Packed with pork, prawn/shrimp and veggies, these Easy Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls are lightly fried for a crispy, crunchy, flavourful appetiser. Made with rice paper for a satisfying crunch, enjoy them with our bonus spicy Vietnamese homemade dipping sauce!
Why We Love This
Vietnamese fried spring rolls are surprisingly easy to make and filled with fresh, healthy ingredients such as pork and prawn (or chicken if you prefer!). Once you learn the technique of folding the spring rolls, you’ll be able to whip up a batch in no time. Crispy and utterly delicious, they’re perfect as a tasty snack or appetizer for parties.
Our homemade Vietnamese dipping sauce recipe is super moreish and totally easy to make too!
Trust us – you won’t want to stop at one.Â
Related: Crispy Thai Spring Rolls / Bun Cha Gio – Vietnamese Spring Roll Noodle Salad
Where We Learned This Recipe
After a few weeks of travel through Cambodia, we were so excited to arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We’d heard all about its incredible eating (and cooking) opportunities, and it did not disappoint.
Our new hosts Trang and Linh lived in a gorgeous apartment in District 2. A quiet area away from the bustling city centre, yet packed with its own amazing local hotspots to explore.
Together we set out to pick up fresh ingredients from some nearby markets to make these Easy Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls.
Mingling with locals during their early morning shopping spree, we watched as vendors chopped fresh meat with massive cleavers,. Others haggled over wriggling fish, or sorted piles of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Jumping on the bikes to head back, there was one last important task to tick off on the way. Time for some fresh Vietnamese Iced Coffee to get the morning started.
Sarah and Trang had already dashed off by the time Linh and I remembered, so we made a quick pit stop then scooted home, only to spot Sarah walked out of a different coffee shop with her own batch of coffee. Double shots for everyone! Great minds think alike 😉
What You’ll Need
- Rice paper sheets
- Pork mince
- Prawn/shrimp – minced or diced
- Shallots
- Finely sliced woodear mushrooms
- Shredded carrot
- Vermicelli noodles broken into 2 cm pieces
- Egg
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Soybean oil for frying
broken into 2 cm pieces
for frying
Ingredients for Bonus Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls Dipping Sauce
- Kaffir lime juice or substitute with lime or lemon juice
- Fish sauce
- Sugar
- Water
- Garlic clove
- Birds eye chilli finely chopped (optional)
How to Make Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls
- Pop the broken vermicelli noodles in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to rest until cooked through, then drain.
- Add the pork, shrimp, chopped shallots, mushroom, carrot, vermicelli noodles, egg and salt into a bowl and mix until well combined. For best results, use your fingers to mix evenly.
- Quickly rinse the rice paper sheet in water to soften and place on a flat plate or surface.
- Place a small handful of filling near one edge of the rice paper. Fold the paper over the filling. tuck in the sides and continue to roll to the end of the sheet.
- Repeat for remaining spring rolls.
- Heat the oil over a medium-high heat. Fry the spring rolls for around 5 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towel.
- Combine all ingredients for the dipping sauce in a bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Serve immediately.
How to Fold Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls
Have you ever tried to fold a spring roll or a cold roll in the past and ended up with a soggy mess? We admit, we’ve failed miserably in the past, usually from dunking the entire sheet in a bowl of water and completely soaking it. By the time you assemble your ingredients the rice paper has stuck to the plate and you end up with an unattractive lumpy roll.
Tell me that’s not just me? Eeep.
Thankfully Trang showed us her easy method to easily and quickly wrap up spring rolls so you end up with cute, perfectly rolled tubes:
- Hold a sheet of Vietnamese rice paper sheets in one hand and dab with cold water across one side of the sheet. We found that when we were in Vietnam using fresher rice paper sheets, we didn’t need a lot of water – just a little dab with our fingers was enough. Back home in Australia, the rice paper sheets were slightly thicker and so needed more water to soften. Experiment with a sheet before you get started to see how much water works best for you.
- Next, place your filling mixture in a line close to one end of the roll.
- Fold the small edge over the filling, then tuck in the sides.
- Continue to roll until you reach the other end of the rice paper, tucking the edges and pressing/squeezing the filling as you go.
