Fresh Vietnamese Shrimp Spring Rolls (with step by step)
These shrimp spring rolls are healthy and delicious. They make a great nutritious meal or snack and I’m sharing step-by-step instructions that makes it easy to make them at home.
Between the entertainment award shows and football playoffs, we’ve been spending quite a lot of time in front of the TV and have needed a lot of munching viewing food. To keep things healthy after all the overeating from the holidays, I decided to make shrimp spring rolls.
There are many versions and we love to order them when we eat out, but making fresh Vietnamese spring rolls at home is a fun project and they’re a light and healthy appetizer or meal.
You can make them with many different things – the filling usually has fresh herbs and veggies like lettuce, carrots, and bell peppers. You can keep them vegetarian or add tofu or meat like the shrimp ones I’m sharing today.
They are quite easy to make, though making them as pretty as the ones served at restaurants is quite challenging but with some practice, it gets easier.
I keep mine simple to make it easy to assemble them. I love the fresh taste of the rolls, but I also love how pretty they look with the shrimp peeking through the wrapper. Keeping them simple makes it easier to make pretty rolls.
I first learned how to make shrimp spring rolls from my brother’s girlfriend and she makes it look effortless. I had a practice a bit before I got the hang of it so I thought I’d share some tips and tricks so you can make them, too.
Ingredients
There are many spring roll variations and I like to keep mine simple with just a few ingredients and add a peanut sauce on the side for dipping.
- Rice paper wrappers
- Medium shrimp cooked and sliced in half lengthwise
- Lettuce leaves – I like green leaf lettuce.
- Rice vermicelli – these are thin rice noodles.
- Fresh Thai basil leaves
- Hoisin sauce
- Creamy peanut butter
- Rice vinegar
- Sesame oil
I’ve also seen other versions with shredded carrots, cucumbers, peppers, bean sprouts, mint, and cilantro so you can definitely add or swap the ones you will like best. Just don’t use too many otherwise it will make it hard to wrap them.
How to Make Spring Rolls
First, prep all your inside filling ingredients.
- Prepare the vermicelli noodles following the package instructions.
- Slice the shrimp lengthwise in half – you will need three slices per roll.
- Basil leaves should be plucked off the stems – I used about 6 leaves per roll.
Once your ingredients are ready, prepare a cutting board or another flat surface so that you can make your rolls.
When your fillings are ready you will need to soften the wrappers. Dip your rice paper into a shallow bowl of water, make sure all of the wrapper touches water. Then lay it out on a flat surface.
Don’t let the wrapper get too wet and soft or it will be very hard to work with. If you let it sit a minute after it is dipped in the water, it should become pliable and soft.
Take a handful of noodles, about six basil leaves and any other ingredients you are using for filling except the shrimp and place them inside a piece of green leaf lettuce. Roll it up so that the filling stays within the leaf.
Then take your shrimp and put it directly face-down on the wrapper, leaving about 2 inches from the top. Doing it this way means you’ll be able to see the shrimp through the wrapper once you’ve rolled them up.
Place the rolled-up lettuce with the other fillings on top of the shrimp.
Fold the sides of the wrapper into the lettuce roll. Take the top section and tuck and wrap it around the lettuce roll, so all the fillings are secure.
Then begin rolling your spring roll until you run out of the wrapper. The wrapper should be sticky enough that it should all stick together. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
How to Make the Peanut Dipping Sauce
The shrimp spring rolls on their own are pretty plain so be sure to make the easy peanut dipping sauce to go with them.
All you do is combine hoisin sauce, peanut butter, rice vinegar, and sesame oil together in a bowl. Serve with the rolls – it’s so good.
They are best as soon as they’re made. If you keep leftovers in the refrigerator the wrapper loses its elasticity and becomes quite brittle.
I really like this shrimp spring rolls recipe. If you’ve never made them, it’s a good one to start with and then once you have the technique down, you can try your own filling variations.
