Vietnamese Spring Rolls – The Best Recipe For Leftovers!

Munchies Score

Out of 100

The menus of even top restaurants suffer from seasonal allergies. They snort and sneeze at the idea of hot chili in summer, the cool crunch of watermelon in winter. They treat turkey as an endangered species except in fall when the bird nests on every table in the dining room.

Yet, despite their name, spring rolls (AKA salad rolls), loiter around the kitchen year-round. Their transcendence of seasonality, of their own nomenclature, secures them a spot on the plates of foodies everywhere. Originally an Asian dish, concocted to celebrate the fresh vegetables of spring, salad rolls now roll off the tongues of hungry customers worldwide!

Review:

Hunger Hacker:

Need to pass a dish at the party without donating your best tupperware? Or pack your lunch but ran out of bowls? Need to sneak a snack into the movie theaters? Then you need spring rolls!

Gift wrap them in their own rice paper wrapper. Cram them into plastic bags, old purses, even your pocket. Stash them everywhere, an emergency meal or substitute neck pillow.

Best Case Scenario: You’ll never go hungry again, always prepared to boost your vitamin levels.

Worst Case Scenario: The sticky rice paper acts like a lint roller and cleans out your pocket.

Once, after biting into a salad roll from the back flap of my pants, I tasted the soiled paper of a five dollar bill. The rumpled cash had stuck to my spring roll! Now that’s a budget meal (especially if made from leftovers)!

Best Pocket Foods:

Granola Bars
Trail Mix
Candy
Meat Stick
Banana
Sunflower Seeds
Salad Rolls
Sandwich
Chicken Nuggets
Hotdog

Honorable Mentions: Pizza rolls, cheese stick, tater tots

Size Matters:

I often fall for the temptation: starved, gut clenching you go to make dinner. It starts with an idea of a huge, self-adhesive burrito. Ends in a sticky mess. You stuffed, stretched and killed your bloated rice paper. Tried to squeeze every forgotten and rotting vegetable from the fridge and into your roll.

Unfortunately, for this recipe, less makes more in both quality and quantity. And who doesn’t want more spring rolls?

Rather than heap all your hunger into one wrap, split them between two or three spring rolls! Heck, meal-prep a batch to last the week. Or just layer two rice papers on top of each other and load them up — a stick of caloric dynamite.

How to Munch:

Depending on your dietary needs or cravings, fill your rice papers with whatever you want… fiber, protein, last night’s grilled chicken. Weave a magical cocoon that will hatch butterflies in your gut. After dissecting many spring rolls, I find the following anatomy tastes best:

Epidermis: The translucent skin of a wet rice paper holds your roll together and keeps it safe on its journey to your mouth.
Dermis: Wrap a crunch into every bite by layering a lettuce leaf on top your sticky rice.
Bones: Overly flexible, floppy rolls tend to find their way onto the floor… and then the trash instead of your hungry belly. To avoid such catastrophe, add structure with crisp cucumber, carrot sticks, celery stalks, green beans or even pretzel rods!
Guts: At the heart of every spring roll lies a special ingredient, guilty pleasure (mine is scrambled eggs)! Get wacky and toss in your favorite foods here!
Fluids: Bring your creation to life with a drink of your secret sauce. This final step brings all flavors together for a juicy chomp!

Popular Sauces:

Peanut Sauce
Tartar Sauce
Soy Sauce
Honey Mustard
Salsa
Mayonnaise
Chimichurri
Barbecue
Ketchup
Marinara

Note:

To fry your rice paper spring roll, double wrap it and use extra oil to avoid tears.
When folding your rice papers, add contents to the bottom section and fold like a burrito: Fold the sides over your filling; then, holding them with your fingers, fold over the bottom flap and roll (see below).
This recipe can be made gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan!