Our August theme Stay Cool! is wrapping up, but we still have a few more good ways to stay cool in the kitchen coming your way. One of our favorite cool and crunchy summer meals is spring rolls, and this recipe from Allen at Eating Out Loud is a great example of how easy they are.
Allen demonstrates how to soften the rice wrappers (which, by the way, are really inexpensive; this can be a very frugal meal too!) and gives his own recipe for peanut sauce. Add in shredded vegetables and perhaps a little meat and roll everything up together. It's a fabulous summer meal, and one that we are planning on trying soon. We definitely want to try Allen's peanut sauce recipe!
• Get the recipe: Healthy spring rolls with peanut sauce
Do you have favorite fillings for spring rolls? We usually look to the garden — fresh mint, cilantro, and spicy basil give them a zing.
More fresh Vietnamese recipes for summer:
• Bún Chay (Vietnamese Vegetarian Noodle Salad)
• Che Dau Xanh (Vietnamese Dessert Soup With Mung Beans)
• Goi Chay (Vietnamese Vegetarian Salad)
• Spring Herbs: Using Fresh Mint
(Image: Allen of Eating Out Loud)
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Aren't they summer rolls if they're not fried? Or am I mistaken?
maggie (p/c): that's what I thought, too.
I make these frequently in warm weather. My sauce is a quick mixture of about half peanut butter, half hoisin sauce, a squirt of sriracha and a bit of water to thin it.
It might be a local convention, but most menus I see use the term "spring rolls" for the larger un-fried rolls and the term "imperial rolls" for the smaller fried rolls.
I may be wrong, but I believe that Chinese spring rolls are fried, while Vietnamese spring/summer rolls are always fresh. The Vietnamese name for them actually means "salad rolls."
The name has perplexed me too. At our favorite Vietnamese place on Sunday night, the menu called these spring rolls...even though recipes almost always refer to them as summer rolls. Either way, I love love love them and even though I am super bad at rolling them up, they always taste delicious. They MUST be packed w/ cilantro and mint or basil is always a good treat, too. Def. a fun and cheap dinner.
Been wanting to try some of those products I see in the grocery store like wanton wrappers, rice noodles and such; so these rice wrappers for spring rolls sound like so much fun. Always good to have more healthy and appealing recipes in my collection. Bravo!
The Thai/Vietnamese -esque springrolls we make are a family staple. Cheap, delicious, easy. What's not to love. Plus I usually plan to make spring rolls the night after making Vietnamese noodle soup when I already have all of the ingredients leftover and ready to go.
We make these a lot when it's hot and the garden is producing (we have always referred to them as summer rolls). I sub tahini for peanut butter - my hubby has a severe peanut allergy. I think the sauce is better that way.
I love these too, but also have a peanut allergy. I make a sauce out of Duguid and Alford's Seductions of Rice cookbook that is equal parts sugar and rice vinegar cooked down with a minced garlic clove and a pinch of pepper flakes. It's absolutely delicious. We do either marinated sauteed tofu or ground pork that has been cooked with a bit of hoisin and 5 spice powder as the protein. Yum. I think it's time to put them on the menu for next week.
I believe they started calling them "summer rolls" to avoid confusion with the Chinese style (fried) spring rolls, which is more like a Vietnamese egg roll. Either way, one of my favorite snacks!
I'm with fab on the reduced vinegar/sugar/pepper flakes sauce. I big puffy heart springs rolls, and AFAIAC, that is the only sauce that belongs with them. Peanut sauce for satay.