Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls

It’s about time that we share our fresh spring rolls with you. Our favorite version is this one, clean, fresh and delicious, perfectly suitable for lunch or an appetizer.

The beauty about making your own spring rolls is that you can pretty much chose any ingredients that you like and enjoy, as long as they are fresh. Celebrate fresh ingredients whenever you can!

Here are our ingredients for our fresh rolls:

• get a package of rice paper for spring rolls (you will have a lot left over for next time)
• baby arugula
• basil (remove all large stems)
• mint (leaves only)
• organic pea sprouts
• 1/2 large English cucumber, Julienne
• 1 Manila mango, Julienne
•  1 – 2 inches of fresh minced ginger
• 1 pound of cooked shrimp, remove tail and slice shrimp in half (as if you were to butterfly them, but cut through all the way)

Grab a pie pan and fill 1/2 way with warm water, soak one rice paper sheet at a time for about 10 seconds, remove very carefully with both hands and place onto your working surface. Place 2 – 3 basil leaves in the middle first, then place some arugula, a couple of mint leaves, some pea sprouts, few slices of mango and cucumber, sprinkle a little ginger and place 4 – 5 shrimp halves down the middle. Very carefully fold ends in first and then roll (if you are right handed, right to left rolling it tightly and slowly.  The first couple might be sort of a disaster, but those can be a snack while making the food. 🙂 Don’t worry, they will get tighter and perfect as you do them.

Place them whole on a sheet or plate and cover them with a wet paper towel. I have a water spray bottle near by to spray the towels to keep them moist. Once you are ready to serve them, you should cut them in half diagonally.

Henry made this amazing dipping sauce:  ..mix really well the following…

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 2 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp coconut aminos
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 4 Thai chilis, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
• some fresh cracked pepper