Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Summers are harsh especially if you live in a country like India where summers last for over 6 months. I tend to get lazy in summers and hate my trips to the kitchen, which leads to sweaty times. It is also a time when you hardly feel like eating any fried or oily food and hence these Vietnamese Salad Rice Paper Rolls come to your rescue.

It is such a lovely and healthy finger food and it helps me with my routine of eating raw food for dinner at least twice a week in summers. Vietnamese Rice Paper rolls or Gỏi cuốn as they are called in Vietnamese are raw, are gluten-free and do not need a lot of effort.

You just need to prep all the veggies, which takes about 10 minutes, and then you need a bowl of warm water. That is it. Then get rolling away and make your meal in under 30 minutes. I used red cabbage, red and yellow bell peppers, cucumber, and carrots for this. You could also add spring onion greens, tofu, or any other raw veggie of choice. Herbs like Thai Basil, Cilantro, and Mint leaves taste amazing too. I only had fresh cilantro so I used that.

NOTES:   

1. Since my husband does not eat completely raw veggies, I blanched the veggies in hot water with a little salt for him.
2. The rolls are eaten with this traditional peanut sauce made using peanut butter. Since I did not have any peanut butter with me; I made it from scratch using peanuts. If you have peanut butter, you can make this easier.
3. Since I can’t have the veggies completely raw and without seasoning, I sprinkled a little salt on them.
4. Rice paper rolls are very fragile, so don’t overstuff them.

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes
COOKING TIME: 5 minutes
SERVINGS: 12
DIFFICULTY SCALE: Medium

INGREDIENTS: 

For the rolls –

1. Rice paper rolls – 12
2. Capsicum – ½, , julienned
3. Yellow bell pepper – ½, julienned
4. Red Bell Pepper – ½, julienned
5. Carrot – 1, julienned
6. Red cabbage – ¼ cup, juliennes
7. Coriander leaves – ¼ cup
8. Salt – to taste

For the peanut dipping sauce –

9. Peanuts – ¾ cup
10. Butter – 2 tablespoons
11. Brown Sugar – 2 tablespoons
12. Soy sauce – 1 teaspoon
13. Ginger – 1 small piece, crushed
14. Red chilli flakes – 1 teaspoon
15. Lemon juice – 3 tablespoons
16. Sesame seeds – 1 teaspoon
17. Water – 2-3 tablespoons

UTENSILS/EQUIPMENT:

1. Big pan
2. Grinder

RECIPE:

For the rolls –

1. Wash and dry all the veggies.
2. Finely julienne as the veggies to make small matchsticks.
3. I seasoned the veggies slightly with a little salt, but this entirely optional.

4. Heat water in a big open pan. Make sure it’s not extremely hot.
5. Soak one rice roll in the water for about 20-25 seconds and then take it out.
6. Place it on your kitchen counter and let it sit for 5-10 seconds.
7. Place all the veggies on the roll on the side closest to you. Place these veggies close to each other.
8. Now start rolling the paper roll from the side you placed the veggies on. Make a little tight roll.
9. Keep folding the excess rolls on the sides and make a neat small cigar type of roll.
10. Repeat the same with as many paper rolls as you wish.

For the peanut dipping sauce –

11. Dry roast some peanuts in a pan on low heat for about 5-7 minutes.
12. Now toast a few sesame seeds as well and keep them aside.
13. Let them cool down a little and then remove their peels.
14. Now grind these peanuts into a fine powder.
15. Take a small frying pan and add 2 tablespoons of butter to it.
16. Once it’s melted, add two tablespoons of brown sugar and crushed peanut powder to it.
17. Mix well and make a thick mixture.
18. Remove this from heat once the sugar is mixed.
19. Add crushed garlic, soy sauce, red chilli flakes, and lemon juice to the sauce. Add a little water to reach a nice dipping sauce consistency.
20. Sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds on top.

Serve with the rolled rice paper rolls and enjoy.