Lentil Sprout Spring Rolls

Recently I found this blog post on a blog I follow, about sprouting seeds in a jar in your kitchen. I have sprouted two batches of lentil sprouts since then... brilliant! From about 3 Tb of lentils (which I bought at Sprouts on 63rd and May), I get an entire jar of sprouts within a few days. They are delicious, and besides how cool is it to grow your own sprouts?! The directions on that blog work like a charm.

My favorite thing to do with lentil sprouts is make them into these raw spring rolls. The lentils have a peppery, fresh flavor and a lovely crunch that works very well for spring rolls. I have put several different things in raw spring rolls -- whatever I have on hand. I have used spinach, apples, carrots, rice noodles, chicken, avacado, pork, green onions. Today's spring rolls had lentil sprouts, green onions, cucumber, green bell pepper (capsicum), and soy sauce soaked peanuts.

Spring rolls do take some time to assemble, but once you get into the rhythm it's really not that bad. And the payoff is delicious! I cut all of my vegetable into thin strips before beginning, and laid them all out on my counter beside the empty spot I was going to use to assemble the rolls. I also put the peanuts to soak in a bowl with a dash of soy sauce, a dash of ground ginger, and a spoon of sugar.

For these I use rice spring roll wrappers, which I get at my local Chinese grocery store. They are this brand. The wrappers have to be soaked in warm water for a few seconds to soften them, so I use a pie plate filled with warm water set on the counter beside my veggies. I put a wrapper in the water until it is pliable, then I pull it out and set it on the counter, and immediately put the next wrapper in the water to soak while I assemble the current spring roll. It is just about the right amount of time, usually.

To assemble, I spread the spring roll wrapper out on the counter top.

I then put a little of each of the things I'm using in the middle, near the bottom of the wrapper. Here are green onions, cucumbers, green bell pepper, a few peanuts, and a little bit of lentil sprouts.

Then, bring the bottom of the wrapper up over the pile of filling, and tuck it in around the top of them. Tuck rather tightly.

Fold the sides in.

And roll up tightly.

The wrapping process becomes much easier as you go, and with practice you figure out exactly how much filling to put in, and how tightly to wrap them so they don't fall apart and you don't tear holes in your wrapper. I serve my spring rolls with sweet chili sauce. Little bites of spring!

Taming a Jalepeno Into Yum.

If you are like me, the word "jalepeno" scares you a little. When I first heard of this recipe, I looked at Morgan with that "you-are-joking-right?" look that I give him sometimes.
Ok, a lot of the time.
I use that look a lot.
He is usually joking. But this time he wasn't.
Seriously, there is something you can do with jalepeno peppers that will make them into little pockets of juicy, creamy, awesome yum.
Not hot.
Cross my heart.

See, all (or the vast majority) of the heat of the pepper is in the seeds and the membrane. Remove that, and you have tame peppers!
So begin this recipe with removing the seeds and membrane of the peppers. You really want to get it all if you aren't a fan of hot. I promise.

I used a grapefruit spoon to scrape all the membrane out, and rinsed it out with warm water. 

Now comes the good part. Take cream cheese. Mix it with small chunks of garlic. For my six jalepenos, I used one block of cream cheese and three cloves of garlic chopped up really small, and a dash of garlic powder.

Now, stuff the cream cheese- garlic mixture into the peppers. You really want to be careful to try to not break the peppers, or while they are cooking all the cream cheese will run out, and then what will have been the point of stuffing them? Hm?

Now, wrap each jalepeno tightly with a strip of bacon, and secure with a toothpick.

Space them out on a cookie sheet, and bake them at 350 F until the bacon looks pretty cooked. Not crispy, just cooked. Then turn on the broiler on high just long enough to crisp the bacon.
Pull out jalepeno packets of goodness.
LET THEM COOL.
No really.
Let them cool.
You really really want to let them cool.
That cheese inside is really, really warm.

Now. Eat them all.
All of them. Nom nom nom.
I recommend a glass of milk. If you didn't get quite all the membrane, it can get a bit spicy up toward the stems. It's not bad. Especially with a glass of milk.

On a side note, just imagine for a moment being my long-suffering husband. Every time I pull something out of the oven, all yummy and ready to eat, when he is all hungry and ready to eat it up... I stop him... and spend a good long while taking pictures of it for my blog.
He is a good sport about it.
But poor him.

He stopped to take a breath between inhaling peppers, so I took a picture while he wasn't paying attention.
Aren't I sneaky.

It didn't take us very long to wipe out the peppers. All gone. I even mopped up all the juice on the plate with a piece of bread.
 It was yummy.