These vegetable spring rolls are the super fresh and healthy counterpart to fried egg rolls. They are loaded with bright green lettuce leaves, thin bean threads, bean sprouts, and crunchy matchsticks of carrots, cucumbers, and red peppers. Serve the handheld salad with a peanutty sesame dipping sauce. You will love this fun way to eat veggies.
>>Scroll down for my step by step video<<
I do love a good salad! Crispy cool lettuce, cherry tomatoes, chunks of cucumbers and bell peppers, shreds of cheddar cheese all with a homemade creamy dressing ~ yum! But every so often I tire of eating what seems like an endless bowl of veggies. I like to change up my salad routine with these super fresh veggie packed spring rolls. They go so well with this chicken fried rice too.
A personal chef client request lead to my first attempt at making vegetable spring rolls. After testing a few recipes at home (I wanted to make sure the rolls could be made in advance and still be fresh tasting), I struck upon this recipe. I think you will love it!
what are fresh vegetable spring rolls?
Fresh vegetable spring rolls are really handheld salads. Ultra thin spring roll wrappers made of rice flour are filled with slivers of sliced fresh vegetables. I love carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers and romaine lettuce. They can also include slightly chewy Asian bean threads or rice noodles too. My favorite dipping sauce is a peanut sesame one, and I’ve included it with the recipe below.
the ingredients
There are an endless variety of vegetable combinations for filling vegetable spring rolls. Here’s my favorite filling combination ~
- romaine lettuce
- thin bean threads
- carrot
- cucumber
- red bell pepper
- bean sprouts
- fresh cilantro
And the ingredients for the peanut sesame dipping sauce include ~
- hoisin sauce
- toasted sesame oil
- smooth peanut butter
- rice vinegar
- reduced sodium soy sauce
- red pepper flakes
- water
chef tips for making fresh vegetable spring rolls from scratch
Making spring rolls involves some chopping and assembling. No cooking is necessary! Prepping all the ingredients in advance is the key to success for easy vegetable spring rolls.
I’ve made a step by step video so you can see just how to make these delicious vegetable spring rolls. Scroll down.
- Make sure to thinly slice all the vegetables to 2 – 3 inches in length. This slim size adds to the ease of assembling the spring rolls.
- Cook the bean threads for 3 to 5 minutes in boiling water. Pick these up in the Asian section of your grocery store. Rinse the cooked noodles with cold water. This will prevent them from sticking together. Drain well so you will not have soggy spring rolls.
- Have a large work surface for assembling and rolling of the vegetable spring rolls.
- Quickly dip the spring roll wrappers in warm water to soften them.
- Place the filling ingredients on the lower half of the spring roll wrapper. Fold in the 2 sides then the end closest to you and roll up the spring roll nice and snug.
can I make fresh vegetable spring rolls in advance?
YES YOU CAN! Make the spring rolls up to 24 hours in advance. Place them on a large platter or in storage container. Make sure there is space between each roll. The spring roll wrappers tend to stick if they are too close together.
Cover with a damp paper towel and a sheet of plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. When you are ready to serve the rolls, just remove the paper towel and wrap, garnish with some cilantro sprigs and accompany with the dipping sauce.
Don’t you just love when you can make an awesome recipe in advance?
If you make these fun to eat fresh vegetable spring rolls, I’d love hearing from you. Be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating ~ I do my best to reply to all your comments. And snap a photo to post to Instagram. I’ll add the photos to my Insta stories as I love seeing all your creations.
Also check out my Facebook and Pinterest pages for lots of fabulous foodie stories and videos, cooking tips, and recipes.
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This post originally was posted in February 2016. Updates in January 2021 include photos, details for preparation, and recipe instructions.
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Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls with Peanut Sesame Dipping Sauce
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 10 rolls 1x
- Diet: Low Fat
Description
These vegetable spring rolls are the super fresh and healthy counterpart to fried egg rolls. They are loaded with bright green lettuce leaves, thin bean threads, bean sprouts, and crunchy matchsticks of carrots, cucumbers, and red peppers. Serve the handheld salad with a peanutty sesame dipping sauce. You will love this fun way to eat veggies.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- 3 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 to 3 tablespoons of warm water
- 10 rice paper spring roll wrappers
- 5 large romaine or Boston bibb lettuce leaves (torn in half)
- 2 ounces cooked thin bean threads
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut in 2-3 inch thin matchsticks
- ½ English cucumber, cut in 2-3 inch thin matchsticks
- 1 red pepper, cut in 2-3 inch thin matchsticks
- 1 (14 ounce) can bean sprouts, drained
- Cilantro leaves
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the hoisin sauce, peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, and red pepper flakes. Stir with a fork until the sauce is smooth. Stir in 2 to 3 tablespoons of warm water to thin the sauce. Set aside.
- To assemble the spring rolls, fill of large pie plate with warm water. Have all the filling ingredients chopped and ready.
- Immerse one of the spring roll wrappers in the warm water for about 5+/- seconds. The wrapper should be soft and pliable. Transfer to a work surface.
- To the bottom half of the wrapper, stack the filling ingredients. Place a lettuce leaf on the wrapper and stack the on top some of the bean threads, carrots, cucumber, red pepper, bean sprouts, and a few cilantro leaves.
- To roll the spring roll, fold in the two sides of the wrapper over the ingredients followed by the end of the wrapper closest to you. Tuck the ingredients in with your fingers to keep the rolls neat and snug. Continue rolling until the spring roll is formed. Continue filling and rolling the remaining spring rolls.
- Serve with the Peanut Sesame Dipping Sauce.
Notes
- Make sure to thinly slice all the vegetables to 2 to 3 inches in length. This slim size adds to the ease of assembling the spring rolls.
- Cook the bean threads for 3 to 5 minutes in boiling water. Pick these up in the Asian section of your grocery store. Rinse the cooked noodles with cold water. This will prevent them from sticking together. Drain well so you will not have soggy spring rolls.
- Have a large work surface for assembling and rolling of the vegetable spring rolls.
- Quickly dip the spring roll wrappers in warm water to soften them.
- Place the filling ingredients on the lower half of the spring roll wrapper. Fold in the 2 sides then the end closest to you and roll up the spring roll nice and snug.
- Category: appetizer, side dish
- Method: no cooking required
- Cuisine: Asian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 rolls
- Calories: 267
- Sugar: 9 g
- Sodium: 470 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.2 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 38.8 g
- Fiber: 3.2 g
- Protein: 8.9 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: fresh spring rolls, vegetable spring rolls, salad
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