca starch
1 tsp. xanthum gum
Pinch of stevia
Spring Roll Preparation:
Slice cucumber in a mandolin or manually to create thin strips.
Soak the rice vermicelli to soften
Boil the shrimp or defrost frozen shrimp or slice tofu in 1†x 4†inch slices.
Chop basil and cilantro.
Fill a large pan with water. Immerse the spring roll wrapper in water for a few seconds until fully moistened. Remove. Lay wrapper on a plate. Add a leaf of lettuce in the center. Top with ¼ cup rice vermicelli, small amount of chopped basil and cilantro. Slice of cucumber, and 2 shrimp or slice of tofu. Take the sides of the wrapper and fold them in towards each other. Starting from the back, roll up the rice paper over the ingredients until it is sealed.
Sauce:
In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Serve as a dipping sauce with the spring rolls. You may have to add additional water or tapioca starch to reach desired consistency.
Spring Roll:
Rice noodles, wrapper: Sweet, Neutral, SP, ST. Supplements spleen and stomach, generates and preserves body fluids.
Cilantro-slightly cool, acrid. Promotes sweat, strengthens digestion, and promotes qi flow.
Cucumber-cool, sweet and bland. Clears heat, quenches thirst, relieves irritability, promotes diuresis, counteracts toxins.
Lettuce-Neutral, bland. Lung, St, UB. Invigorates qi, removes stagnation, reduces swelling, softens hardness.
Basil: Warm, acrid. Induces sweating, harmonizes stomach, antidote for seafood poisoning.
Green onion: Pungent, warm. Lung, LI. Releases exterior wind cold, Invigorates blood, drains damp.
Shrimp: Sweet. Liver. Boosts Kd yang/qi
OR
Tofu: Cool, LU, LI. Moistens dryness, relieves inflammation of the stomach, neutralizes toxins.
Sauce:
Garlic: Pungent, sweet, warm. Warms spleen/St. Improves digestion.
Ginger: Acrid, warm. Lung, SP, ST. Disperses exterior cold, stops nausea/vomit, detoxifies other herbs, reduced inflammation
Soy sauce: Salty and cold. SP, ST, KD. Harmonizes middle jiao, clears heat, antidote to food and drug poisoning.
Lime juice: Cooling, sour astringent, antiseptic. Purges the liver. Promotes weight loss, cleanses blood, treats high blood pressure.
Brown Sugar: Sweet, warm. Sp, St, Lv. Supplements middle jiao, expels cold, invigorates blood, moves liver qi.
Peanuts: Sweet, neutral. Sp, Lu, LI. Strengthens spleen, drains damp, nourishes blood, stops bleeding, promotes lactation.
Overall Properties and Comments:
This recipe will help move qi and would be ideal for a pattern of Liver qi stagnation. With marked spleen qi deficiency, it would be wise to remove the lettuce and cucumber as raw veggies can be harder to digest. Instead you can add steamed veggies such as carrot and zucchini to assist the spleen in digestion. The sauce, being warm, also helps to assist in digesting the cooler veggies. There is also some Lung nourishing aspect to this recipe depending on what veggies are served.
You tube video, how to wrap a spring roll: