Vietnamese Spring Rolls With Peanut Sauce Recipe

I love to try food from different cultures. My favorite these days is rice noodle spring rolls, specifically the Vietnamese. The soft rice noodles, with a burst of minty flavor and mild taste of lettuce with juicy pink shrimps peeking through the rice paper. These rolls do not only look appetizing but taste divine when dipped in chili peanut sauce. It just makes you drool.

I am lucky to have the traditional recipe for these spring rolls. The best thing about this recipe is the size and cooking time. So you can make them foolproof and authentic just like a Vietnamese. Even Vietnamese will get impressed by you.

Itsy bitsy detail 

Meat

The traditional method calls for shrimp or pork. Beef is gaining popularity these days, but I like to make it with shrimps.

 Make sure to use medium-sized shrimps. Large or small are also fine. But medium sized makes rolling easier. Just use more if small and cut up the larger ones.

Veggies

These rolls are called goi cuon back in Vietnam, which means salad rolls. Soft lettuce and mint are used traditionally but you can use any soft greens. Red cabbage looks very pretty peeking through the translucent rice paper. Chives, parsley are also popular choices. 

Rice noodles

Although the thickness of rice noodles doesn’t matter, I prefer thinner ones like the rice vermicelli.

Important thing is that they are not sticking together. Rinse them with cold water and spread them on a large plate to cool down. Don’t leave them in a sieve or you will be left with mushy dough.

Rice Paper

Most rice papers in grocery stores are made of rice flour and tapioca flour. Look out for 100% rice flour. They are thinner and tend to be less sticky.

If you are not immediately serving these spring rolls, you can make them beforehand. But the rice paper tends to soak water from its ingredients and gets soft and sticky and tears away. If you leave them in the air, they dry out. So please make them only a few hours beforehand, if you have to, do keep them covered so they won’t dry out.

Peanut Sauce

I make Peanut sauce with pre-made sauces like hoisin sauce, peanut butter, and chili sauce. Making these sauces from scratch needs a whole set of skills and is hard to make. Try to buy sauces that are originally Asian-made.

Garlic

Please avoid pre-made garlic paste. Freshly peeled and minced garlic is crucial for the precise smell and taste of peanut sauce. I like to mince them with a garlic press. Don’t use bender with water. It will ruin your sauce flavor.

Ingredients

For the rolls

Shrimps    250 grams

Rice noodles    1/3 pack or cooked 2 cups

Soft green lettuce   one head

Mint   a bunch 

Rice papers    12 – 15

For peanut sauce

Oil   2 tablespoons

Peanut butter    ½ cup

Hoisin sauce    8 tablespoon

Chili paste    according to your taste

Fresh garlic minced   2 tablespoon

Water   ½ cup 

Method

For rolls

• Boil water with salt. Blanch the devein shrimps for 2-3 minutes.
• Cook rice noodles according to the package instructions. Spread out on a large plate to dry them a little.
• Wash and dry greens. Remove their veins. Cut lettuce roughly into medium pieces.
• Dip rice paper in warm water for 5 seconds to soften them.

• Add fillings in the center shrimps faced down. Don’t overstuff.
• Fold the sides inward over stuffing. Then start rolling tightly from one end.

For Sauce

• Heat oil in the pan. 
• Add minced garlic to warm oil until golden and fragrant.
• Immediately add hoisin sauce, then add peanut butter, water, and chili paste.
• The sauce should be a little runny but will thicken as it cools down.

This recipe of Vietnamese spring roll is sure to impress any Asian foodie. I also got impressed by myself when I tried it the first time. Your friends will ask you to make it again and again.