Beef Spring Rolls

I love the crispy crunch of spring rolls. Making them at home takes very little time and lets me make the filling to my taste or adapt it to the ingredients I have on hand. Today, we're bringing a good beef spring roll recipe, with a touch of curry that makes them delicious in contrast to the sweetness of the brick pastry that wraps them.

Spring rolls, being so easy to prepare, are a fantastic option for a quick dinner or a different appetizer. And to make them healthier, nothing beats cooking them in the air fryer, which will leave them just as tasty while using hardly any oil.

As you may already know, air fryers, like the Actifry Genius from Tefal, combine hot air with gentle automated movements, similar to convection ovens, achieving a result very close to traditional frying. This way we can enjoy a portion of croquettes or some empanadas, but without the guilt and the bothersome smells that traditional frying causes.

These are two good reasons to cook in an oil-free fryer, but not the only ones, since it's a great option to make countless varied recipes. It allows you to eat deliciously, eat varied, and eat healthily, as it preserves the nutritional value of foods, whether fresh or frozen. Also, it's so quick and easy to use that you won't find a better kitchen helper!

If you want to see all the available air fryers, you'll love to see this section.

The recipe I show you today is very easy to make and you'll have it ready in very little time: beef and vegetable spring rolls with a touch of cilantro. You can see the step-by-step in the video below.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion
• 2 or 3 carrots
• A few cilantro leaves
• 125-150 g of ground beef
• Breadcrumbs (1 or 2 tablespoons)
• 1 ActiFry tablespoon of curry powder
• 1 ActiFry tablespoon of olive oil
• Brick pastry (one roll or a package of pre-cut sheets)
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 beaten egg

Preparation

How to prepare the rolls:

1. We chop or grate the onion and the carrot. We can do it with a knife, with a grater or with a chopper, depending on the texture we prefer.
2. Finely chop the cilantro leaves.
3. In a bowl mix the ground beef with the onion, carrot, cilantro, curry and breadcrumbs, until everything is well integrated. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Divide the filling into as many portions as rolls you want to make. In this case we make 9 small rolls, so we will make 9 portions of filling and shape them into elongated croquettes or cylinders.
5. When preparing the rolls, since brick pastry dries very quickly, we do it sheet by sheet. We spread the first sheet, brush it with beaten egg, place a cylinder of filling on it and roll the dough forming the roll.

How to fry the rolls:

• In an oil-free fryer:

1. Once we have the 9 rolls formed, if we are going to fry them without oil we remove the basket from the Actifry oil-free fryer, brush it with a little olive oil and place the rolls so they are separated. Put the basket in the fryer and set the SPRING ROLLS mode (4) and the duration, which will be 20 minutes.
2. After the time has elapsed, the rolls will be ready.

• In a conventional oven: You can bake the rolls with little oil:

1. Arrange the rolls in a cast-iron skillet (oven-safe) or on a baking tray, drizzle some oil over them, and set the oven to top and bottom heat at 180 ºC.
2. Monitor the rolls constantly and it's important that you turn them so they cook on all sides and especially watch that they don't overcook or burn. In about 25-30 minutes they'll be done.

• Traditional frying in a pan or fryer:

1. Add about one and a half fingers of oil to the cast-iron pan or a deep pan or wok and turn the heat to medium.
2. When the oil is hot, add the rolls and let them fry, turning them to cook both sides.
3. Remove them using a slotted spoon to drain the oil and ensure they don't break, and place them on a plate or dish with paper towels to absorb excess oil. Let rest a few minutes and serve.

When serving:

1. Serve accompanied by a salad or some rice and the sauce you like most, and enjoy!

If you haven't tried it yet, I encourage you to try frying and all kinds of recipes in an air fryer. Cooking with the Actifry from Tefal is very simple, fast and intuitive. Preparing these rolls took us very little time—less than it will take us to eat them!

You can vary the recipe depending on what you feel like eating or the ingredients you have at home. You can use parsley instead of cilantro, make them with chicken or shrimp or only with vegetables, or prepare the rolls with rice wrappers if you prefer them to brick pastry. The possibilities are as many as you want, but always just as simple, crispy and quick to make. And using almost no oil!