Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce is a fresh and bright appetizer. These Vietnamese fresh rolls are made with crisp rainbow vegetables, herbs, shrimp, rice vermicelli noodles wrapped up in a gluten-free rice wrapper. Best served with our spicy prik nam pla dipping sauce. (Step By Step and VIDEO included)
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A bite of heaven!
These Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce are super fresh and delicious with a little sparkle of mint and cilantro. It is like having a little party in your mouth full of fun flavors and textures.
You are going to love the crunch of the julienned carrots, naturally sweet snow peas, fresh cucumbers. Next, you bite into those thin gluten free rice vermicelli noodles which are slightly chewy. All this deliciousness is wrapped up in a super thin gluten free rice wrapper to deliver that bundle of goodness to your mouth.
Last but not least, you plunge your Summer Roll into that sweet, spicy, sour and savory Prik Nam Pla dipping sauce and it’s going blow your mind.
Summer Reprieve from the Kitchen
Have you forgotten that thing in your kitchen called the “OVEN”? We are certain we have forgotten how to even program the darn thing. She is one hot beast you don’t want to have cranked up high during these hot and steamy summer days. After all, who wants to be trapped in your kitchen on these beautiful numbered summer days.
These easy Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce comes to the rescue. The best part about these Vietnamese rolls is that they can be made in advance. You can have all the ingredients prepared in advance. Then, when your guests arrive, have them assemble their own for an interactive gathering. These delicious summer rolls are also fantastic in lunches and bento boxes.
Celebrating Noodles
The first Tuesday of every month All That’s Jas and Healthy World Cuisine travel the globe to find delicious NOODLE recipes. Today, Healthy World Cuisine is traveling to Asia with these delightful Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce.
Fresh Summer rolls are very popular in Vietnam and Thailand. Today it is wet, steamy and hot in both Bangkok and Hanoi. We can’t think of a better way to cool off than to enjoy a refreshingly cold noodle than wrapped up in a rice wrapper (spring roll skin).
How to Prepare
Rice vermicelli noodles are thin rice-flour noodles. They are common in Southeast Asian cuisines. You can purchase rice vermicelli noodles in the Asian food section of most well stocked grocery stores, in Asian Markets or online. We used A Taste of Thai Vermicelli Rice Noodles for this recipe and for our Golden Spiced Noodle Soup.
The only downside of rice vermicelli noodles is that that crumble easy. I usually end of softening the whole package at once as it is difficult to break off a small section unless you want your kitchen floor painted with dried noodles.
Step By Step
- Place your dried rice vermicelli noodles in a large bowl.
- Boil water in a pot or kettle and pour over the noodles to cover. Do not boil these noodles.
- Stir around to get all the noodles soaking. Soak for about 5 minutes or just until the noodle is aldente to the tooth.
- Drain, rinse with cold water. Drain again and set aside. (if your noodles get too dry, you can rinse again with a little cold water.) However, it is best that your noodles are dry when using them in your Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce because it makes it easier to roll.
Preparing your vegetables for summer rolls
You can use any vegetable you desire. We love eating the rainbow. You can use any vegetables you have in your crisper as long as they are cut julienned and are about the same in size.
We used julienned snow peas, carrots and cucumbers. However, red cabbage, mung beans (bean sprouts), lettuces, green onions and even tropical fruits are lovely wrapped inside. Take a look inside your crisper and use what you have. That is the beauty of this recipe.
Fresh herbs are optional, but we think they really make this recipe light and bright. We chose fresh mint and cilantro. Fresh Thai basil, Western basil and shiso leaves are also delicious.
How to Prep Shrimp
- All you need to do is bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil.
- Add your peeled and deveined shrimp. Put the lid on the pot and remove off of the heat.
- Let the shrimp poach for about 5 minutes or until pink and no longer or translucent.
- Drain and run under cool water.
- Cut your shrimp lengthwise so that they are not too fat for your fresh spring rolls and they lay flat. Set aside.
The BEST Sauce
If you are going to go through all of that trouble making this summer roll recipe light and delicious, why would you want to weight down with some peanut butter hoisin sauce concoction.
We prefer this light and bright savory, sour, spicy and slightly sweet Prik Nam Pla: The Incredible Thai Table Condiment sauce. The perfect dip for your light and bright Summer rolls.
How to soften the rice paper wrappers
Of course, there is always more than one way to skin a cat. However, these are some helpful tricks we have learned along the way in dealing with rice paper wrappers.
What are rice paper wrappers?