- Now you’ve got a neat little roll anyone can be proud off. Huzzah!
FAQs
Yes, traditional Vietnamese fried spring rolls are gluten-free when made with rice paper sheets. To be extra safe, you should also check your other ingredients such as fish sauce to make completely sure there is no gluten-free present in your batch.Â
You can easily make Vietnamese fried spring rolls vegetarian by omitting the pork and prawn. Just up the other filling ingredients such as mushroom, carrot and vermicelli to compensate.Â
Variations & Substitutes
- If you aren’t able to source wood ear mushrooms, you can substitute with regular mushrooms.
- Kaffir lime juice in the dipping sauce can be substituted with lemon or lime juice, or a blend of both.
- You can use any oil for frying, but we recommend avoiding strong flavoured oils such as olive oil which will change the flavour.
- Feel free to substitute the pork and prawns for chicken if you prefer!
Try these amazing entrees next:
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and a star rating below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 10-15 rice paper sheets
- 100 g pork minced
- 100 g shrimp minced
- 2 shallots chopped
- 1/2 cup mushrooms shredded (we used wood ear mushroom)
- 1/2 cup carrot shredded
- 1/2 cup vermicelli rice noodles broken into 2 cm pieces
- 1 egg
- 1 pinch salt
- Vegetable oil for frying
For the Dipping Sauce
- 3 tbsp Thai makrut / kaffir lime juice or sub with lime or lemon juice
- 2 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 clove garlic finely chopped
- 1 birds eye chilli finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Pop the broken vermicelli noodles in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to rest until cooked through, then drain.1/2 cup vermicelli rice noodles
- Add the pork, shrimp, shallots, mushroom, carrot, vermicelli noodles, egg and salt into a bowl and mix until well combined. For best results, use your fingers to mix evenly.100 g pork, 100 g shrimp, 2 shallots, 1/2 cup mushrooms, 1/2 cup carrot, 1/2 cup vermicelli rice noodles, 1 egg, 1 pinch salt
- Quickly rinse the rice paper sheet in water to soften and place on a flat plate or surface.10-15 rice paper sheets
- Place a small handful of filling near one edge of the rice paper. Fold the paper over the filling. tuck in the sides and continue to roll to the end of the sheet.
- Repeat for remaining spring rolls.
- Heat the vegetable oil over a medium-high heat. Fry the spring rolls for around 5 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towel.Vegetable oil
- Combine all ingredients for the dipping sauce (kaffir lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, water, garlic and chilli) in a bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves.3 tbsp Thai makrut / kaffir lime juice, 2 1/2 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, 1/4 cup water, 1 clove garlic, 1 birds eye chilli
- Serve immediately.
Video
Recipe Notes
- Are Vietnamese fried spring rolls gluten-free? Yes, traditional Vietnamese fried spring rolls are gluten-free when made with rice paper sheets. To be extra safe, you should also check your other ingredients such as fish sauce to make completely sure there is no gluten-free present in your batch.Â
- Are Vietnamese fried spring rolls vegetarian? You can easily make Vietnamese fried spring rolls vegetarian by omitting the pork and prawn. Just up the other filling ingredients such as mushroom, carrot and vermicelli to compensate.Â
- If you aren’t able to source wood ear mushrooms, you can substitute with regular mushrooms.
- Kaffir lime juice in the dipping sauce can be substituted with lemon or lime juice, or a blend of both.Â
- You can use any oil for frying, but we recommend avoiding strong flavoured oils such as olive oil which will change the flavour.Â
- You can fry straight from frozen, just don’t defrost them first as that will make the rice paper soggy. Cook for an extra 30 secs to 1 min to make sure they’re fully cooked through.Â
Nutrition
60 Comments
Linda Parnell
04/04/2020 at 5:21 ammy rice papers disolved in the hot fat & filling spilled all over. what happened. baked rest. ingredient/flavour gets four stars but what did i do wrong?
Wandercooks
04/04/2020 at 9:01 amWow, interesting! I’ve never heard of that happening before. I can only make a few guesses as to why that could happen – either a different rice paper not suitable for frying or there was too much water on the rice paper which made it disintegrate. Good luck on the next batch round!
