In the summer we change up our menu a bit with lots of barbeque and salad rolls. I tried the Vietnamese salad rolls while I was living in Lethbridge as a university student. The main star of this dish is actually the peanut dipping sauce. I tried to replicate and re-create the peanut sauce many times but it was missing something.
Then one day I went into the Asian store to pick up some groceries and I starting chatting with this lady. She was Vietnamese and she started telling me about all the ingredients that goes into this sauce. The next time I made the sauce using all the ingredients she had told me. Even then trying to get the proportions right took a lot of trial and error. But now I think I have got it just right.
I also make Raiden his own non spicy peanut sauce. He enjoys putting the salad rolls together and loves to eat it with the dipping sauce. This is a great summer dinner idea and once you get the kids involved in making it, they love to try it without much fuss.
Ingredients
This recipe will make about 10 – 12 rolls depends on how much you put in your roll
Sauce
1 clove of garlic (finely minced)
3 tbsp peanut butter (no salt or sugar added)
1.5 tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 tsp lime
1 tsp sriracha (you can skip this for kids)
2 tbsp water
Salad roll
10 Nem Nuong meat balls
10-12 Shrimps
3 iceberg lettuce leafs
4-5 mini carrots
5-6 cilantro stems
Cucumber
130 g of dry Vermicelli rice noodle
Rice paper (22 cm diameter)
Direction
Sauce
Combine all the ingredients for sauce together and mix until smooth, If you’d like it to be thinner you can add water (1 tsp at a time)
Salad roll
1. Boil water in a large pot for Noodle and Shrimp.
2. While the water is boiling, put meat balls on skewers and BBQ over medium heat until they have nice charred mark. Remove meatball from the grill and slice them up into 1/8″ thick.
3. Peel, de-vein and wash the shrimps thoroughly .
4. Quickly cook the shrimps in boiling water. Once cooked slice each shrimp in half lengthwise
5. Use the same water from the shrimp with and boil the rice noodle for 5 minutes, drain the noodles and place it in a bowl.
6. Shred iceberg lettuce, julienne carrot, cut up cucumber into stick about 4 inch in length
Put it together
1. Place rice paper in water and wait for 30 seconds
2. Remove rice paper and place it on a plate. TIP: Rice paper should be a bit stiff and not soft all the way, by the time you place all the ingredient your rice paper will be ready and not too soggy.
3. Pick 3-4 cilantro leaf and place it in the middle of the rice paper, next is carrot, 3 pieces of shrimp, 4-5 slice of meat ball, shredded iceberg lettuce and noodles.
4. Fold in the closest edge to you first then 2 sides and then roll it tight towards the top and Walla! you just made a salad roll.
5. Dip it in the peanut sauce and enjoy!
