For someone who loves spring rolls just as much as I do, it’s definitely not made enough in our house. I keep thinking that it’s just too much prep work but it’s actually one of the simplest dinners you could make. All that really needs to be done is to set up the ingredients as an assembly line and then assemble the spring rolls. Simple enough, right?

With this particular recipe, there wasn’t much actual cooking involved other than cooking the pork bulgogi. The recipe originally asked for marinated kalbi, which I would definitely use over pork bulgogi any day of the week, but Jason and I are trying to stay away from red meat whenever we can so we decided to go for the pork. But feel free to use any kind of marinated meat of your choice. The pork bulgogi worked out quite well for us.

Once your meat is cooked and chopped into bite-sized pieces, you are set to go. Assembling the spring rolls is my favorite part, although these particular ones weren’t coming out quite as pretty as I hoped. But by the time I tried one of these bad boys, I didn’t care how they looked. They tasted too good to have to be worried about such trivial things. These babies were packed with veggies, noodles, and meat in every single bite, and the gochujang dipping sauce produced such salty-spiciness. I was in heaven. Really.

Note: It was hard to get three of these all lined up for the picture because I kept having to stop myself to eat one of them!

Pork Bulgogi and Kimchi Spring Rolls (adapted from Une-deux senses):

Yields 4-6 servings

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 pounds marinated pork bulgogi
  • Rice paper
  • 1/2 head romaine lettuce
  • 1/4 package rice noodles
  • 1 cup kimchi, roughly chopped
  • 4 green onions, thinly sliced

For the dipping sauce (adapted from Une-deux senses):

  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon gochujang (hot pepper paste)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

To make the dipping sauce, whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, gochujang, sugar, pepper and sesame seeds in a small bowl; set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the pork bulgogi and cook, in batches, until browned and cooked through, about 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and let cool; slice into bite-sized pieces.

To assemble the spring rolls, wet the rice paper and lay on a plate; add some of the lettuce, rice noodles, kimchi, green onions and bulgogi in the center.

Carefully pull the lower edge of the wrapper up and over the filling. Fold the 2 sides inward over the filling and press to seal; roll the spring roll upwards, making sure that the filling is tightly contained and rolled up to seal. Repeat with remaining rice papers and filling.

Serve immediately, at room temperature or slightly chilled, with the dipping sauce.