Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls

If you want a healthy appetizer that’s fun to make, Vietnamese fresh spring rolls are a great choice. They are on the menu of most Vietnamese restaurants and are similar to fried spring rolls, but use rice paper as the wrapper instead. Rice paper is pretty neat as it transforms when moistened with water.

Since it was my first time making Vietnamese fresh spring rolls, my rolling skills weren’t that good as you can tell from the photos below… I wanted to share my recipe though because I thoroughly enjoyed eating them. You can pretty much put any ingredients you prefer inside so feel free to change them up, but if you want to eat your Vietnamese fresh spring rolls guilt-free, healthy ingredients are the way to go. 🙂

Recipe

Level: Easy | Time: 40 min | Servings: 3

Ingredients

• 18 shrimp
• 1.5 cups of rice noodles (it is typically made with vermicelli noodles, but I didn’t have any so I used rice noodles)
• 1 leaf of romaine lettuce
• 1/2 a carrot
• 1/2 a cucumber
• 1/2 a bell pepper
• 1 cup of bean sprouts
• 6 sheets of rice paper (can also be found at most Asian supermarkets)
• Black pepper (to taste)
• 4 tbsp of hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp of peanut butter
• Sriracha sauce (to taste)

Rolls

1. Boil the shrimp and rice noodles (or vermicelli) separately until cooked and let them cool.
2. Cut the romaine lettuce into pieces.
3. Slice the carrot, cucumber, and bell pepper into thin strips.
4. Fill a plate with warm water.
5. Submerge a sheet of rice paper in the water and then put it onto another plate. (It can still feel stiff at first, but will soften over time.)
6. Put some noodles on top of the rice paper. (I put them in the middle of the rice paper, but in hindsight, starting closer to the side of the rice paper nearest you would have helped with the rolling.)
7. Put a bit of each vegetable on top of the noodles.
8. Put 3 shrimp on top of the vegetables.
9. Sprinkle some black pepper on top.
10. Fold in the sides of the rice paper so they are snug against the filling.
11. Bring the side of the rice paper that’s closest to you over the filling, tucking it snugly underneath, and then roll it forward while keeping it snug.
12. Put the completed Vietnamese fresh spring roll onto another plate and repeat steps 5-10 for the remaining rolls. 

Sauce

1. Warm 2 tbsp of peanut butter in the microwave for 15 seconds or until it melts.
2. Mix 4 tbsp of hoisin sauce, the peanut butter, and Sriracha sauce (if you like spicy) together.

Final Directions

1. Dip the Vietnamese fresh spring roll into the sauce as you eat it and enjoy!

If you want a good side dish to make with this, check out my Ground Beef and Vegetables blog post.