Fresh spring rolls with shrimp
Soft, see-through rice paper rolls packed with pink shrimp, noodles, crunchy vegetables and fresh herbs, dunked in a sweet-salty lime dipping sauce.
- 50 min total
- 45 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $4.76 a serving
- 370 calories
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 limes, juiced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp chili garlic sauce
- 1 lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 4 oz rice noodles, thin vermicelli
- 1 cucumber
- 1 head green leaf lettuce, leaves separated
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- ½ cup fresh mint, leaves
- ½ cup Thai basil, leaves
- 12 rice paper wrappers
From your pantry
- 3 tbsp sugar
- ½ cup water, warm
Each serving has about 370 calories, 29 g protein, 63 g carbs and 1 g fat, and costs about $4.76 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No limes? Lemons work.
- No raw shrimp? Frozen raw shrimp works.
- No cucumbers? English cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
- No shredded carrots? Carrots work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the sugar into the warm water until it dissolves, then add the fish sauce, lime juice, garlic and chili garlic sauce. That’s your dipping sauce.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Bring a medium pot of water over high heat. Add the shrimp and cook about 2 minutes, until pink and curled, then scoop them into a bowl of cold water.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heatTimer: 2 min
Food safety: Shrimp are done when they turn pink and opaque all the way through and curl into a loose C. A tight O means overcooked, not unsafe.
Add the noodles to the same boiling water and cook as the package says, usually 3 to 5 minutes, until soft. and under cold water.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
High heatTimer: 4 min
Slice each shrimp in half so it lies flat, and cut the cucumber into thin sticks about 4 inches long.
Lengthwise. Lengthwise means cutting along the long side, from stem to tip, which gives long pieces. Crosswise is the other way, straight across the middle, which gives short, round ones.
How you’ll know: Lengthwise halves of a zucchini look like two little canoes; crosswise pieces look like coins.
Set up a station: a shallow dish of warm water, a damp cutting board, and the lettuce, noodles, carrot, cucumber, herbs and shrimp in reach.
Dolly’s tip: Having everything within arm’s reach is what makes rolling feel easy instead of frantic.Dip a rice paper in the warm water for 2 or 3 seconds, just until it’s wet all over, and lay it flat on the board.
Dolly’s tip: It will still feel stiff. That’s right; it keeps softening as you fill it. Soaked longer, it turns floppy and tears.Lay 3 shrimp halves pink side down across the middle. Below them, pile a lettuce leaf, a small tangle of noodles, carrot, cucumber and a few herb leaves.
Fold the bottom edge up over the filling, fold in both sides, then roll it up snugly toward the shrimp, like a burrito. Repeat with the rest.
Dolly’s tip: Snug, not tight. If one tears, just wrap it in a second sheet; nobody will know.Serve right away with the dipping sauce, keeping the rolls from touching on the plate so they don’t stick together.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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