Beth
15/07/2020 at 8:00 pmMine did the exact same thing.
Wandercooks
15/07/2020 at 9:30 pmHey Beth, try a different brand of rice paper in the first case and make sure you’re not overfilling each roll. If that doesn’t help, it can be a case of either too much or too little water. Sometimes they do take a little practise, so good luck on the next round and I hope these tips help. 🙂
simone
11/12/2019 at 1:32 amDo you cook the vermicelli first?
Wandercooks
11/12/2019 at 9:38 amHi Simone, yes we do, just by covering the vermicelli with boiling water and allowing to rest until cooked through. We’ll update the recipe notes – nice catch!
Dannii
07/08/2019 at 4:40 pmI love making spring rolls, but haven’t done it for ages. Thanks for the reminder!
Wandercooks
16/08/2019 at 3:57 pmIt’s so fun to get a lil creative with our hands hey, even better when we can eat the results!
Natalie
07/08/2019 at 2:09 pmWOW these spring rolls look so delicious and crispy! Such a great party snack!
Wandercooks
16/08/2019 at 3:56 pmAbsolutely, although we are legit thinking about cooking them for dinner soon haha – addicted to that crunch!
Sophie
07/08/2019 at 1:52 pmLove this unique idea to fry the spring rolls. I always had those soft ones yet.
Wandercooks
16/08/2019 at 3:55 pmRice paper definitely gives these rolls a totally different texture – so light and crunchy!
Josi
07/08/2019 at 1:36 pmThis recipe looks great! I have rice paper and I need to give these a try!
Wandercooks
16/08/2019 at 3:55 pmIt’s as fun to eat as it is to cook!
Veena Azmanov
07/08/2019 at 1:16 pmThis is surely yummy and flavorful. Awesome combination.
Wandercooks
16/08/2019 at 3:54 pmSo much flavour, especially with the dipping sauce!
Ellie
16/11/2018 at 1:39 amIs ook lekker met kip
Wandercooks
21/11/2018 at 9:40 amAbsolutely Ellie, they would be delicious with chicken! 🙂
Shane
31/08/2016 at 6:39 amI have always had these served with red leafed lettuce, cilantro, basil, mint, pickled garlic and carrots. Tear ingredients and roll the fried spring roll in lettuce and dip into the sauce.
Wandercooks
06/09/2016 at 12:01 pmThat sounds light and delish – definitely a great way to eat them!
Bab
12/05/2016 at 7:30 amSaute the filling or not saute the filling? That’s the question…
Wandercooks
13/05/2016 at 11:02 amIndeed! 😀 Thankfully they end up pretty small so either way, they’re going to cook through nice and quickly!
Marjorie
16/12/2015 at 7:47 amYum! These sound wonderful and fun to make!
Wandercooks
16/12/2015 at 10:09 amAbsolutely! Especially now that we can roll them properly. Cooking with friends is the best. 🙂
Renee Kohley
16/12/2015 at 5:30 amOh gosh my mouth is watering! Those look SO good! Dipping sauce sounds perfect!
Wandercooks
16/12/2015 at 10:11 amThanks Renee! The dipping sauce goes so well with the crunchy spring rolls. Simple and delicious. 🙂
Raia
16/12/2015 at 3:51 amPinned. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at spring rolls ever since my Filipina cousin made them for me a few years ago. I’ve never gotten around to it, but this is rekindling the flame. 😉 Thanks. 😉
Wandercooks
16/12/2015 at 10:13 amWoo thanks Raia! Yes do give them a go, they’re quite different to other spring rolls we’ve had. They’re a bit smaller and a bit easier to make too. Enjoy!
Emily @ Recipes to Nourish
16/12/2015 at 3:25 amThose look great! Love all of the photos from your travels.
Wandercooks
16/12/2015 at 10:15 amThanks Emily, glad you’re enjoying them. It’s been such a blast to explore, and you never know what you’ll find around the next corner!
linda spiker
16/12/2015 at 3:00 amWow! Fabulous post and great instructions!
Wandercooks
16/12/2015 at 10:16 amThanks Linda, hope you enjoy!