Vietnamese Summer Rolls
Ingredients
For the Peanut Hoisin Sauce
- ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter (I recommended Skippy brand)
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon sriracha (double for a spicier sauce)
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
- ¾ teaspoon salt
For the Summer Rolls
- 3 oz dried vermicelli rice noodles
- 1½ cups store-bought shredded/matchstick carrots
- 1 cup English cucumber, seeded and julienned, from 1 small cucumber
- 3 scallions light and dark green parts, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 12 (8½-in) rice paper wrappers
- 12 bibb or butter lettuce leaves, from 1 to 2 heads; remove any hard ribs
- 24 medium-sized cooked shrimp, halved lengthwise (see note)
- 1 cup loosely packed small mint leaves (if large, roughly chop them)
- 1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
Instructions
For the Peanut Hoisin Sauce
- In a blender, combine the peanut butter, hoisin sauce, water, sriracha, vinegar, garlic, and salt. Purée until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
For the Summer Rolls
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the rice noodles until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water until cooled, and drain again. Transfer the noodles to a large plate and set aside to dry.
- In a medium bowl, combine the carrots, cucumber, scallions, vinegar, fish sauce, and sugar. Toss well.
- Fill a pie plate or large pot with room-temperature water. Immerse one rice paper wrapper until slightly softened, 5 to 10 seconds. Remove carefully with both hands and lay flat on a clean surface.
- Place 3 cilantro leaves and 3 mint leaves in a row slightly left of center on the wrapper, and top with 4 shrimp halves, cut side up, in a row over the herbs. Hold a lettuce leaf in your hand; fill with about ¼ cup of the carrot/cucumber mixture and ¼ cup of the noodles. Roll into a cylinder and place to the right of the shrimp on the wrapper, seam side down.
- Roll Up: Lift the edge of the rice paper closest to the filling and roll it snugly over the lettuce, carrot/noodle mixture, ensuring the filling is tightly encased. Continue rolling the wrap towards the shrimp and herbs, folding in the sides of the wrapper towards the center, until the entire roll is snug and the rice paper seam seals itself. Place on a baking sheet, seam-side down, leaving a little space between the rolls so they don’t stick together, and cover with a damp towel. Repeat with remaining ingredients, replenishing water as needed.
- To serve, cut each roll in half crosswise, if desired, and serve with peanut sauce for dipping.
Notes
- I buy cooked shrimp for this recipe. However, if you'd like to cook the shrimp yourself, begin with shell-on shrimp. Fill a large bowl with ice and cold water and set next to the sink. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until bright pink and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes (the water needn't return to a boil). Drain the shrimp in a colander and then immediately plunge them into the ice water to shock them and stop the cooking process. Let sit until chilled, about 15 minutes. Peel the shrimp and set aside.
- The nutritional information for each serving includes 2 summer rolls and approximately 3 tablespoons of the peanut hoisin sauce.
- Make-Ahead Instructions: Summer rolls can be prepared up to a few hours ahead of time. Cover the entire baking sheet with plastic wrap, leaving the damp towel in place, and refrigerate until ready to serve. To serve, remove the summer rolls from the refrigerator and let them sit at room temperature for 15 minutes to take off the chill.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.