Chinese Crispy Duck Spring Rolls {gluten free}

Delicious and healthy fresh Chinese crispy duck spring rolls made with spring roll rice wrappers and basic Singapore rice noodles.

As I said in a recent post {fresh avocado spring rolls}, spring rolls are one of my favourite Thai/Vietnamese foods. They’re easy to make, healthy, naturally gluten free and delicious.

They work great as meals, sides and are a great option for packed lunches too. They can be an interesting substitute to the usual and repetitive choices (sandwiches and salads – as nice as they can be… let’s be real, they get a bit boring after a while!).

If you’re not a big fan of gluten free bread or not keen on the ridiculous price tag that comes with it, again, spring rolls are fun, cheap and naturally gluten free alternative.

Seeing as I made a big batch of crispy duck recently {gluten free Chinese crispy duck}, I decided to put some of my leftovers to good use by making some Chinese style crispy duck spring rolls! I filled them with some quick homemade Singapore noodles as well because, you know, why not go all the way!? And the combination was perfect! 🙂

Here are the products that I used:

Datu Puti soy sauce:

This is a naturally gluten free dark soy sauce that can be found in Chinese/Asian supermarkets (or on the Internet). It’s by far my favourite and the closest one I’ve tried to ‘normal’ soy sauce so I highly recommend it. To top it off, the bottle is massive and much cheaper than what you can get in the free from section of supermarkets – £1.60 for 1L!

Ko-Lee rice vermicelli noodles:

I get these from Morrisons (the world food section) for about 70p a pack which is a bargain!

Spring roll rice wrappers (also known as banh trang, rice paper, rice wraps), like these:

You can get them from Chinese/Asian (and some mainstream) supermarkets.

You don’t have to use these, of course, but just be sure to look for certified gluten free brands when it comes to rice products like these – both the noodles and rice wrappers – as they can be cross contaminated with gluten during the manufacturing process and won’t necessarily include an allergen warning on the label. Especially those imported from Asian countries. Otherwise you can also contact the companies to check with them, but in my experience this is quite difficult with imported products. I rarely get a reply and/or struggle to find a way to contact the company in the first place.

For years I wondered if this was just yet another load of scare mongering bs on the internet, but this advice is also supported by Coeliac UK. It’s on their gluten free check list under the “need to check” category.

Blue Dragon is a good spring roll wrapper brand that you can find in some ‘normal’ supermarkets – I usually get them from Waitrose (here), but I’ve also seen them in Whole Foods, Planet Organic and Ocado. I’m not sure if it’s sold elsewhere; leave a comment below if you have seen them in other shops. 🙂

Gluten free Chinese crispy duck spring rolls with basic easy Singapore noodles — Chinese crispy duck spring rolls with dark soy sauce. 🙂

Ingredients

Crispy duck {recipe here}
Spring roll wrappers
Singapore noodles {recipe below}
Spring onions
Fresh chilli
Cucumber
Fresh coriander
Soy or tamari sauce

Singapore noodles Ingredients

100g rice vermicelli noodles
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp ground turmeric
1/2 Tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp garlic powder
Black pepper
A bit of water

Note: Datu Puti is quite a strong soy sauce so if you’re using tamari sauce instead, you may want to add a bit more than 1 tablespoon.

For the Singapore noodles:

Bring a pan of lightly salted water to boil, add the noodles and cook for a few minutes until al dente. Test them from time to time to make sure they don’t end up overcooked.
Then you’re going to want to rinse them a few times to get rid of excess starch and prevent them from sticking together. To do this, drain the rice noodles in a colander, add them back into the pan, fill with cold water, stir with a fork and drain again. Repeat until the water is clear. 2-3 times should do the trick.
Add all the ingredients to the noodles: soy sauce, turmeric, curry powder, ginger, garlic and black pepper + a bit of water to help mix everything together and stop the noodles from sticking together. The best way to do this is to use 2 forks and mix gently.

Note: don’t let the noodles sit around before adding the flavourings or they will stick together.

For the spring rolls:

Prepare the filling: make the crispy duck {recipe here}, Singapore noodles and wash & chop the coriander, chilli, cucumber and spring onions.
Cook the rice wraps: and by cooking, what I really mean is dip them in warm/hot (not boiling) water for a few seconds, one at a time. Either heat up some water in a pan (large enough for the wraps) or heat up water in a kettle and pour a bit into a plate.
- Dip one wrap in the water until you feel it starting to soften up.
- Hold it up as excess water drips off and allow it to soften up completely.
- lay it flat on another a plate.
Make the crispy duck spring rolls:
- Add filling in the center.
- Fold the sides over.
- Fold one end over and tuck in the filling tightly so it isn’t loose and the spring roll feels secure.
- Roll the rest of the spring roll tightly.
Serve with dipping sauces of your choice; soy sauce, nuoc cham (a lime and fish sauce based dip), peanut sauce, sweet chilli sauce, etc.