I love eating with my hands. Rocco share this same passion with me. Why is it the norm today not to eat with your hands anymore? As I think our ancestors didn’t have any cutleries. The feeling of eating with my hands is liberating and I literally become one with my food, no joke. It sounds all weird and all, but try it if you haven’t already. So therefore finger food become one of my favorites. I can’t even remember when I had my first Vietnamese Spring Roll, do you? You have two kinds of them, the fried one and the fresh one made of rice paper sheets. The latter is of course a healthier option. It’s such an amazing and smart invention. You just simply wrap all your favorite vegetables, meat and fruit together with the rice paper sheet and voila, you have your healthy even on the go spring roll, preferable eaten by hands! For this recipe I gathered all the left over vegetables and fruit I could find and this healthy and fresh spring roll came out. You can easily replace it with your choice of vegetables. If you want to have more protein, simply add some grilled chicken breast or some cooked shrimps in between. Pair it with my dipping nut butter sauce for more creaminess.
Vietnamese Fresh Springrolls
- 8 sheets of rice paper
- 1 carrot, cut in matchstick thickness or julienne, lengthen in half
- 1 cucumber, cut in matchstick thickness, lengthen in half
- 1 mango, sliced length wise
- 8 crab sticks, preferable real crabmeat or cooked shrimp
- 2 scallion / spring onion. thinly sliced, lengthen in half
- bunch of spinach or romaine lettuce
- bunch of cilantro / coriander
- bunch of fresh mint leaves
Dipping Sauce
- 1 tablespoon of nut butter
- 1/2 teaspoon of fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of tahini
- 1 tablespoon of organic raw honey
Directions
Cut all vegetables and fruit in sticks of 15 cm of length, the length of the ingredients determine the width of your spring rolls. The preparation is like making sushi rolls. So the principle here is to cut all ingredients and set aside. Prepare lukewarm water in a deep big bowl. Drench the rice paper sheet carefully, as it easily tears, just for a few seconds. Make sure all parts of the sheet is drenched in water. Place the wet sheet on a flat surface / working table. Add all the ingredients in the center of the sheet and start folding the spring rolls one by one. Start rolling from your side of the sheet toward the outer part. You can leave the sides open or close it half by folding them inwards. A good thing about the rice paper sheets is that it’s very sticky, thus easy to fold! Enjoy!
