Vietnamese-Style Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce Recipe
Email
These light and healthy Vietnamese-influenced summer rolls are filled with cooked shrimp, rice noodles, and plenty of fresh herbs and vegetables for flavor and crunch. Once your ingredients are prepped, the rolling fun begins as sheets of rice paper are softened in water and used for the wrappers. Dipped in a spicy peanut sauce, these rolls are a great hot-weather appetizer or light lunch.
What to buy: We like to use natural peanut butter in this recipe. If you use the conventional kind, omit the sugar called for in the sauce. Look for hoisin sauce and chile-garlic paste in the Asian section of your supermarket. For the chile paste, we prefer the one made by Huy Fong Foods (with the rooster on the jar!). The rice stick noodles and rice paper wrappers can be found in most Asian grocery stores. For the wrappers, we like the Red Rose brand.
Game plan: Be sure to have all your ingredients ready and easily accessible when you start to roll, and give yourself plenty of time (and counter space) to make these. Also be sure to have a few extra rice paper wrappers on hand—it may take a few tries before you’re rolling like a pro.
Store the summer rolls in a dish or plastic container that’s roomy enough to hold them without their touching. Place a damp paper towel in the bottom of the container to keep the rolls moist. Cover tightly with plastic wrap.
You can make the peanut sauce a day ahead. Just keep it refrigerated in a covered container. Let it sit for a bit at room temperature before serving.
This... read more
For the peanut sauce:
- 3/4 cup natural-style creamy peanut butter
- 1/3 cup water
- 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 1 1/2 medium limes)
- 4 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons chile-garlic paste
- 1 medium garlic clove, mashed to a paste
- 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
For the summer rolls:
- 24 medium shrimp (about 1 pound), peeled and deveined
- 4 ounces dried rice stick noodles or rice vermicelli
- 16 (8-1/2-inch) round rice paper wrappers
- 1 cup mung bean sprouts (about 3 ounces)
- 32 medium fresh mint leaves (from about 1 bunch)
- 32 fresh basil or Thai basil leaves
- 16 small fresh cilantro sprigs
- 2 serrano chiles, stemmed, halved, seeds removed, and thinly sliced lengthwise into 32 pieces (optional)
- 1 medium English cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/4-by-1/4-by-2-1/2-inch sticks
- 3 medium scallions, quartered lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 2-1/2-inch pieces (white and light green parts only)
- 8 Bibb lettuce leaves, cut in half
- Whisk all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside.
For the summer rolls:
- Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add the shrimp and cook until bright pink and just opaque, about 1 1/2 minutes. Drain in a colander and run under cold water until cool. Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels and place on a cutting board.
- Holding your knife parallel to the cutting board, halve each shrimp horizontally.
Place in a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. - Cook the rice noodles according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.
- Place all of the ingredients in separate containers and arrange them in the following order around a work surface: rice paper wrappers, shrimp, rice noodles, bean sprouts, mint, basil, cilantro, serrano (if using), cucumber, scallions, and lettuce.
- Place a clean, damp kitchen towel on a work surface. Fill a medium frying pan or wide, shallow dish large enough to hold the rice paper wrappers with hot tap water. Working with 1 wrapper at a time, completely submerge the wrapper until it is soft and pliable, about 15 seconds. Remove the wrapper from the water and place it on the towel.
- Working quickly, lay 3 shrimp halves in a row, cut side up, just above the center of the wrapper, leaving about 1 inch of space on each side. Layer a scant 1/4 cup of the rice noodles over the shrimp, followed by a few bean sprouts, 2 of the mint leaves, 2 of the basil leaves, 1 sprig of cilantro, and 2 pieces of serrano, if using. Place 4 of the cucumber sticks and 2 of the scallion pieces on either side of the noodle pile. Roll one piece of lettuce into a cigar shape and place it on top of the noodle pile.
- Fold the bottom half of the rice paper wrapper over the filling. Holding the whole thing firmly in place, fold the sides of the wrapper in.
Then, pressing firmly down to hold the folds in place, roll the entire wrapper horizontally up from the bottom to the top. 
- Turn the roll so that the seam faces down and the row of shrimp faces up. Place it on a rimmed baking sheet and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and fillings. Leave 3/4 inch between each summer roll on the sheet so they don’t stick together, and replace the water in the pan or dish with hot tap water as needed.
- If not serving immediately, keep the summer rolls tightly covered with plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 2 hours. Serve with the peanut sauce for dipping.
Beverage pairing: Thomas Fogarty Monterey Gewürztraminer, California. Gewürztraminers can be great food wines, as long as they’re not too heavily perfumed and floral. That’s why it can be good to go with a new-world Gewürz over an Alsatian. This wine from California’s Central Coast has beautiful flavors of ginger, white flowers, and lychee that make a nice foil for these toothsome summer rolls.
