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VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS

These are fantastic, healthy and tasty little rolls. They are quick to prepare and are perfect for

a mid week meal as well as if you have a craving for a Chinese on a Friday evening. It’s a

main, these are not like spring rolls that you get from the traditional take away. If you don’t

want to bother putting these into rice paper, which can be a little fiddly, you can just eat the

filling as a nutritious salad instead. It can also be a bit of fun if you serve all the ingredients

on a platter and allow diners to make up their own rolls. If doing so, serve a dipping sauce in

small bowls. You can make these a little ahead of time and keep in the fridge covered with a

piece of damp kitchen roll or tea towel.

Serves 4

Ingredients

20 prawns (I recommend buying Dublin Bay prawn tails)

1 large piece of ginger, peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon nam pla (Thai fish sauce)

1 fresh red chilli, sliced

6 spring onions

500ml chicken or vegetable stock

1 portion rice noodles

½ cucumber

1 large carrot

A few sprigs of fresh coriander and mint

A few handfuls of beansprouts

1 packet of Vietnamese rice-paper wrappers

For the Asian dressing:

1–2 limes, juiced

2 tablespoons nam pla (Thai fish sauce)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated

Method

Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl and set aside. The sugar has to be

completely dissolved before this is ready to use.

For the prawns, squeeze them to break the shell and pull the shell off at the tail end,

taking the entrails with it.

Place the shelled prawns, slices of ginger, nam pla, chilli and 2 spring onions,

roughly sliced, in a pot and cover with the stock. Bring to the boil.

Remove the  from the pot as soon as it is boils:  this should take

about 1 min. Put in a colander to cool. Chop each in half. Discard the stock and the flavourings.

Cook the noodles as per the instructions on the pack and rinse with cold water.

Finely slice the cucumber, the remaining spring onions and the carrot (use a mandolin if

possible) into matchstick size and roughly chop the herbs. Wash the beansprouts and trim

if desired.

Fill a large bowl with lukewarm water and place the discs of rice paper into the bowl two at a

time. Submerge for about 2 minutes or until softened, then remove. I recommend keeping

the rice papers in a clean, damp tea towel whilst you are waiting to fill them as they dry

out very quickly.

Add the prawns, noodles, vegetables and herbs to a large bowl, add the dressing and toss.

Place a spoonful of the filling along the middle of each rice-paper roll. Tuck in the ends of the

rice-paper and roll up.