Just In Time for Summer: A (Relatively) Easy Spring Roll Recipe
Not to be confused with an egg roll (which are deep-fried) fresh spring rolls are so, well, fresh! You’ll need to boil some water, but beyond that there’s really no cooking involved in making them. Lovers of Southeast Asian food that we are—and particularly Thai and Vietnamese cuisines—it was only a matter of time before we tried to make our own, homemade take on this classic Thai and Vietnamese restaurant dish. Crunchy and vegetable-packed, and always—always!—served with a peanut sauce and a sweet chili sauce for dipping, we kind of can’t get enough fresh rolls. If you’re in the same boat, you’ll be thrilled to know that it’s not actually all that hard to make them at home! You’ll need to track down a few ingredients that might be new to you, like spring roll wrappers and vermicelli rice noodles, but they’re easily track-downable! Usually, you can find them in the “Asian foods” aisle of any major grocery store—where you might go to look for sriracha and chili-garlic sauce. The rest is easy and—dare we say—fun!
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What is Usually in a Spring Roll?
Fresh spring rolls are made of rice noodles, lots of fresh, crunchy veggies and (often) shrimp or tofu. We’ve opted to use shrimp because it’s what we usually order and because it’s so colorful and beautiful. You can use tofu if you’d like—baked and seasoned tofu would be nice—or you can double down on the veggies! However, even if you leave the shrimp out, don’t serve these to vegetarian friends without a caveat, because there is some fish sauce in the dipping sauces! So, here’s what you’ll need to make our spring rolls:
Shrimp
Carrots
Butter lettuce
Persian or English cucumbers
Fresh herbs: cilantro, mint, basil, or green onions!
Tips for Rolling Spring Rolls
If you haven’t worked with spring roll wrappers before, you might be a little nervous about it, but it’s pretty easy! And remember, it’s just food! You’ll still be able to eat it, even if your first attempt at rolling a fresh roll isn’t quite restaurant-level pretty. And you’ll get better and better at it as you go along. Here are a few tips to set you up for spring roll success:
Use warm water to soften the wrappers, but not boiling hot! It doesn’t take much to soften them and get them ready to use.
Ten seconds in that warm water is plenty—don’t over-soak them! It may sound strange, but they actually tend to break if they get too soft.
Prep all of your fillings before you begin to think about wrapping and rolling the spring rolls.
Make one fresh roll at a time, and work on a damp surface. At the edge closest to you, layer on a bit of lettuce, noodles, carrot, cucumber, some herbs and a few pieces of shrimp. Roll about half way, and then fold up the shorter sides like you would to make a burrito.
Keep the surface you are working slightly damp so that the rice papers don’t stick. You may need to keep rewetting the surface between spring rolls.
Don’t Forget the Dipping Sauces!
Peanut sauce is a must, and (we think) that sweet chili sauce is a must, too. They only take a few minutes to whisk together and they’re SO very worth it. Spring rolls aren’t bland exactly—with shrimp and herbs and sweet lettuce, they’re really not!—but the seasoning comes, mostly, from dipping them into some kind of sauce or sauces. So yeah, make the sauces! All you’ll do for each sauce is basically combine the ingredients with a fork or whisk until you’ve got something resembling a uniform sauce, so they really are simple. Here’s what you’ll need to make a sweet chili sauce & a homemade peanut sauce for dipping:
Brown sugar
Peanut butter.
Rice vinegar
Low-sodium soy sauce
Toasted sesame oil
Chili garlic sauce
Ground ginger
Granulated sugar
Fish sauce
Lime juice
Cancel Your Take Out & Roll Up Your Sleeves (and Spring Rolls)
We actually think that this recipe is a lot of fun to make with your family! You can get the kids involved in the rolling and they get to do fun things like smear water around on the countertops. When else are you actually trying to keep the countertops wet?! Anyway, we hope you have a grand old time making these, and when you make ‘em, we want to hear all about it! Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!