Citrusy Spring Rolls

Here I am again with something completely unlike me. I have to admit, I’m not one to mix citrus fruits with much else besides other fruits, juices, and smoothies. But lately, I’ve been seeing lots of recipes online mixing citrus with strange (to me) things – grapefruit in wraps, oranges in sandwiches and such. I generally move past those recipes pretty quickly.

BUT ~ something happened last night. It’s now reaching the hot part of the year here in Southern CA. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not always hot here :-), but now we’re getting days in the 90s, which is great. Yesterday after teaching a yoga class and being so hot that I was ready to jump in the pool fully clothed, I started fantasizing about light and refreshing foods (the aftermath of the Refreshing Green Smoothie from the other day) and suddenly wondered how grapefruit would taste in a spring roll, and today Citrusy Spring Rolls were born …..

The ingredients (clockwise from top left):

• chopped arugula
• chopped sunflower sprouts
• white grapefruit
• avocado

I thought that adding a few items with distinctive flavors would balance out the sharp taste of the grapefruit, and I decided on the spicy taste of arugula and the mellow sunflower sprouts. The avocado was important to add a creaminess that wove all of the strong tastes together.  And that’s it!

Prior to rolling…. I chopped the arugula and sunflower sprouts for ease in eating. There’s nothing worse than biting into a spring roll and losing half of the inside because it’s too hard to bite off. I added several pieces of avocado, then went pretty light on the grapefruit since I didn’t know how it was going to taste – I only added 2 grapefruit sections to each roll, but in the future I’d probably add one or two more.

Then once rolled, they went nicely with some coconut mashed yams and salad.  The salad had tahini dressing, which was also used as the dipping sauce for the spring rolls. They had a really nice flavor that will definitely be replicated, and were a nice change from the Asian-inspired spring rolls that I usually make.