Spring rolls are tasty, fried snacks with crispy outer skin and vegetable and/ or meat filling (inside). They originated from Asia/ China and are one of the most popular finger foods at Nigerian weddings/ parties and a favourite lunch-time snack.
If you’d like to learn how to make tasty crispy spring rolls (with meat and vegetables), swipe or scroll down for step by step tutorials (videos + written steps), an ingredients list, PLUS quick and easy recipes for making a large number of spring rolls for a wedding or party.
I also included time-saving tips to quickly make spring rolls in 5 minutes or less, plus a list of common spring rolls mistakes people make and how you can avoid them.
The tutorial is in parts – how to make the filings and then how to make the wrappers, and how to fold spring rolls before frying.
How to Make Spring Rolls from Scratch
1. Vegetable and Chicken (or Beef) Spring Rolls Recipe (Video)
- RELATED: How to Make Chin Chin that is Crispy and Soft – with recipe for half kilo flour, 1kg and more
Ingredients used in the above recipe for spring rolls filling: vegetable oil, garlic, ginger, onions, pepper, chicken or beef (boneless), shredded or diced carrots, diced green beans, shredded cabbage, shredded tatashe (i.e. capsicum or bell pepper), bean sprout or boiled noodles or boiled diced Irish potatoes, salt, seasoning cubes or soy sauce and oyster sauce, corn flour paste (1 teaspoon flour or corn flour mixed with 1 tablespoon of water)
*NOTE: You can either buy a pack of ready-made spring rolls wrappers or make them yourself following the next video tutorial below (written explanations are all down after the videos).
*Utensils Needed: You need a non-stick frying pan or griddle to heat the spring roll wrappers. You also need a frying pan, wok or deep pot to fry the rolls.
2. How to Make Vegetable Spring Rolls Filling and Wrappers (Easiest Method and Non-Messy)
- How to Make Puff Puff Easily (Video) – with recipe for half kilo flour, 1kg and more.
List of Ingredients used in the above recipe (below):
Spring Rolls WRAPPERS (ingredients): Flour 1/2 cup + Corn flour 1/4 cup + Salt to taste + Water 3/4 cup
Ingredients for Spring Rolls FILLING: Oil, Onion, Carrot (shredded), Irish Potatoes (diced), Tomato 1 medium size, Green Pepper, Garlic (diced), Ginger (grated), Powdered Pepper, Turmeric powder, Green peas.
The Utensils and Tools You’ll Need when Making Spring Rolls:
- A bowl for mixing the ingredients
- Spatula or wooden spoon to mix the ingredients
- A flat pan for making the spring roll wrappers
- A deep pot or a good cast-iron wok to fry the folded samosas.
- A strainer/ skimmer spoon to scoop out the fried damosas
- A rack and/ kitchen serviettes to place the snacks after frying, and let them drain off excess oil.
HOW TO STORE SPRING ROLL WRAPPERS FOR LATER USE
To store your homemade spring roll wrappers for later use, put them in a nylon/ plastic bag and then place in the fridge or freezer. If kept in a freezer without electricity outage, they can be preserved for several months.
- RELATED: How to Make Crispy Tasty Samosa (Recipe for Samosa Wrappers and Fillings)
- YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: How to Make Doughnuts From Scratch (Easy Recipe w/ Video)
- How to Make Perfectly Round Puff Puff from Scratch
Recipe and Measurements for Making a Large Batch of Spring Rolls for a Wedding or Party
Ingredients and Recipe for Making 100 Pieces of Spring Rolls
- 1.5kg flour (about 12 cups flour)
- 1 5 litres water
- 3 tsp salt
*For the fillings ingredients list, swipe/ scroll up towards the beginning of this post.
Ingredients and Recipe for Making Spring Rolls with 1 Kilogram of Flour
- 1 kg flour (about 8 cups flour)
- 1 litre of water
- 2 tsp salt
*For a list of ingredients for spring rolls fillings, swipe/ scroll up towards the beginning of this post.
