My now-husband asked me out for spring rolls and beer for our first date. I vividly remember walking into the nearby Thai restaurant to meet him. Our waitress had to come back three times to get our order, since we could not be bothered to look at the menu.
We were too busy connecting over our love for our dogs (we each have one), coming from families of three kids (I’m the oldest; he’s the youngest), our shared love of food and travel, a million other little things…
He finally ordered us a double batch of his favorite spring rolls. I was too nervous and full from a day of recipe testing to eat much. The waitress kicked us out because the restaurant was closing. I came home and danced around in the living room with Cookie. He asked me out again.
A couple of months later, I confessed that I didn’t share his level of appreciation for those spring rolls. “Too much noodles, not enough veggies. The carrots taste like chlorine. The peanut sauce could be more bold.” He dared me to come up with something better, and I finally have.
These are the fresh, veggie-packed spring rolls I want to order at Thai and Vietnamese restaurants. I can’t say they’re 100 percent authentic, but they’re pretty close.
Of course, I came up with an irresistible peanut dipping sauce to go with them. Invite some friends over and make it a spring roll party! Ready for the recipe?
Fresh Spring Roll Ingredients
These spring rolls are refreshing, colorful and fun to make. I left out tofu (you really can’t pack enough into the rolls to make it worthwhile) and shrimp, since I don’t eat shrimp.
These filling ingredients are flexible. You can use more carrot instead of cucumber, or extra cabbage in place of the lettuce. Here’s my favorite filling combination:
- Thin rice noodles
- Butter lettuce
- Red cabbage (or green cabbage)
- Carrot
- Cucumber
- Jalapeño (skip if you’re very sensitive to spice)
- Green onion, cilantro and mint
You’ll need basic pantry ingredients to make the peanut sauce: peanut butter, rice vinegar, tamari or soy sauce, honey or maple syrup, toasted sesame oil and fresh garlic.
How to Wrap Spring Rolls
Spring rolls can seem intimidating, but you’ll get the hang of it quickly, I promise. If you have folded a burrito before, you can definitely make spring rolls! Don’t stress if your spring rolls aren’t totally perfect. A few tips:
1) Make the base
Start by placing a few pieces of lettuce about one-third from the bottom of the circular wrapper. The width of your fillings will determine the width of the spring roll. You want to leave a couple inches open on the two sides for wrapping purposes.
2) Pile on the ingredients
Then, add the remaining ingredients. The exact order doesn’t matter much. Just pile them on top, making sure to take up the proper width. It’s ok if the fillings spill upward. I try to leave the top one-third of the wrapper open for wrapping.
3) Roll the filling
Gently pull the bottom of the wrapper up and over the lower portion of the filling. Try to keep the fillings compact as you roll upwards, just until the fillings are enveloped.
4) Envelope the sides and roll it up
Pull each side over to enclose the filling. Continue wrapping upward until your spring roll is fully wrapped!
Watch How to Make Spring Rolls
Please let me know how your spring rolls turn out in the comments. I hope they’re a big hit.
Craving more peanut sauce? Me, too. You’re going to love these:
- Crunchy Thai Peanut & Quinoa Salad
- Peanut Slaw with Soba Noodles
- Mango “Burrito” Bowls with Crispy Tofu and Peanut Sauce or Cabbage Wraps
- Peanut Dipping Sauce
You’ll also enjoy the fresh sesame soba spring rolls in my cookbook, Love Real Food (page 98).
Fresh Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce
- Author: Cookie and Kate
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 spring rolls 1x
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: By hand
- Cuisine: Vietnamese
These Vietnamese spring rolls are fresh, not fried! They’re the perfect party appetizer or light meal. The peanut sauce sends them over the top. Recipe yields 8 spring rolls.
