Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls are packed with bright, fresh flavours and served with an insanely addictive Vietnamese Peanut Dipping Sauce that takes a minute to make. With a couple of cheeky tricks, step by step photos and an easy to follow video, you’ll be rolling perfect rice paper rolls like a pro in no time!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls – always a hit!!
If I took a platter of these to a gathering with my friends, I guarantee they’d be one of the first things to go. Everybody I know loves these. Even the hardest of hard-core carnivores munch these down as enthusiastically as they would a rack of ribs.
They truly are that good.
Vietnamese food is my idea of the ultimate “accidently healthy” food. Sure, there are a handful of deep fried recipes. But generally, most Vietnamese dishes are super fresh, full of bright flavours, loaded with herbs and salads, with just a bit of protein. Dressings and sauces are refreshingly light and devoid of oil, unlike basically every Western dressing!
I think that Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls are one of those things that people love but always assume are just too fiddly or too hard to make. To dispel of that myth, let me tell you – I am not into fiddly. That’s why you’ll never see fancy decorated cakes on my blog. I simply don’t have the patience or co-ordination for fiddly dishes – sweet or savoury.
I actually posted this recipe way back when I started my blog. A couple of years on, and my photos have somewhat improved but more importantly – VIDEO! I REALLY wanted to remake this with a video, it is so great to be able to demonstrate how to make these rolls.
Serving idea: DIY spread!
Lay out all the ingredients with a large bowl of water for dipping the rice paper in, then make everyone make their own. This DIY approach is a menu item on Vietnamese restaurants here in Sydney which is very popular, I always order it!
Tips to make Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls
In addition to the video, I have 2 little tips that can make your Vietnamese Rice Paper Roll Making Life so much easier:
Bundle up fly-away bits inside a piece of lettuce. I like making these with bean sprouts and vermicelli noodles (other filling suggestions in the recipe notes). Until you get your rolling technique down pat, bundle it up in lettuce before rolling it in the rice paper. This holds the “stuff” together which makes it so much easier to roll the rice paper and it will also prevent things like bean sprouts, carrots, cucumber etc from piercing the rice paper;
Use two rice paper sheets – again, this is a tip while you are an up-and-coming Rice Paper Roll Master. It is much easier to handle when rolling. The downside is that the ends are a touch chewy, because there’s triple / quadruple layers. But it’s not tough chewy, not in the least bit. It’s just chewy compared to how soft and fragile a single layer of rice paper is. It doesn’t deter me at all. My mother noticed it, but it didn’t stop her from hoeing down 4 of these in minutes. Never fails to amazes me that a woman of a certain age can consume so much so quickly. (PS She came over to be my hand model for the video, this was a tough one to shoot by myself!)
PS The reason the prawns and lettuce bundle are laid out in different positions on the rice paper is so there is only layer of rice paper on the prawns once rolled up – makes the prawns more visible. Ie Pretty rolls.
Peanut Dipping Sauce for Rice Paper Rolls
This peanut sauce is everything!! This is a Vietnamese Peanut Dipping Sauce. The 2 key ingredients are peanut butter and hoisin sauce which is thinned out with either milk or water (I prefer milk for colour. With water, the sauce is darker). Plus vinegar for a bit of tang (really needs it), garlic (it ain’t Asian if there’s no garlic in it!) and a touch of chilli if you want (which I love).
It’s different to Thai / Malaysian / Chinese style peanut sauces and I think you and this Vietnamese Peanut Sauce are going to be very good friends. 🙂
So…..what do you think? 🙂 Have I convinced you to try your hand at becoming a Rice Paper Roll Master?? – Nagi xx
PS There are a bunch of other filling ideas in the recipe notes. I’ve kept this fairly classic.
PPS Even if they are wonky, they still taste incredible!!!
Get your Vietnamese fix!
Lemongrass Chicken – one of my favourite things to grill!
Vietnamese Caramel Pork – another iconic Vietnamese food! Also see the Chicken version.