11 MISTAKES TO AVOID & Extra Tips for Making the Best Spring Rolls Every Time
1. The right type of pan and the right oil quantity: The right frying pan is a deep pan/ pot because you require enough oil that will contain the volume of oil which will submerge the spring rolls and enable them ‘swim’/ float in the oil when drying.
2. The right oil temperature is medium heat, not too hot to burn the spring rolls and not below medium heat that will make the spring rolls suck oil and become greasy.
3. Low to Medium heat: When making spring roll wrappers at home, use the right heat temperature. A low to medium heat is best, as the batter will stick to the pan if the pan is too hot. Start with a medium heat pan, and adjust the pan between medium and low heat.
4. Drain fried spring rolls of excess oil to keep them from being greasy. When frying, have kitchen serviettes/ paper towels or a rack around to place the fried snacks.
5. If buying ready-made spring roll wrappers, ensure to buy very thin pastry sheets specifically made for spring rolls. There are so many types of pastry wrappers but spring roll wrappers are thinner than most of them. If you don’t have time to make them yourself, buy some at any Indian/ Asian-owned supermarkets in Nigeria. Shoprite also sells them.
From my experience, some store-bought spring roll wrappers are not properly made, but with trial and error, you can find some pretty good ones at Indian/ Asian owned supermarkets in Nigeria.
However, if you are unlucky to buy not-so-good wrappers, they could result in not-crispy spring rolls with thick skins, which are not close to the taste os spring rolls bought from top Chinese restaurants.
6. Don’t allow the spring roll wrappers to dry out: Do not leave the wrappers open, as the air dries them out and makes them brittle and break/ crack. Therefore, you should not leave them open at any time. Take one at a time and cover the rest with a damp cloth to prevent them from drying up.
7. Spring rolls filling should not be wet/ liquidy/ moist: When cooking the spring roll filling, allow it to get very dry (in the pot), so that you won’t have soggy spring rolls.
8. Allow the spring roll filling to cool down before adding it to the wrapper, as the hot filling will make the thin spring roll wrappers become soggy in your hands – which is not easy to work with (when folding and sealing).
9. Do not over-fill the spring roll wrappers when wrapping/ stuffing them, so that there’ll be some allowance to make folding possible.
10. Fold the wrappers tightly, to avoid them loosening up during frying.
11. Either fry or freeze your spring rolls immediately after wrapping them, as the most filling is moist and so can make them soggy.
2 Super-Quick Ways to Make Complete Spring Rolls and Save Time
Quick Fix OPTION 1 – ready-made wrappers: If you want to skip this step, you can buy pre-made/ ready-made wrappers and make your own fillings/ stuffings, so you can wrap into individual spring rolls and fry yourself at home.
Indian and Asian owned supermarkets usually sell the pre-made spring roll wrappers – just ask. Know that they are not the same as shawarma wrappers.
Quick Fix OPTION 2 – raw, ready-to-fry spring rolls: Frozen, raw spring rolls folded with fillings are also sold at supermarkets across Nigeria, which you can buy and fry at your convenience at home. They are fully made with the outer skins and inner fillings and stored in supermarket freezers – just ask friends and neighbours.
How to fry frozen, raw spring rolls: Do not thaw them before frying. Simply drop them straight into the hot oil, while still frozen.
How I Save Time: I like to have some wrappers stored so that I can save time whenever I make spring rolls. Sometimes, I make them a day in advance or I make several on a weekend that I find the time. I also like to do my fillings in advance.
Once you have pre-made wrappers, all you have to do is make the spring roll filling/ stuffing, scoop into each wrapper, fold and fry. How cool is that?
