Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Dipping Sauce

So a lot of you asked for the recipe for the DIY fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Nuoc Cham dipping sauce that I posted on my IG stories yesterday!

I learned this when Kaho & I had lunch at her friend Lisa’s place. Lisa is part Vietnamese so it was the best place to learn how to make them. This was during our posting in Jakarta, all the way in 2009-2013.

Imagine, this has been a favorite homemade meal of ours – mine & TD’s – for about a decade now! I can’t thank Kaho enough for letting me tag along all those years ago!

NUOC CHAM SAUCE

Nước chấm is a sweet, sour, salty, savoury and/or spicy vietnamese sauce that’s great not just for dipping fresh & friend spring rolls, but is also a delicious salad dressing!

Sorry not all ingredients have measurements coz we just eyeball those or taste & add accordingly.

• 2 tbsp lemon
• 1 tbsp fish sauce (we do not include this because we don’t like fish sauce)
• 1 clove garlic finely chopped
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 red bird eye chili finely chopped. If you don’t have this chili pepper flakes ground in mortar & pestle will do.
• Ground black pepper to taste
• grated carrot
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp water

DIY ROLL INGREDIENTS

Since this is a DIY roll, we just place ingredients in individual bowls & people just get what they want to include in their roll.

• Lettuce leaves
• Cooked vermicelli noodles
• Cilantro and/or basil leaves
• Mint leaves (optional)
• Sukiyaki beef strips fried in a little olive oil with curry powder & thinly sliced onions
• Rice paper + a plate + a jug of warm water
• Sliced tomatoes
• Carrot match sticks
• Cucumber match sticks (remove the seeds)
• Sliced avocado (optional)

The one I posted yesterday on my IG stories did not have the last 4 ingredients because we did not have them. We just made up for it with lots of cilantro, basil & even mint leaves.

This recipe is very flexible coz you can add whatever ingredients you have. You can substitue shrimps/prawns or chicken instead of beef. It’s up to you & what you have in your ref!

TO ASSEMBLE

1. Pour some hot water on a round plate, just enough to cover the rice paper
2. Grabe a sheet of rice paper & quickly dip both sides
3. Quickly place the rice paper on your plate
4. While the rice paper softens, place lettuce & vermicelli noodles first in the middle
5. Then place as much of the other ingredients on top
6. Then roll tight, but not too tight that it rips or falls apart

This is the closest video I could find on the rolling technique we do here at home:

I’ll dry to do my own video in the future too.

LAST STEP: Dip in your own bowl of Nước chấm sauce & have a bite. Individual bowls is more hygienic so I always have one small bowl per person. Just scale up the recipe!

You can see how much I enjoyed it HERE!

If you want to make a bigger batch of the Nước chấm, you can try this recipe e-how (I found it ages ago & can no longer find it on their website, but luckily I took notes!) You can give it a try & let me know which one you prefer:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup fish sauce (Viet Huong Three Crabs brand)
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 of a lime, juiced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic , minced
• 2-3 Thai chili pepper, minced

I think the mixture of the pan fried beef curry with the fresh herbs & the salty, spicty, sweet & sour Nước chấm sauce are what make this dish so fresh & create a fantastic flavor!

This is a fun & healthy dinner recipe & activity because it can suit each persons taste and it’s done with the hands so it’s also very tactile. Definitely not for fussy people who do not like to use their hands.

I hope you enjoy making this and PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO TAG ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA or DM me a photo or video when you make it! I would love to know what you think!

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