I never had a problem rolling summer rolls, if you can roll a cabbage roll, you can roll these. Really simple.
me too...I am a leftover goddess, filling my daughter's lunch with whatever we ate the night before gussied up with appropriate trim to suit the format...Less calories than bread, easy to hold while you do the home owrk you should have done the night before...very handy little invention. BTW be sure the bottom layer where you are assembling the roll (it shows from the front on the finished roll) is attractive, that would be where you usually see the nice pink shrimp. I use slivers of color like green and red pepper. You can get quite good at these little concoctions with practice. A dipping sauce, either traditional or peanut-free options goes with this. Make your own sauce idea from Thai sweet chili sauce to salsa to thin hummus to raita as most schools ban peanuts. Have fun!Impress the kids at the lunch table. Solves "lunch bag let-down" with a never go stale option for the days you forgot to wake up early enough to bake bread ;)
I love making summer rolls! You can put just about anything inside of them. I've made them with grilled chicken, salmon, tuna, shrimp, tofu, and just plain veggies. Children love them too. I don't usually put hot peppers in them, but people who like the heat can get that by adding hot stuff to the dipping sauces.
I teach these in my 3-way Spring Rolls cooking classes. We use fried or smoked tofu instead of shrimp/meat and it's very good (less prep time and less worry about refrigeration, freshness. I bring to parties a lot). The magic flavors are in the basil, mint, dipping sauce.
Rice paper will keep practically forever, so long as it's kept bone-dry. As for the length of time to soak, you don't need to soak it at all. Enough water to get it wet on all surfaces is enough. You moisten it, set it on your work surface, place the fillings. By the time your fillings are where you want them, the water will have soaked in and it will be soft and stretchy. If you're REALLY good, you can actually wet a stack - the moisture from one sheet to the next will keep them all fresh while you're working, but they get very sticky and is difficult for beginners to separate them.
Throckmorton, I used some once that were a couple of years old, they had to be handled a bit carefully before the soak, but turned out fine (hey they're brittle from the start anyway)
Does anyone know how long spring roll wrappers (rice paper) will keep in the pantry? I found some that may be 5 years old.
30 seconds to submerge the rice paper is way too long. 20 seconds is much better, the wrappers will seem to be not quite ready, but will be pliable, easier to work with and continue to absorb the water clinging to it as well as moisture from the other ingredients.
Just tried this out and came out nicely. Thanks for the recipe. Will try with fried tofu next.
i made these today with mint leaves, butter lettuce, carrot, cucumber, marinated tofu and vermicelli...made me own peanut sauce. it was the most fun i've had "cooking" in a while, all tasters loved it AND it was easy once you get in the swing... i found that leaving the wrappers a bit stiff out of the water and then working with them on damp paper towels was a really good tip, so thanks whoever said that. i am thinking about trying with enoki mushrooms next time.
I first had Vietnamese Spring rolls at the CHeesecake Co. I thought they were fabulous and wanted to make them at home. These are better - and the peanut sauce is the best I have had. This has become a family favorite.
for veg version, i've pumped up slivers of cucumber, carott, and even the green portions of scallions. in place of shrimp, i've marinated sliced mushrooms, and i have also used sliced avocado (which i prefer for texture and flvor I have even done without the vermicelli, and relied on the veggies and very lightly flavored lettuce, basil leaves, and Culantro it makes for a lighter and even more appetizer-worthy roll... oh, and they never keep ahead for me...the rice paper just changes
This version is not bad. However I found one that I love at the chinese cookbook. http://www.thechinesecookbook.com/V8.html
Oops! I don't know what happened here - Word didn't hold my corrected spelling, I guess... Of course, the adj is eponymous, not epimonious.
Sorry, but this AZ boy has no recommendations for even just OK Sonoran food in Ahwatukee - or even in Tempe anymore - though they may exist. Trying to get the food I grew up on, like green chile (beef) burros or sour cream enchiladas or green corn tamales, is really difficult to track down . Off the Mexican food track: Well, my vote does NOT go to Niro's for Chicago-style Italian Beef. These are nice people, and the quantity of beef in the sandwiches is great, but what a DULL version! The archetypic Italian Beef sandwich may be the best sandwich ever (yeah, moot), but Niro's is not what will WOW! first-timers and result in the normal cravings! No amount of bell peppers, black pepper, or giardiniera can correct it here. More garlic & oregano? Beefier broth? Dunno'. For amazing IB, go to reliably excellent (for everything) Tom's BBQ on Baseline just east of Mill. Pricier, but just opening the sandwich's paper wrapping is a delight, with on-the-money aromas! Way superior to Luke's, Rosati's, etc. The extremely generous & epimonious Tom owns this store, and it shows - he's in there a lot of the time. Employees work there for years, and Jesus, at this location, will definitely fix you up. Say "Hola" to him for me! ~Ken
Garlecchina : The tea rolls at Fresh Side in Amherst are very different than Summer rolls given here. Those are made with a thicker wrapper and contain entirely different ingredients. Moreover, they're intended to be a meal, not an appetizer. Of course, you could make something like the tea rolls, but the only thing similar to this recipe would be rolling in a wrapper.