Rice paper wrappers are also sometimes called spring roll skins or “Banh Trang” in Vietnamese. They are thin round disks that look like a glass version of a tortilla. Rice paper wrappers can be used dry in recipes like Vietnamese Crab Pizza, rice paper dumplings or dampened to use in a summer roll. These rice paper wrappers are EXTREMLY delicate so handle with care both dry and wet. Rice paper wrappers are completely different than the wheat based wrappers used for our Air Fried Spring Rolls.
They are even more fragile when they are wet. The most important thing to remember is to absolutely have everything else all prepped and ready to go, sliced and mise in place before starting this procedure.
How to Moisten Rice Paper Wrappers
- Get yourself a full-sized plate or one large enough to hold a spring roll skin inside.
- Place room temperature water in your plate. Do NOT use hot water. Do you know how fast and how skilled you would need to be to use hot water and not have it turn into a gummy mess!!! You see when the skins get wet and pliable, they start to get sticky if you let them get to soaked or do not work fast enough.
Work fast
- Your goal is to dip them on one side for about 7-10 seconds and then flip them over on the other side in the water for 7-10 sections just until they bend easily. They will continue to soften even after you take them out of the water.
- Do not soak more than about 20 seconds total.
- You will dampen one wrapper at a time and then fill and roll.
- Then proceed with the rest of the wrappers.
How to prevent sticking
- If you place them on a damp tea cloth this is sometimes helpful to prevent sticking.
- The most important thing is not to let them sit in the room temp water for more than about 20 seconds.
- We suggest you practice with one or two of the rice wrappers to get the hang of it. The chef can eat those. (smiling)
- Check out our video below where we demonstrate how to do this procedure.
How to Roll
Get all of your item’s mise en place (ready to go and at your fingertips) - Be sure to check out our How to Make Fresh Vietnamese Summer Roll VIDEO.
- Noodles are aldente and in a bowl
- Shrimp are poached and sliced lengthwise and placed in a bowl
- Vegetables are julienned sliced and placed in a bowl
- Fresh herbs are washed, dried and placed in a bowl
- Prik Nam Pla dipping sauce is made
- Large plate with room temperature water inside and dried rice paper rolls/ spring roll skins are near you.
- Cutting board or damp tea towel in front of you
- Serving plate lined with lettuce leaves or sprayed gingerly with spray oil and then wipe most of it off to prevent sticking.
1) Soak your dried rice paper rolls/ spring roll skins for 7-10 seconds on each side and remove as soon as they start to soften. They will continue to soften as they sit.
2) Place on either a damp tea cloth or cutting board.
3) Place julienned cut vegetables, prepared rice vermicelli noodles and fresh herbs on one edge of the dampened rice paper roll. Leaving about 1.5 inches from the edge.
Cucumbers...
Carrots
Snow peas
Fresh Cilantro and mint added...
Add your prepared rice vermicelli noodles.
4) Place three cut in half shrimp (pink side down) on the dampened rice paper roll about 2 inches from your vegetables.
5) Gently fold over one side of the dampened rice paper roll over the vegetable and shrimp.
6) Go to the other side and fold over the other side over just like you would a burrito.
7) Now, firmly but gently roll the summer roll up until you meet the other end. The tighter you can get it the better. Be gentle as the rolls when moistened are very fragile.
7) Repeat process with the rest of the rolls. Be patient with yourself. It takes a bit of time to master. If just not happening feel free to make a deconstructed Fresh Summer roll with all the supplies in front of you, otherwise known as our Vietnamese Shrimp Vermicelli Salad.
8) Serve with Prik Nam Pla Sauce and enjoy!
How to Store
- You can make your Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce up to 2 days MAX in advance but here are some helpful hints to keep them fresh.
- It’s best to wrap your rolls individually in plastic wrap tightly and then place in a sealed container in the refrigerator. This keeps them moist and prevents them from sticking to everything they touch.
- If serving your appetizer in a couple of hours from now, you can lightly spray your serving dish with a little light flavored spray oil and then take a paper towel and wipe most of it off. Just a very fine amount just to prevent the sticking. Then cover with plastic wrap and stove in the refrigerator until serving.
- Another option is to line your dish with lettuce leaves and place your rolls on the lettuce leaves but don’t have them touch each other on the plate. This option works too.
- We like to make our Prik Nam Pla sauce the day of as fresh is always best. Just store in a sealed container in the refrigerator until serving.
