Ready for this amazing Vietnamese specialty?
Loved all over the world, the Spring Roll, also called the Summer Roll is the perfect meal for the summer, great for picnics and for potlucks at all those outdoor get togethers!
One of my favorite ways to eat my vegetables is to stuff them all into a rice wrapper, a sort of veggie burrito if you will. I love these spring rolls and they’re so easy to make! Not only do you get a healthy meal or snack out of them, but they are perfect to add whatever is in your fridge, throw in those leftovers!
Vietnamese cuisine has a long history of adapting and sharing with other cultures. With of a history of invasion, first by the Chinese, then the French, and finally the Americans, all of these cultures brought in their food that melded with the Vietnamese heritage to make a sort of fusion of Western and Eastern traditions. The Chinese brought noodles and wontons to Vietnam, the French brought the iconic baguette (think about the amazing sandwiches the Vietnamese craft with the baguette, Bánh Mì), and the Americans brought steak.
Vietnams history stretches back to 12,000 BCE when people settled in the area. They first began hunting and gathering and then around 6000 BCE there is evidence of rice farming. In the 2nd century BCE, the area that was known as Nam Viet, was a Chinese province where China ruled over them for a thousand years. But with this reign, the Chinese brought the early Vietnamese the “noodle.”
When the French colonists arrived in Vietnam in the 19th century, they brought baguettes, potatoes, onions, and coffee (and if you haven’t tried Vietnamese coffee yet, you haven’t lived!). The French called Vietnam at this time, Indochina, they settled there from 1887 to 1954. The Vietnamese took the baguette and created their own, a smaller, crumblier, and airy and found everywhere in Vietnam. Bánh Mì is a sandwich made from bread that will feature pork or some other kind of meat, pickled carrots, spring onions, cucumber, or whatever else is around. These sandwiches melt in your mouth and you have got to try it at your local Vietnamese restaurant.
Spring rolls vary based on the region they come from, but all of them are wrapped in rice paper and can either be rehydrated paper that is softened in water or can be deep fried. It is filled with veggies and protein, usually with pork or shrimp, and served with a dipping sauce. The spring rolls in the North of the country, near Hanoi, the capital, are a little thinner in their rice paper, whereas the south makes them chewier with tapioca starch added to the rice paper. Each region also has their own type of dipping sauce, in the North it is a combination of fish sauce, chili pepper, water, garlic, lime juice, and sugar, whereas in central Vietnam it is a peanut sauce. In Southern Vietnam, there are a couple of different types of sauces, a sort of hoisin sauce, and also a combination of anchovy, lemongrass, and pineapple.
The traditional vegetables included in the spring roll also include herbs! They use mint, basil, coriander, in addition to the usual lettuce, cucumber, carrot, and shallots.
When you make your own spring rolls, feel free to add your favorite vegetables, or whatever you have in the fridge. This recipe makes the traditional Vietnamese spring rolls, eight rolls in all, but make sure to experiment and try what you love best!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of vermicelli noodles
- 8 rice wrappers
- 16 shrimp (deveined, peeled, and cut in half)
- ¼ cup Thai Basil
- ¼ cup Mint Leaves
- ¼ cup Cilantro
- 3 leaves of lettuce
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons crushed peanuts
Directions:
- Start by chopping up all of the herbs, the Basil, Mint, Cilantro, and the Lettuce. Cut them into long, thin strands.
- Make sure all of your shrimp are peeled, deveined, and cut in half.
- Boil the vermicelli noodles for 3 minutes or until they are thoroughly cooked. Drain and set them aside.
- Fill a bowl with water, take a rice wrapper and moving from the middle of the wrapper to the outside, use your fingers and barely wet the wrapper, it should be only a little bit of water to make it more malleable to roll at the end.
- Add about four tablespoons of cooked vermicelli noodles to the center of the spring roll wrapper in a rectangle position in the center.
- add the lettuce on top of the noodles, then the herbs, finally add the halves of the shrimp on top (you should have 4 shrimp halves in each roll)
- Roll up the spring roll by first folding in the sides of the longer part of the rectangle, and then roll up the rest of the spring roll. Use water to secure the sides together.
- Serve the spring rolls with Hoisin sauce with the crushed peanuts.
- Enjoy!
