For a refreshing dinner in hot weather, make these Vietnamese rice paper rolls. Set up all the ingredients on a platter and you can recruit everyone to make their own—fun and helpful!
My #1 tip is to soak the wraps (“rice paper” which is sometimes made from tapioca instead of rice, but either work great) until just pliable—10 or 20 seconds will do it—as they will get to the fully hydrated, stretchy state as you load in your fillings. These are best the day they are made, but you can make them in advance and keep them refrigerated with a damp paper towel on top; store leftovers in the same way and enjoy the next day. (The rolling always takes longer than I think so do as much advance preparation as possible, like poaching the shrimp, making peanut sauce, shredding cabbage.)
(Another good idea we recently discovered is to skip the rolling and make a slaw instead! Cook soba or brown rice soba noodles (Lotus Foods), combine with red cabbage, carrot, cilantro, dress with some of the peanut sauce, and top with poached shrimp and a squeeze of fresh lime. Kinda like this soba salad with a swap of peanut sauce for the almond butter dressing. A 10 from us, July 17 2025!)
The vegetables and protein options below are suggestions to get you started, but you can use any fresh and seasonal vegetables you like.
from the RiPE archives, 2016
Vietnamese Spring Rolls
adapted from Mai Pham and Roberto Martin (Vegan Cooking for Carnivores)
serves 4–6, but easily scaled up or down
Ingredients
- "rice paper" rounds, 10-inch Three Ladies or Panda Brand (which is tapioca but they work great too!)
- ½ head napa cabbage or green or purple cabbage, finely shredded
- julienned vegetables: carrot, cucumber, red/yellow/orange bell pepper, snow peas or sugar snap peas
- green onions, sliced
- bean sprouts
- mint leaves
- cilantro leaves
- avocado, sliced thinly
- lime, cut into wedges for spritzing
- protein: poached shrimp (sliced lengthwise in half) and/or roasted pork (julienned)
- dipping sauces: peanut sauce, sweet chili sauce, and/or sriracha
Instructions
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Wash and prepare the vegetables and arrange by type on a platter. Spritz all with lime.
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Prepare your rolling station(s): a clean cutting board and a large pie plate filled with warm water.
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How to: Place one rice paper round in the water, smooth side down, until it is just pliable then remove from water and lay it flat on cutting board. Add fillings to the lower third of the wrapper, keeping in mind you will roll it up and you don't want it over stuffed—aim for a cylinder about 5-inches long, and 1-2 inches in diameter.
Fold the bottom edge up and over the filling, and sides in like a burrito, pressing and tightening as you roll it up.
Serve with extra lime for spritzing and dipping sauces like hoisin-peanut, sweet chili sauce, and/or sriracha.