Ingredients
Spring Rolls
- 2 ounces rice vermicelli or maifun brown rice noodles*
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup torn butter lettuce, ribs removed
- 1 cup very thinly sliced red cabbage
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks or sliced into strips with a julienne peeler
- 2 Persian (mini) cucumbers or 1 small cucumber, thinly sliced or sliced into strips with a julienne peeler
- 2 medium jalapeños, ribs and seeds removed, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup thinly sliced green onions
- ¼ cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
- ¼ cup roughly chopped fresh mint
- 8 sheets rice paper (spring roll wrappers)
Peanut Sauce
- ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari or soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
- 1 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 2 to 3 tablespoons water, as needed
Instructions
- To make the spring rolls: Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the noodles just until al dente, according to package directions. Drain, rinse them under cool water, and return them to the pot. Off the heat, toss the noodles with the sesame oil and salt, and set aside.
- Fill a shallow pan (a pie pan or 9″ round cake pan works great) with an inch of water. Fold a lint-free tea towel in half and place it next to the dish. Make sure your prepared fillings are within reach. Combine the green onion, cilantro and mint in a small bowl, and stir.
- Place one rice paper in the water and let it rest for about 20 seconds, give or take. You’ll learn to go by feel here—wait until the sheet is pliable but not super floppy. Carefully lay it flat on the towel.
- Leaving about 1 inch of open rice paper around the edges, cover the lower third of the paper with a few pieces of butter lettuce, followed by a small handful of rice noodles, some cabbage, and a few strips of carrot, cucumber and jalapeño. Sprinkle generously with the herb mix.
- Fold the lower edge up over the fillings, rolling upward just until the filling is compactly enclosed. Fold over the short sides like you would to make a burrito. Lastly, roll it up. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
- To make the peanut sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, rice vinegar, tamari, honey, sesame oil, and garlic. Whisk in 2 to 3 tablespoons water, as needed to make a super creamy but dip-able sauce.
- Serve the spring rolls with peanut sauce on the side. You can serve them whole, or sliced in half on the diagonal with a sharp chef’s knife.
Notes
*Noodle note: I always opt for whole grains when I can, so I used Annie Chun’s brand of maifun brown rice noodles. I found them with the Asian ingredients at Whole Foods.
Make it gluten free: Be sure to use certified gluten free noodles and tamari (not soy sauce, which typically contains gluten).
Make it vegan: Use maple syrup instead of honey.
Make it peanut free: Substitute almond butter (if not avoiding nuts altogether) or sunflower seed butter for the peanut butter.
Prepare in advance: You can definitely mix together the peanut sauce in advance. You can also prepare the veggies several hours or up to 1 day in advance, and store them in an air-tight container (they will lose freshness with time). The spring roll wrappers tend to dry out with time or once chilled, so spring rolls are best assembled shortly before serving. If you’d like to keep them fresh for an hour or two, store them under a lightly damp, lint-free tea towel at room temperature (the skin tends to harden in the refrigerator).
Vegetable enthusiast. Dog lover. I'm probably making a big mess in my Kansas City kitchen right now. 
Jocelyn VoVillia
That sauce was dynamite! Definitely using this recipe again! Thanks for sharing!
Kate
You’re welcome, Jocelyn!
Karla
Delicious! I use date syrup instead of maple/honey for the sauce. This is def a recipe I’ll have on repeat.
Kate
Great to hear!
Anke
I made this for christmas eve and it was a hit! That sauce
Jennette Allan
I just made these fresh rolls and peanut sauce! Holy crap! So delicious and totally worth the hour and a half it took to make my lunch. I left out the herbs and used red bell pepper instead of jalapeno. But the sauce I made pretty much exactly per your recipe. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Kate
I’m glad you loved it, Jennette! I appreciate your review.
R
What a cute intro story, the rolls look nice too
WallyD
Great recipe, thanks! Sauce is particularly good.
Btw – If you are not a fan of cucumber, I recommend using tart green apple, slices or slivers. Granny Smith works great.
John P
Well… I need practice on my rolling skills.. ;-) My first time making this dish. I found it VERY tasty!! The sauce is delicious and rich.