Vietnamese Caramelised Pork Bowls – the super quick version of the above
And some other ways with fresh prawns
5 Prawn Dipping Sauces for a giant bucket of fresh prawns
Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls (this recipe)
Fresh peeled prawns alongside a Corn Salad with Avocado for a quick summer meal
Browse all Prawn / Shrimp Recipes
Watch How To Make It
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls (Spring Rolls)
Ingredients
- 7 – 14 sheets of 22cm/8.5″ round rice paper (Note 1)
- 11 small cooked prawns/shrimp (about 12cm/5″ in length, unpeeled including the head)
- 50g / 1.5 oz dried vermicelli noodles
- 7 lettuce leaves – use a lettuce with soft leaves, like Oak or Butter Lettuce (Note 2)
- 14 mint leaves
- 1 cup bean sprouts
Vietnamese Peanut Dipping Sauce (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp peanut butter, preferably smooth (crunchy is ok too)
- 2 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar (or lime juice)
- 1/3 cup milk (any fat %) (or water)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 tsp crushed chilli, samba oelak or other chilli paste, adjust to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Peanut Sauce: Combine the Peanut Dipping Sauce ingredients. Mix briefly (it won’t come together), then microwave for 30 seconds. Mix again until smooth. Set aside to cool. Adjust sour with vinegar, salt with salt and spiciness to taste. Thickness can be adjusted with milk or water once cooled.
- Place vermicelli noodles in a bowl and cover with warm water for 2 minutes, then drain (or follow packet instructions).
- Peel the prawns, slice in half lengthwise and devein (watch video).
- Remove the crunchy core of the lettuce leaves (watch video).
- Tip – LETTUCE BUNDLE (Note 4): Place some vermicelli noodles and bean sprouts in a lettuce leaf, then roll it up, finishing seam side down. Repeat.
- Fill a large bowl with warm water. The bowl doesn’t need to be large enough to fit the whole rice paper in one go.
- Place two rice papers together (if using 2). Note which side is the smooth side – this is supposed to be the outside of the spring roll. Submerge the rice papers into the water (both of them at the same time, together) for 2 seconds. If your bowl isn’t large enough to fit the whole rice paper in one go, that’s fine, just rotate it and count 2 seconds for each section you submerge into the water.
- Place both the rice papers (one on top of the other, they will stick together) on a board or the counter with the smooth side down.
- On the top part of the rice paper, place 3 prawns with a mint leaf in between, as per the photo below.
- Place the lettuce bundle with the seam side down onto the middle of the rice paper.
- Fold the left and right edges of the rice paper in, then starting from the bottom, roll up to cover the lettuce bundle. Then keep rolling firmly. The rice paper is sticky, it will seal itself.
- If you placed the ingredients on the rice paper as per the photo below, your rice paper rolls should look pretty with the prawn and mint leaves on the smooth side of the roll and the seam on the side or underside of the roll.
- Serve immediately with the peanut dipping sauce.
Recipe Notes:
* Julienned vegetables like carrots, cucumbers
* Alfalfa, watercress and other similar shaped vegetables
* Thinly sliced tofu
* Shredded chicken and other proteins
* Other herbs like coriander/cilantro, chives (this is classic Viet) 7. ORIGINAL PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE: As requested by a reader! The one provided in the recipe is more authentic and akin to what you get at Vietnamese restaurants here in Sydney. But here is the original one, FYI: ½ cup smooth peanut butter
1 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis, it’s thick like syrup)
2 small garlic cloves (or 1 large), minced
1 birds eye chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp lime juice
Water Mix together ingredients, using water to thin to a dippable consistency. 8. Nutrition per rice paper roll, no sauce.
Nutrition Information:
Originally posted in July 2014, updated with new words, an even better peanut dipping sauce, new photos and a video!
Life Of Dozer
“WHY is she setting fire to my food???!!!”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOZER!! I want to tell you that he had an extra special day….but honestly? It’s like every day is his birthday….
I really like the idea of putting the meat on the outside. I often make these sort of rolls for potluck dinners and it makes the meat or tofu obvious. (many of my friends are ovo-lacto or vegan). I often add basil, cilantro and/or sweet chili sauce. Dried unsweetened coconut has been know to accidentally fall into the sauce. For the tofu soaking with some sort of marinade is needed. For large groups I use the noodles. For myself I just use a mix of sprouts as trying to make thin rice noodles for one person side is problematic. (4 rolls) As I always have home-grown sprouts on hand this is not a problem. My first try on your variation involved the ‘original’ sauce with less hoisin and some sweet chili sauce. Yum. The most difficult part (for me) is remembering to not adding fish sauce to the sauce when making it for a veggie crowd (I’m kind of fond of it). This is an amazingly adaptable dish and I love how you present it.