Blair, was it Cyclo or maybe the restaurant in Lee Lee? Try Lee's Sandwiches across the street , just south of Lee Lee on the SE corner of Warner & Dobson. Great sandwiches, etc. We're waiting for the Mekong Plaza to complete just north of Apache on Dobson, too - an oriental super-center!
I just had this at a pho joint in Chandler, AZ. The roll was indifferent though the presentation with the shrimp showing through the wrapper was pretty. But the peanut sauce was outstanding. Not overly sweet, not annoyingly peanutty. Subtle and a good reason to have a nice, unobtrusive base like this roll.
All sounds good. Do you think Vietnamese people call Boston Lettuce, I'm guessing not Boston.
I have had something very similar to these at a restaurant in Amherst, MA. They were called "tea rolls." Except, there were various options- cold, hot, veggie, non-veggie and they came with different dipping sauces. I had one with curry rice, chicken and peas- it was hot...Can something similar be done here? Oh, and it was also cut in half.
I also like some broken pieces of raw cashew in the spring roll
I like to eat them at room temperature, i like the crunchiness of the veggies, but a little sprinkle of rice vinegar adds something for me and I like the peanutsauce, if not that then a red pepper sauce to dip in
I learned to make these years ago in Vancouver and they are stil one of my favourite things to munch on. I make a quick tasty peanut sauce by mixing bottled satay sauce and hoisin sauce...then add some water to thin it out. Only recently did I realize these are a great option to take to work for lunch. I make the night before and wrap individually in saran. I also started to put some peanut sauce right into the roll to make them less messy for work. (ie, no dipping required) I recommend taking the wrappers out of the water while they are still a little firm and placing on a damp tea towel. The wrapper continues to soften as you add the ingredients and is less likely to tear and fold when placing it on the prep area.
I have not had much luck making Summer Rolls (nime chow) ahead of time. The rice paper gets tough and unpleasantly chewy after a few hours in the fridge. On the other hand, the peanut sauce tasted better the next day.
I use avocado instead of the shrimp for my veggie friends. Sure it's not authentic, but it's delicious. Or you could use pressed tofu.
to make a day ahead wrap each individually tightly in saran wrap and place in air tight container, when needed unwrap and cover with a damp dish towel until ready to serve..
Summer rolls are one of my very favorite appetizers. They are so delicious, especially when they are smothered in the peanut sauce. My favorite place for the summer rolls are at The French Roast Cafe in Ft. Myers, FL. Right next to the Bell Tower Shopping Center. It has excellent Vietnamese cuisine and French Gourmet food. It's Vietnamese owned and operated by a man named Mr. Le. He single handedly cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner 7- days a week. He' the Jet Le of cooking and does a phenomonal job at it. But back to the summer rolls, he adds pork to them and they are wonderful. Check that place out and see for yourselves, it's the only Vietnamese food you'll find around Lee County!!
Here's a link to Vietnamese Herbs which I hope will be helpful: http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/essentials/herbs.htm ~Ken
Re: the question about making them ahead: I've not had any luck doing that, even when kept moist...the wrappers get tough. Most recipes mention that you shouldn't make them more than a few hours in advance.
For a vegetarian version, you can use more cucumber, tofu (fried or not), or jicama.
We sub'd shredded carrots, zuck's and cucumbers in place of the shrimp and followed the rest of the recipe above.
Can anyone suggest a vegetarian option without the shrimp?
If you do make these ahead, be sure to set them in a large baking dish on lightly dampened paper towels; most importantly, DON'T let them touch each other. Cover with plastic and hope for the best. (They shold be fine.)
Sounds great. Can I make a day ahead?
though i love knowing what the authentic version of a dish is, i like that this is a roll that i can make easily without having to search out special herbs!
This recipe comes really close to what we always ate in Vietnam. I agree, herbs are key!
The herbs are the key to this dish. I always use tito (something that looks like Japanese shiso, except more purple than the variety in the US) and rau rum. Any other herb in a Vietnamese grocery store will be a great addition. Herbal dominance of basil, mint, and cilantro must end!