Easy Vietnamese Spring Rolls Recipe

Is it spring rolls or is it summer rolls?  Here is my quick thought on that – I call it “spring” rolls because I think of spring as a fresh season with greens.  Hence, the fresh greens in the rolls.  “Summer” rolls reminds me of the hot weather – so I think of the egg rolls being fried in hot heat.  For the purpose of this recipe – my fresh rolls will be called spring rolls!

Ingredients:
Spring roll wrapper (bánh tráng)
Vermicelli noodles (bún)
Lettuce
Cilantro
Shrimp
Hoisin sauce
Peanut butter
Milk
Water
Olive oil
Peanuts (optional)

*Note – I do not have specific measurements because I cook my food from eyeballing and tasting it to my own liking! Using measurement tools just takes too long in my opinion with extra things to wash. The wrappers, vermicelli noodles, and hoisin sauce can be found at local Asian and Latino markets.

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Steps:

1. Boil the vermicelli noodles for 4-5 minutes.  Then drain the noodles and run cold water over it.
2. Peel and cook the shrimp halves in boiling water.  They’re ready once you see some of them float to the top.  ~2-3 minutes.
3. Dip the rice paper/spring roll wrapper in a bowl of warm/hot water (not boiling water).  Simply rotate the wrapper in a full circle to ensure all parts have touched the water.
4. Let the paper sit on a flat board until it softens up (~15 seconds).  Then time to add things to it!
5. Place a lettuce leaf on the bottom (I personally rip out the crunchy stem part).  Add cilantro.  Add the noodles.  Then top it off with the shrimp.
6. Now the wrapping part: give it one big wrap over the ingredients while tucking the ingredients towards you at the same time.  With that – you should have half of the paper left to roll.  Tuck the two sides in and finish the roll.  That’s it!
7. Use olive oil to lightly coat each roll so they don’t stick to each other when you’re stacking them (great trick my mom taught me!)
8. Repeat Steps 3-7
9. Peanut sauce – the most important part of the entire recipe: in a small pot, heat up a good amount of peanut butter on low heat (estimate how much peanut sauce you’ll use ~ I used half of the 16oz PB jar)
10. At low heat – add about two spoonful of hoisin sauce.  Add about a 1/2 cup of milk (whole milk but 2% or 1% works just fine).
11. Keep stirring on low heat and adding small increments of water until the consistency looks less viscous than thick peanut butter (but NOT watery!)
12. Add chopped peanuts to the sauce before serving for presentation.  Enjoy!

You can definitely twist it up with whatever ingredients you want in your rolls. Some make it with pork belly and some make it a veggie roll. You can add more greens like cucumbers and mint leaves. Whatever your taste buds desire!