Healthy and Fresh: Vietnamese Summer Rolls

Yay! It's almost summer!

And summer for me means, cold and refreshing drinks and food ideas!

Let's get started with this new recipe I created,

after being inspired by a Vietnamese dish called: 

• "Goi Cuon" ( ก๋วยเตี๋ยวลุยสวน (kuaytiaw luysuan); literally "mix salad rolled") a Vietnamese dish consisting of pork, shrimp, herbs, bún (rice vermicelli), and other ingredients wrapped in rice paper. They are served at room temperature, and are not deep fried. Summer roll has gradually gained popularity among Vietnam's neighboring countries and in the West. In Vietnam and the province of Isan in north-east Thailand, Vietnamese can be seen hand-making rice paper and placing them on the rectangle bamboo trays around their houses..  

 For this dish you will need:
 

Summer rolls:

3-9  round rice papers (8″ diameter)

1 cup  julienned or shredded carrots

1 cup  julienned or shredded radishes

1 cup  Alfalfa sprouts or a mix of your favorite sprouts

1 head  of baby romaine lettuce 

15  mint leaves

8-10  thin slices of roasted porc or roast beef 

(this is optional, for vegetarians please substitute with avocado, raw fish or marinated shrimp.)

Optional but tasty:

2 cups dried rice vermicelli

1/2 cup mango, sliced into thin slivers

You first want to start with preparing the ingredients that you will place inside your summer rolls. Once that is done, grab a square or rectangular baking dish and fill it with about 1″ of lukewarm/room temperature water. Dip one rice paper round in the dish for a quick 10-seconds. Lift round and let the water drip off. Place on clean, dry work surface. 
Blot the top of the round with a paper towel. We’ll work one roll at a time.

 Now it’s time to roll! 


Start by laying down your carrot slices. Make sure it's in the center of your rice paper roll.

 

 


Next step, place the roast meat (avocado / raw fish) ontop of the carrot slices.

Top the meat (avocado / raw fish), with your radish slices, sprouts, lettuce, mint slivers and the remainder of your other desired toppings (vermicelli and/or mango slivers.)

 


Folding the roll:

This part is so easy! I promise you can do it.

All you need to do is fold inward the two sides of the rice paper round, then start at the bottom and fold the bottom part ontop, then roll and voilà!

Dipping sauce:

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 tsp honey

½ tbs  hoisin sauce

1/3 cup soy sauce

1-2 cloves   garlic (crushed and finely minced)

In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm up the oil. When it is hot, add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add hoisin, honey, soy  sauce. Whisk and simmer for 1 minute. You can add an additional tablespoon of water for a thinner consistency.

Dressing of the plate:

You can pretty much use any type of flat serving dish for this. I would however put the dipping sauce in an individual small bowl on the side for each guest. You can sprinkle peanut and coriander or mint leaves as toppings which adds some really nice flavors to this.You can serve these with rice or soup, or maybe both!

I hope you try this recipe and have as much fun as me eating it!

Bon Appétit!