Thank You
I will make this again and again.
Kate
Great to hear, John! Thank you for your review.
Jackie larkins
It is very good I add a little lemon in the sauce it is so yummy, thank you for sharing your recipe
Siobhan
I was surprised by how much I liked these! Instead of noodles, I used tofu (airfried in slabs about 1/3” thick and then cut into strips). I thought this was a great contrast of textures and they were pretty filling. I’ll definitely make them again and sub in different veggies I need to use up!
Kate
Great to hear, Siobhan!
Carly
Can I ask where your kitchen towels are from? Love this beautiful, bold color! Also, these really look great, I’ll be making them this weekend!
Bridget
Holy cow that peanut sauce was perfect! I added mango to the rolls and subbed in brussel sprouts instead of cabbage.
Kate
I’m excited you enjoyed it, Bridget! Thank you for your review.
Paula
These.Were.SPECTACULAR. So fresh with all of the crisp vegetables and then the peanut sauce…! So delicious all on its own! They do take some prep work but I kind of enjoy preparing each ingredient and then the assembly truly takes no time. Making the veggies ahead of time would be key so you can just roll and enjoy them. Definitely a keeper of a recipe. Thank you!
Alex K
As always, I love your recipes. This one is in my regular rotation at home! We experiment with new fillings every time. I personally love strips of simple plain egg omelette.
However, I’ve become so frustrated with your website – the ads make it impossible to read because they are constantly changing the formatting of the page to the point where I have to take screenshots in order to read it. Maybe it’s just me..
Laura
The entire family—including 2 finicky boys—absolutely loved this recipe!
Kate
That’s great to hear, Laura!
Julie
I made these today for dinner! So, so good. The wrappers were a challenge as they were sticking to my fingers. Do you think the brand makes a difference? I played around with soaking time and at first was soaking too long but I got the hang of it. I could never seem to wrap them tight enough though. Maybe with practice I’ll get better. This was a trial run as I want to make them for a potluck in a couple of weeks.
Carolyn
It’s all about the sauce! Very yummy! Better than I’d ever made before. I didn’t have creamy PB, so had to use Crunchy. Just added more crunchiness which was so good!
Ann
This is a really solid recipe for summer rolls and the dip is excellent too. It is endlessly riffable in terms of what goes into the rolls. Basil is very nice either as an addition or a substitution for cilantro if any of your guests hate cilantro (it is love or hate!). Consider peeled broccoli stems julienned, or blanched asparagus or green beans,,,,I’ve not done it myself but I’ve seen rolls done with edible flowers and it looks gorgeous – it would be so nice for a wedding or baby shower. Put the blooms face down, just above the other filling ingredients (furthest away from you) so they are closest to the surface of the finished rolls. A tip for rolling – if you use a tea towel with a large checked or striped pattern, you can use the pattern as a bit of a guide for arranging the ingredients, so you can get uniformly sized rolls. If you’re making these for the first time, I suggest buying more rice wrappers than you’ll need (they are cheap, especially if you can get to an Asian grocery store) and practicing rolling with just some noodles and lettuce, before getting into the more expensive filling ingredients.
Holly
I could drink the peanut sauce. I used a bunch of vegetables we had on hand. Rep bell pepper, shredded carrot, micro greens, mint from our garden, etc. Forgot the noodles but it still was tasty. Instead of rolling them myself, we did more of a roll your own dinner which was fun and tasty! I’ve made other peanut sauces but this was the best.
Kate
I’m glad you were still able to enjoy it!
Elizabeth
Great recipe! Though I disagree about leaving out the protein so I made mine with tofu. The sauce was pretty good and I’m excited to see how the flavors come together second day!
Kate
I’m glad you loved it, Elizabeth! Thank you for your review.
Recipe land
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe
Kate
You’re welcome! I appreciate your review.
Jackie
I ordered spring rolls from a local restaurant and they forgot the peanut sauce. You can’t eat spring rolls without peanut sauce, so I whipped some up using this recipe. It was absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for the quick, easy and scrumptious sauce recipe! Sooooo good!!
