# Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

# Jump to Recipe

# Background

I've been low-key obsessed and high-key in love with this girl on TikTok.

Her name is Abigal Martin (opens new window) and she's been documenting her van-life journey on TikTok. I've been pretty interested in van-life (opens new window) as a future lifestyle, but for now I'm comfortably settled into my apartment.

In a lot of her videos, she'll talk about her life and her process for building the van she's going to live in, all while eating these delicious looking spring rolls. They look so refreshing and I know for a fact that peanut butter sauce is bussin (opens new window).

So after watching one of her vidoes and realizing you could make them, I was inspired to try them for myself. I've been cooking a lot of Japanese food lately and I figured I'd have most of the ingredients necessary to make them.

Gỏi cuốn (opens new window), Vietnamese spring roll, fresh spring roll, spring roll, or rice paper roll, is a Vietnamese dish traditionally consisting of pork, prawn, vegetables, bún, and other ingredients wrapped in Vietnamese bánh tráng. In Japan, they are called nama harumaki (生春巻き, "raw spring rolls"), and are typically filled with shrimp. This seems to be the popular form they've taken in the west and it's the recipe I've used that I'm going to share with you. Feel free to get creative and add your own ingredients to the contents of the spring roll, like mango slices or mint leaves.

# Recipe

2 servings. 10-15 mins. prep time.

# Ingredients

# Spring Roll

2           rice paper wrapper
8-10        cooked shrimp
2           lettuce leaves
60  mL      water
10  mL      fresh lime juice
1/4         sliced cucumber
1/4         sliced carrot
1/2         sliced red pepper
1/2         sliced avocado
15  mL      chopped cilantro
0.021 tbsp  salt*
* Precise measurements are important.

# Peanut Dipping Sauce

30  mL      natural peanut butter
5   mL      hoisin sauce (found in the Asian section of grocery stores)
5   mL      Sriracha
5   mL      soy sauce
10  mL      warm water

# Instructions

  1. Chop and slice your vegetables before preparing the spring roll. This is important as you'll have a short window to wrap your spring roll befor the rice paper wrapper dries out. For drying out the rice paper, I prefer to use a wooden cutting board but you can also use a paper towel. Just be careful the rice paper doesn't dry to the paper towel.
  2. Fill a plate with water and place the rice paper wrapper on the plate. Make sure the water covers the wrapper completely and let it soak for 20-30 seconds until the rice paper is pliable.
  3. Place the rice paper on a dry surface.
  4. Place the contents of the spring roll inside the wrap. This includes all of your vegetables and the shrimp.
  5. Squeeze the fresh lime juice onto the wrap and add salt.
  6. Wrap the spring roll like a burrito.
  7. Mix the ingredients of the Peanut Dipping Sauce together. Use the water as necessary to thin the peanut sauce to the desired consistency.
  8. Eat it.
Update: I'm still trying to figure out the secret to wrapping them tightly. This is critical to making a perfect wrap. I've found varying success in placing the moist rice paper on top of the prepared contents of the wrap, and going from there. You're mileage may vary.

Fresh Spring Roll

Tags: Recipes
Last Updated: 6/1/2021, 8:55:34 PM