Gluten-Free Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Paleo Satay Sauce

I attended a food photography workshop this past weekend and we ended the 2 days of intensive learning with a spring roll party. These are perfect for a large group. They are really fun to make and kids love them too. Since everyone builds their own, different dietary lifestyles are easily accommodated.  If you are the host, it’s an easy way to throw a dinner party and not have to do much cooking!

Now that I know how simple these are to make, I am almost embarrassed about how much I used to pay for them at the health food store! I had actually attempted to make these before, but I made one big mistake. I soaked the rice paper too long and I ended up with a soggy messy.

Here are the few tips I learned that made making Vietanamese Spring Rolls a cinch!

1. Don’t wet the rice paper too much. Dip each sheet of rice paper in the water until every part of it is wet, but don’t leave it in the water to soak.
2. Start adding ingredients to the top 1/3 (the part closest to you) of the paper. This way, you have plenty of paper left to roll.
3. Lay lettuce down first. This will prevent any of the crunchier fillings from tearing your paper.
4. Don’t overfill the spring rolls.
5. Fold the rice paper in half. Unlike the other tips, this one is optional. You can roll the spring roll like a burrito, by folding in the right and left side and then rolling tightly. The technique I prefer, is to actually fold your rice paper in half, after you’ve wet it. Fill it up with your ingredients and then roll it tightly, while leaving the ends open.
6. Mix and match. As long as you are using your lettuce barrier, you can mix and match your veggies, herbs and proteins. Include some crunchy veggies like cucumbers, carrots and bell peppers. You can use any protein that you have on hand. Most fresh herbs are delightful.

These rolls are delicious with my Paleo Satay Sauce. If you don’t have time to make the sauce, you can serve them with coconut aminos or tamari!

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Serves 3 to 4

The Players

• 1 pound shrimp, cooked
• lettuce leaves
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced
• Fresh mint leaves
• 12 sheets of rice paper
• Paleo Satay Sauce for dipping (recipe below)

The How-To

1. Dip each sheet of rice paper in the water until every part of it is wet, shake off any excess water.
2. Lay the rice paper on a large plate. Either leave it open or fold it in half, to use the fold in half technique mentioned in the tips above.
3. Lay down a piece of lettuce on the 1/3 of the rice paper closest to you. Top it with the bell peppers, cucumbers, shrimp and fresh mint. Take care to not over stuff the spring rolls.
4. Roll the spring rolls once and then fold in the right and left sides. Proceed to roll the spring roll away from you, while packing the ingredients tightly.

Better than Peanut Sauce: Paleo Almond Satay Sauce

The Players

• 1/2 cup almond butter
• juice of 1 tangerine
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 small spicy pepper, chopped (I use jalapenos, but serrano or another spicy pepper would work)
• 1/2 cup coconut aminos
• 1/2 teaspoon Paleo-friendly fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 1/4 hot filtered water (if needed to thin the sauce)

The How-To

1. Place almond butter, tangerine juice, lime juice, pepper, coconut aminos, fish sauce and ginger in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Add water and mix some more. If it is too thick for your liking, you can thin it out with more water. I find this thickness to work great as a dipping sauce and for a stir-fry sauce.
2. You can eat it immediately, but I have found that if you let it sit for a few hours to overnight, the flavors improve. Store in the refrigerator in an air tight container.

 

For more delicious recipes similar to this one (grain-free and dairy-free), I highly recommend the Paleo Eats Cookbook.

Written by a Cordon Bleu trained chef, this book is packed with hundreds of recipes to get you started on your journey to ancestral eating. Recipes are grain-free, dairy-free, soy-free, sugar-free, and use healthy fats. They’re also super easy to follow and can be prepared in 30 minutes or less!

At the moment, the printed version of this cookbook is 100% free to Food Renegade readers. You just cover shipping & handling.

Yes! I want a free cookbook.

As always, ENJOY!