They are so versatile Greg you can add just about anything to them!!
Hi, Did you use bean sprouts raw?
Hi Harshi, yes raw 🙂
Thank you so much for offering gluten free recipes. Love your Web site and great recipes. Keep them coming……..I have made many and loved them all!
Thanks so much for the awesome feedback Deborah, that’s so nice to hear!
Love, Love, Loved your episode of Food in Saigon. It makes me want to go and just do the food tour. Loved your commentary. Well done and thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much Marlene!!
Hi Nagi !
Been getting your recipes for quite a long time now …just love them & love Dozer…I have a cat called Poppy & just as spoilt & special ….Western Australia
Thanks so much Kitty! Give Poppy a pat for me ❤️
Nagi! Loved your first video! Makes me want to visit Vietnam just for the food! And I’m so excited to see your newest enhancements – now flagging my fave recipes (how will I ever find all of them from the past…..,). Added bonus: ability to adjust serving sizes! THANK YOU!
Thanks so much Dianne!!!
What’s the best way to prevent these from drying out wheim,en making ahead of time?
Hi Dionna, if making in advance, make sure they are covered well with cling wrap ad stored in the fridge – N x
Thank you so much. Please forgive the typos in my OP. 🙂
Always a hit! We also make them with Malay Style Tofu pieces substituted for the prawns (so vegetarian guests can share the love)
Yum! Sounds great John!
I was making a large quantity for my niece’s 21st and I placed them on a wet chux in a container. They stuck to each other and some tore open. How do you prevent that from happening.
This has become my go-to lunch lately! I make them with chicken, noodles, sprouts, carrot, snow peas, mint, corriander and lettuce – loaded! I spend a bit of time at the start of the week chopping up the veggies and cooking the noodles so they are super quick and easy to assemble each day. I’ve even memorised the peanut dipping sauce recipe. So tasty! Thank you Nagi 😘
You’re so welcome Amanda, thanks so much for the great feedback!
Just love rice paper rolls
Thank you so much for the recipe. I didn’t have shrimp (only crabsticks) and ran out of lettuce – so I shredded the crabsticks and mixed it with shredded carrots and cucumber, vermicelli noodles, and bean sprouts. AND the magic peanut sauce. It was SO GOOD, we ate loads of veggies because of it. Thanks again! ❤
Sounds like you nailed it Tina!
About that peanut dipping sauce. I made some the other night and it was of course delicious. The next morning my neighbor and her son came by and I was making waffles, so I offered to make enough for us all. Her son doesn’t like waffles and wanted a PB&J. I had used the rest of my peanut butter for the spring roll sauce, so had an idea. I spread raspberry preserves onto a waffle and drizzled the peanut sauce over it. Not only did the kid skarf it down, we ended up making ours the same and it was incredible. That sauce is a gift, thank you.
Woah that’s a new one Steven!!! 😂
hi,
what brand of hoisin sauce do you use please?
Changs or lee kum kee Belinda – N x
Hi there, I really love your recipes! May I know is the shrimp raw?
Hi Rissa, I’m so glad you love my recipes – you need cooked shrimp for this recipe! – N x
Made this for lunch. Went to the market to buy the ingredients. Very inexpensive to make. Had fun rolling it up. Got better as I made more. Thank you. A healthy alternative to eating on the run for one 😄
I’m so glad you loved them Momo!
Hi There!, I need to ask, the beensprout is previously cooked?, and also should I cook them with vapor?, I just want to be sure before I prepare this amazing side☺️
Hi Karina, they are raw – no need to cook 🙂
Hi Nagi, My asparagus crop produced some thick, (Big as a cigar), but tender, spears this season. If I were to wrap them with vermicelli, maybe thin sliced pork belly, and gochujang…what would you suggest as a dipping sauce? If you have any other ideas I’d love to hear as well. Thanks so much.
Hi there! These look yummy! two questions: Do i Just look for white vermicelli noodles, same as pad thai noodles? Also, what other dipping sauces would work for these? Thank you!
Hi Laura, vermicelli are thinner than pad Thai noodles (they are wider). You could also use sweet chilli as a dipping sauce, or even a ix of black vinegar, soy and chilli is great!
If these taste half as good as they look, they will be awesome. Made them just now, serving for dinner! Fun!
Enjoy Lisle!