Warm Weather Meal Plan
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Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
- 8 oz Rice vermicelli noodles
- hot water
boiling to soften rice vermicelli noodles - 18 shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1 cup carrots julienned sliced about 2-inch strips
- 1 cucumber
large seedless julienned 2-inch strips - ¾ cup snow peas julienned
- ½ cup cilantro
(coriander leaves) fresh handful washed, and stems removed - ½ cup Mint fresh handful washed, and stems removed
- 12 rice wrapping papers
(spring roll skins) - Prik Nam Pla dipping Sauce optional
Instructions
- Prepare your Rice Vermicelli Noodles: Place your dried rice vermicelli noodles in a large bowl.
- Boil water in a pot or kettle and pour over the noodles to cover. Do not boil these noodles.
- Stir around to get all the noodles soaking. Soak for about 5 minutes or just until the noodle is aldente to the tooth. Drain, rinse with cold water. Drain again and set aside. (if your noodles get too dry, you can rinse again with a little cold water.) However, it is best that your noodles are dry when using them in your Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce because it makes it easier to roll.
- Prepare your Shrimp: Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add your peeled and deveined shrimp. Put the lid on the pot and remove off of the heat. Let the shrimp poach for about 5 minutes or until pink and no longer or translucent. Drain and run under cool water. Cut your shrimp lengthwise so that they are not too fat for your spring rolls and they lay flat. Set aside.
- Prepare your Vegetables and herbs: Julienne slice your vegetables so they are about 2 inches in length. You can use any vegetables you like but make sure they are all similar sized when cut. (mung bean/bean sprouts, red cabbage, etc. all work well in here.) Wash and remove the stems from your fresh cilantro and mint or herbs of choice.
- Make your prik nam pla dipping sauce. Set aside.
- Get everything mise en place: That means get all of your vegetables and herbs in bowls or on a cutting board near you, prepared shrimp near you, prepared rice vermicelli noodles in a bowl, dried package of rice wrapping papers opened and a flat dinner plate about ¾ filled with room temperature water. You need to work fast, so you need everything at your fingertips.
- Wrap your Summer Rolls: Soak your dried rice paper rolls/ spring roll skins for 7-10 seconds on each side and remove as soon as they start to soften in the plate with room temperature water. They will continue to soften as they sit. DO NOT soak longer than 20 seconds or you will have a sticky mess. Place on either a damp tea cloth or cutting board. Place julienned cut vegetables, prepared rice vermicelli noodles and fresh herbs on one edge of the dampened rice paper roll. Leaving about 1.5 inches from the edge. Place three cut in half shrimp (pink side down) on the dampened rice paper roll about 2 inches from your vegetables. Gently fold over one side of the dampened rice paper roll over the vegetable and shrimp. Go to the other side and fold over the other side over just like you would a burrito. Now, firmly but gently roll the summer roll up until you meet the other end. The tighter you can get it the better. Be gentle as the rolls when moistened are very fragile. Repeat process with the rest of the rolls. Be patient with yourself. It takes a bit of time to master. (See above for step by step photos and video for details.)
- Enjoy your delicious Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce (prik nam pla)
Eha says
Oh, I can happily make and eat these all year round - they are extremely popular in Australia and, luckily, we can get all the ingredients at ordinary supermarkets ! Methinks once one's fingers 'know' how to 'treat' the skins the movements become second nature 🙂 ! Like your dipping sauce !
HWC Magazine says
So glad you like Vietnamese summer rolls too. There is something so addictive about the fresh herbs and crunch of the veggie. Wishing you a lovely week ahead.
Ken says
These look SO GOOD and easy -- perfect finger food for the patio or wine hour.
Do they 'keep' if you make the ahead of time? If so, how far ahead of time can I make them?
HWC Magazine says
Thanks so much! Super fun finger food appetizer for a gathering. May we suggest you try our Tropical Fruit Rambutan Cocktail with our summer rolls. Perfect pairing. https://www.hwcmagazine.com/recipe/tropical-fruit-rambutan-cocktail/
You can make your Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce up to 2 days MAX in advance but here are some helpful hints to keep them fresh. It’s best to wrap your summer rolls individually in plastic wrap tightly and then place in a sealed container in the refrigerator. This keeps them moist and prevents them from sticking to everything they touch.
If serving your Summer Rolls with Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce in a couple of hours from now you can lightly spray your serving dish with a little light flavored spray oil and then take a paper towel and wipe most of it off. Just a very fine mist amount of oil just to prevent the sticking. Then cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until serving.