More Recipes to Try
Fresh Vietnamese Shrimp Spring Rolls
Ingredients
- 6 rice wrappers
- 3 medium-sized cooked shrimp, sliced in half lengthwise
- 6 leaves green leaf lettuce
- 1 cup cooked rice vermicelli
- 36 leaves fresh Thai basil
sauce
- 4 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 4 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
Instructions
- Cook and prepare filling ingredients. Set aside. Prepare a clean flat surface for rolling spring rolls.
- Fill a large bowl with warm water. Dip rice paper carefully, until the entire wrap has touched the water. Then lay it flat on cutting board or other flat rolling surface. Make sure not to soak the rice paper too long or it will be too soft to maneuver.
- Place 3 shrimp, face-down directly onto rice wrapper, about 2 inches from the top. Place handful of vermicelli and 6 basil leaves into lettuce and roll up like you're making a lettuce roll. Place lettuce roll on top of shrimp.
- Fold ends of rice wrapper onto lettuce. Then take top portion and tuck it over the lettuce roll so all ingredients are enfolded in the rice wrapper. Then continue to roll up until you run out of wrapper. Repeat with remaining wrappers and ingredients.
- To make the sauce, combine all ingredients and mix. If you want a thinner sauce, you can thin it with some water.
Made spring rolls and they tasted great! Substituted cilantro for basil and a bag of spinach spring salad mix for the lettuce. Also added thinly sliced julienned carrots, bean sprouts,rice vermicelli and shrimp. Very nice color combination
Sauce was great too.
Sounds delicious!
We made spring rolls for the first time on New Year’s Day! I used ground pork and shredded cabbage (for a pork and cabbage New Year’s theme). We also put in lettuce, rice noodles, carrots, razor thin slices of peppers, cucumbers and celery for extra veggies and crunch. I put each julienned ingredient in a little bowl and everyone made his/her own – to control contents to preferences. We sprayed the plates we made them on with Pam to prevent sticking while assembling. I made a plum dipping sauce with gluten free soy sauce, garlic, plum jam, rice vinegar, canola oil, and sesame oil and ground black pepper – and touch of sugar. SO GOOD, the dipping sauce. I was wishing I had had some cilantro to put down on the bottom to show through the wrappers – but it was super snowy and I was NOT heading out just for that! My very finicky 12 year old just asked today if we can make spring rolls again. It was fun to make and lots of veggies – low fat – and gluten free. I was happy that I crossed something off my culinary bucket list – and found a new favorite.
Wow your spring roll party sounds like so much fun! I love all the different ingredient fillings. I want to do it as a party too and let people wrap their own.
HI Kirbie – these are fun to make one you make the hang of ’em. I had a dinner party once where guests had to make their own. I used the same ingredients, but also had sliced up Spam, mint, cilantro, cucumber, and pickled carrots and onions (Vietnamese style). We’ve also used hot dogs for this. Not very traditional but fun to eat.
I also saw this nifty rice paper dispenser/water holder on amazon. (I think i saw it through the Ravenous Couple’s blog):
New Star International Rice Paper/Egg Roll Water Bowl
by Newstar International. It costs $14.99
It’s really cool and they have them in colors too.
We usually put our water in a bowl that’s low and flat. My favorite brand of banh trang (rice paper) is the one with the three ladies on it. in fact, it is called Three Ladies.
Oh interesting gadget! I want to try making the ones like at Brodard with the grilled pork and crunchy eggroll pieces inside. I’ve made it with the grilled pork, but not with the crunchy eggroll skin.
I like these spring rolls, but have never tried making them myself.
I’ll definitely try making my own at home soon.
You should definitely make it at home with the kids.
Very nice looking spring rolls! I can’t get mine to look like as nice as the restaurants, but they taste just as good. Instead of Thai basil, we use mint and we add thinly sliced pork (belly, I think). My husband likes to add chives. I also got in the habit of removing the ribs from the lettuce, and I’ll have to try your method of including the filling inside the leaf.
Yum, the pork sounds good too. I also made it with the grilled pork patties before too, which was really good.