These low-carb Shrimp & Summer Squash Spring Rolls are a refreshing summer dish perfect for a light meal or appetizer course.
I have to admit it, the catalyst of this recipe was a junky piece of kitchen equipment. There I was this afternoon with two lovely little yellow summer squash. I had it in my mind to slice them into ribbons on my mandolin and make them into some sort of a salad. The mandolin is old and absolutely craptastic, so it was sort of bruising the squash, more than slicing it. I resolved to try and slice the ribbons by hand with a nice sharp knife (the Ergo Chef Utility knife I won off their Facebook page to be exact... love their stuff). Well, I cut them thin, but not wafer thin as I had planned, so I proceeded to cut them into long matchsticks.
I plucked one of the tiny summer squash sticks from the tidy pile I'd formed and nibbled on it, enjoying the delicately sweet crispness, that is when the realization dawned on me that these would be be perfect in a nim chow style spring roll, in place of rice noodles. This would make for a lighter lower carb roll, with a tender crispness to it.
I made a simple dipping sauce, and filled the rice wraps with fresh basil and poached shrimp along with the summer squash. About half way through rolling them up, I started adding a smear of crunchy almond butter on top if the squash before rolling. Those ended being my favorites, and sort of stood in for the crushed peanuts typical of nim chow rolls. I do think a little daikon radish pickle in the rolls would be a tasty addition.
Ingredients
- 12 spring roll rice wrappers
- 2-3 small yellow summer squash cut into thin matchsticks
- bunch of fresh basil
- ¾ - 1 pound of shrimp peeled, deveined and cooked
- ¼ cup crunchy almond butter
Dipping Sauce
- 2 teaspoon Sambal Oelek chili garlic paste
- 2 tbs rice wine vinegar
- 2 tbs Ponzu sauce a lemon soy sauce dressing
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Whisk together the dressing ingredients and set dressing aside.
- Soak a rice wrap, until soft and malleable, but not mushy. (Do them one at a time, they over-soak very fast)
- Place a handful of the squash on rice wrap, slightly off-center, facing in all the same direction.
- Smear about a teaspoon of almond butter on the squash.
- Top with basil and shrimp.
- Fold the smaller side of wrap parallel it squash slices over the contents, then fold in top & bottom and roll tightly like a burrito.
- Serve 3 per person along with dipping sauce.
Tiff @ Babes and Kids says
I bet that the squash and shrimp combo tastes so good and this is a nice change from traditional spring rolls.
Colleen says
You always have such interesting receipes, now I'm craving Chinese LOL
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Jenn says
I am not a fan of almond butter. Would regular peanut butter work with this?
Robin Gagnon says
I preferred the almond butter with the squash, but real nim chow is teamed with crushed peanuts.
Just don't use one of those "no stir" peanut butters, they have stuff other than peanuts in there.
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