Joyce Feltz
I’m a fan of your website and have loved so many of your recipes! I like this recipe, but wonder why you won’t entertain the addition of shrimp. If you don’t like shrimp, that’s just fine, and we’re all entitled to our preferences. But Fresh Spring rolls are so much better with shrimp!
I’m sorry if you don’t like them, but eliminating them from your recipe is sort of….leaving out an ingredient that most people love!
That said, I’ll follow your recipe and add some shrimp, as I imagine others will do as well.
Keep the great recipes coming! I need your inspiration.
Kate
Thank you, Joyce! I’m glad you are enjoying my recipes and provide inspiration.
Amanda
I imagine most people would recognise, expect and appreciate that as a vegetarian recipe website – seafood or meat don’t feature in the recipes.
Recipe is great as is, and the sauce is incredible. Have made it many times now and I’m always so delighted by it. Thanks again Kate!
Joyce
When I commented, I had totally forgotten that this is a vegetarian website! I have tried and enjoyed so many recipes from Kate, I wasn’t even paying attention to the vegetarian part. I will still add the shrimp, because I like them. Thanks for your comment though; it is a reminder that it’s time to make these spring rolls again!
Diana K
Wow, the sauce was fantastically delicious! I looked up Vietnamese recipe that required cooking the entire sauce, but wanted to try a raw version. Follow the recipe exactly and was so surprised at how delicious it was! Even better than restaurants I’d often visit. Made spring rolls with sprouts, mint, basil, lettuce, baby kale and cucumber. Will be using the leftover sauce for future salads. And definitely making it again.
Kate
I love to hear that, Diana!
Kelly Plat
I made this last night. It was delicious. Thank you.
Kate
You’re welcome, Kelly!
Pamela Parkinson
I made these with my 6 year old Granddaughter and we had so much fun.
The recipe is so easy and perfect for the Indian Summer we are experiencing in the Bay Area.
I love all your recipes!
Kate
Great to hear, Pamela! I appreciate your review.
Heather K Urton
We made 200 of these for our wedding and they were a hit! We used honey in the peanut sauce and people were eating the sauce plain because it was so good! I used soba noodles and replaced the cilantro and mint with basil from our garden. I was hesitant the cucumbers would make the wraps mushy, so only julienned the flesh and left out the watery innards. Thank you for the great recipe! It was time intensive to julienne so many carrots, but totally worth it.
Kate
How fun! Thank you for your review, Heather.
Valerie Eichhorn
I’ve been looking for a bomb peanut sauce and this was it! Thank you so much for sharing!!! Love these spring rolls!
Kate
You’re welcome, Valerie!
Janet TAMARGO
These spring rolls and the dipping sauce were incredible! Thank you so much for inspiring me to try your recipe. I can’t wait to make these for my family next time we get together
Thomas
Probably having a senior moment here, but I’m missing the herb mix ingredients. Be making these soon!
Thomas
Kate
I love to hear that, Thomas! Thank you for your review.
JCW
My Vietnamese daughter-in-law left a package of rice papers for me to experiment with. My husband is allergic to peanuts. Would substituting Wow butter work in making the peanut sauce?
Kate
I’m not sure without trying it. Sorry!
Joyce
I’ve made these before with much success. Last night I wanted to make them again, and found that I only had a few wrappers left, and as a result had a lot of leftover fixin’s.
If you find yourself in this situation, you can add more lettuce and make a “deconstructed spring roll” salad!. Just make sure to cut up the noodles into bite sized pieces! Drizzle some of the peanut sauce on top and it’s ALMOST as good as the recipe!
Nancy Miller
We sipped wine and made these spring rolls. Fun and delicious.
Heidi
Thank you for this recipe! Instead of rolling into spring rolls, I made it into a salad and thinned the sauce for dressing. I could eat this every day for lunch!
