Last weekend The Kid was out of town for a few days. I decided to have my own Friday Night Dinner at Whole Foods since it had been a while since I hit up their salad bar. I love their salad bar and tend to way over-buy while I’m there. I guess there are worse things in life. Naturally I couldn’t be rude and just rush in and rush out.
I had to wander around and see what trouble I could get into. It didn’t take long. I found the Asian aisle and picked up a couple ingredients that I’ve never used before. The first was spring roll papers which (duh!) are used to make spring rolls. The second was ramen noodles, but not just any ramen noodles. These were special ones. I’ve got a recipe coming that uses those.
The package of spring roll papers that I bought had tons leftover so I made a few spring rolls to enjoy and I stuck the leftovers into the freezer for this weekend. They’re really simple to put together especially if you already have your chicken grilled. It’s just a matter of chopping a bit and wetting the papers, then you rolllllll like an Asian burrito!
Chicken Kale Spring Rolls 
- 2 rice spring roll papers
- 1 cup (67g) baby kale, stems removed
- 2 oz (57g) shredded carrots
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 green onion, white and green parts chopped
- 4 oz grilled chicken breast, chopped
- 1 Tbsp ponzu sauce
Prepare all of your veggies and chicken breasts first so that they are ready to go. Dip one of the spring roll wrappers into water for about 15 seconds or so until it starts to soften. Lay it on a clean dish towel.
Place some of the kale leaves down in the center, and top with part of the carrots, cilantro, onion, and chicken. Fold up the top and bottom of the wrapper and roll it like a burrito. The wrapper should be pliable and you can press the edges after rolling to seal in the filling. Repeat with the other wrapper and filling. Serve with the ponzu sauce for dipping.
Makes 2 spring rolls at approximately 261 calories – 28g protein, 28g carbs, and 3g fat.
This is a dish with which you can really show off your creativity and make it yours. You can use different veggies, different cooked and shredded meats, add in rice noodles for a traditional spring roll, leave out the meat completely. I’m making these again this weekend for The Kid and I’m using lettuce, shredded yellow squash, rice noodles, and chicken in her version.
Since they are so versatile, you can easily figure out a way to get them to fit your macros. I left out the rice noodles since I wanted to lower carbs. You can change the amount of protein in them, vary the amount of carbs. It’s that simple. Let me know what’s in your roll.
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