How to Fold Spring Rolls Before Frying (WRITTEN STEPS/ EXPLANATION)
After you’ve made the spring rolls fillings and have pre-made or store-bought spring roll wrappers, it’s time to stuff the fillings
- Mix some flour with some water and set aside. This will be used to seal the edges of the spring rolls when stuffing them with fillings;
- Scoop about 2 spoonfuls of the spring roll fillings into one corner of a wrapper
- Wrap/ roll the filling and then seal the edges with the flour mixture.
- Place the wrapped spring rolls on a tray.
*Watch the video above to see how to do the above steps. - Continue stuffing and folding the spring rolls with filling until you’ve used up all the wrappers. They’re now ready to be fried.
- Fill two-thirds of a shallow deep pot with vegetable oil
- Now, fry the spring rolls, ensuring to add one at a time, and fry a few pieces per batch.
- Fry each side until golden brown, and then transfer the fried spring rolls to a tray lined with kitchen napkins/ serviettes or kitchen rack and leave a while to be drained of excess oil.
THE WRITTEN STEPS: How to Make Spring Rolls Filling/ Stuffing
This section is for our readers who prefer reading steps to watching a video.
- Thinly slice all the vegetables (carrots, cabbage) and dice the onions and garlic
- Place a cooking pot or pan on your stove/ cooker with medium heat.
- Add the vegetable oil
- Add the chopped onions and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until it has changed colour (translucent).
- Add the powdered spices and seasoning (curry, black pepper, chilli pepper, salt, seasoning cube, chopped ginger, crushed garlic);
- Stir to mix all the ingredients together and fry for about 3 minutes.
- Add the ground meat and increase the cooker/ stove heat. (NOTE: You can choose not to add meat if you want to make vegetable spring rolls. On the other hand, you can also choose to use both meat and vegetables. The choice is yours).
- Continue stirring and frying the mixture until the meat turns brown. Keep stirring until the mixture is dry (no longer moist). (Brown meat colour indicates that it’s cooked/ done).
- Add the sliced vegetables (carrots and cabbage) and stir to mix with the other ingredients.
- Stir until the carrot and cabbage have shrunk.
- Now turn off the heat to avoid overcooking the vegetables.
- Set the spring roll filling aside to allow it cool down.
*NOTE: To see the above process in action/ how it is made, watch the video above, at the beginning of this post.
Save Money by Making Spring Rolls at Home for Your Party Finger Foods
If you’re on a small budget and have a party or wedding coming up that you desire to add spring rolls as one of the finger foods to be served, you can see that making spring rolls yourself (at home) is a lot cheaper than buying from the stores or ordering from a caterer.
If you want to save time from making a large quantity for all the guests, you can buy ready-made spring rolls sheets/ wrappers from Shoprite or any nearby store. Just ask around for where to buy spring roll wrappers, but many big supermarkets and Asian/ Indian-owned stores sell them.
If you have time or have people who are willing to help you, another option is to make the spring roll wrappers a few days or weeks in advance.
MORE NIGERIAN WEDDING/ PARTY FOOD RECIPE IDEAS:
- How to Make Crispy Tasty Samosa (Recipe for Samosa Wrappers and Fillings)
- How to Make Doughnuts From Scratch (Easy Recipe w/ Video)
- How to Make Party Jollof Rice (with Recipe for cooking 1 Bag Rice)
That’s it on how to make restaurant-style spring rolls easily in the comfort of your home, plus recipe ideas for making 100 and more pieces of this tasty snack and side-dish.
Be sure to bookmark or save this page for reference. Come back to watch the video again, and also take notes and practice making it yourself. Don’t worry, you’ll get it – I am rooting for you.
If you tried any of the above spring roll recipes, comment below to share your experience. And if you’re feeling excited, snap the dish and tag us @naijaglamwedding on social media. If you’d like to see more cool posts like this, join our Glam Wedding Insiders community and follow us on social media.
I hope you enjoyed this post, as I had fun making it for you. Thanks for reading. Did I miss anything or maybe you just want to say something? Let me hear it – comment down below.
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