Theresa Lesure
Hi Kate, I have never made spring rolls before and would like to make some for my niece’s baby shower. Can I make them a day in advance and if so what is the best way to store them?
Theresa
Kate
I find this best same day, but you could try it!
Lea Arreglo
So fun to make! So healthy! So delicious!
Sadie
We made this and when we steamed them, they completely fell apart! Any tips?
We ended up eating it like a big salad and it was delicious
Anna
These were amazing, wow. Added some shrimp but otherwise followed the recipe. Used a beautiful living butter lettuce. It took over an hour to make these but so worth it. I really wasn’t expecting them to be so good. These are probably the best spring rolls I’ve ever had and I’ve been to some amazingg Thai and Viet restaurants.. guess nothing beats homemade food :)
Anokhee Patel
What is herb mix? And where did you use the sea salt?
Kate
Hi, It is listed in the ingredients in the recipe.
Kelly
Made today, great. I would like the sauce a little spicier.
Kate
Thank you for your review! You could alway add some sriracha if you like.
Jeanete
I just had this for breakfast. Wow. The sauce is killer! My peanut butter was dry so I heated the water and pre whisked with the pb before adding the other ingredients. I didn’t have noodles or cabbage but subbed in mung bean sprouts which gave such a great crunch that I’ll use them again. Thank you for this recipe.
Kate
You’re welcome, Jeanete!
Chandra
Awesome recipe spring rolls loved made in short time am a vegetarian so worked perfectly thanks . Got made in minutes.
Please share your veggie recipes to my email appreciate that .
Carey
These were great but oh wow, that sauce was insanely good! Even if these seem like too much work for you make the sauce – so easy and worth it!
Kate
I love to hear that, Carey!
Denise Chernoff
Great recipe I just added 2 tablespoons of lime juice and it popped!
Kate
Great to hear, Denise!
K
Amazing sauce. Good proportions, thanks! I used avocados too.
Kate
Thank you for your review!
MARTIN OCEGUEDA
Excellent recipe and detailed steps for preparation. I have made them a few times. I add mango to mine. Make them with chicken and shrimp.
Jennifer Espey
I love to make these especially when the local restaurants in my area only sell the fried spring rolls. I don’t see a need for noodles as the wrap itself is made of rice. And peanut sauce can be made with peanut powder as well.
Nikkai
I made the recipe as written and the rolls and sauce are PHENOMENAL!!! We eat them as snacks, appetizers, side dish..whenever… I am so addicted to them.. I’ve NEVER EVER (like Taylor Swift never) liked the peanut sauce from the Thai restaurants and was prepared to skip it this time.. Ssssooooo glad I didn’t….the sauce is my favorite part..oh and the baby shrimp I added…..AMAZING..THANK YOU!!
Kate
You’re welcome, Nikkai!
Janet
Perfection. Made this tonight as a summer appetizer of sorts, then proceeded to eat the peanut sauce on leftover rice noodles and this BECAME supper. So delicious.
Kate
Great to hear, Janet!
Jonathan
I’ve always found that cooking Asian noodles according to package directions makes for soggy noodles. Cook them the way you want. Probably 1 minute or so for rice vermicelli. And then dunk them in cold water.
Susan G-C
I made the peanut sauce (but with almond butter, as we have a peanut allergy in the house) and it was amazing. This will be my go-to sauce for fresh spring rolls!
Kate
Great to hear, Susan! Thank you for your review.
Kate
These were so yummy and didn’t take too long to assemble. The peanut sauce was also the best I’ve ever had for sure!!! 10/10 (:
Kate
That’s great to hear, Kate!
Catherine
Tasted it when we visited our friend in Devon. My daughter who doesn’t eat vegetable actually loved it. when we went back home she requested me to try making which I did. My first attempt making the sauce was a failure so it ended up in the bin. I saw this recipe and made it and it was really very tasty and delicious. Now my daughter is so obsessed and keep requesting for it. thank you.
Kate
You’re welcome, Catherine!