This Goi Cuon or Traditional Vietnamese Spring Roll recipe took a lot longer than I expected, but I learned a lot while making the rolls. These healthy muffins are packed with fresh vegetables and lean meat, so eat up!

Made from just rice and water, neutral banh trang (rice paper) can easily be used in a variety of ways. In a Vietnamese market, I found no less than five brands of banh trang (rice paper) with multilingual packaging:

Vietnamese, Chinese, English and French.

Banh trang moves. Cambodians have a similar roll that also uses the same rice paper called nime chow, made without meat and dipped in a vinegar-based sauce instead of hoisin. The Chinese have a version with duck and cucumber with a hoisin-based dipping sauce. Japanese restaurants also commonly use regular and dyed versions of rice paper for rolls.

For the meat, you can really use any cut of pork you like, but leaner works better. Shrimp can also be any size, but a medium size helps make it easier to roll.

At the bottom of this post you will also find a recipe for Vietnamese Nuoc Cham/Spring Roll Sauce.

This recipe makes about 10 spring rolls.

What do you need:
-1/2 pound prawns (size 36/40) (453g)
-1/2 pound pork leg (453g)

-1 head of red or green leaf lettuce
-a few sprigs of mint
-scallion

-banh trang (rice paper/spring roll wrapper)
-bun (rice noodles, the non-starchy variety)

-1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
-1 teaspoon of sugar

Nuoc cham recipe (Vietnamese sauce recipe, Spring Roll sauce)
-1 tablespoon of Hoisin Sauce
-2 tablespoons of water

Preparation time: 25-40 minutes
Time to cook: 50 minutes
Assembly time: 10-20 minutes

If your shrimp are frozen, thaw them in a bowl of water until thawed so you can slice them.

1. Split and become shrimp. It helps to have a sharp knife and a steady hand. I had to pull up a chair to understand this. I also found it helpful to have a bowl of water to soak the nasty stuff in.

2. Cook the pork: fill a small pot with water about 1.5 inches above the pork, add 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat and then lower to 60% for about 30 minutes. It is done when it floats or when it is no longer pink in the middle.

3. Cook the shrimp: Fill a small pot with about 2 inches of water (enough to cover the shrimp). Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Add the shrimp. Boil for about 1.5-2.5 minutes at 70% temperature until the shrimp are no longer translucent in the middle. It will be quick, so don’t go anywhere!

4. Remove shells and tails and clean any remaining shrimp intestines. Cut the shrimp in half along the body. Try to imagine how you want to layer the pork inside the roll so you know how to cut it. Slice as thin as possible for easier rolling.

Tortuna brand bun (rice noodles) and Flying Horse brand banh trang (spring roll wrapper, rice paper).

5. Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil. Add 1/3 of the package of rice noodles and boil for 8 minutes (following package directions).

6. Drain and cool the noodles under cold running water to prevent cooking.

7. Wash and dry your vegetables!

8. Add some warm water to a plate to wet the banh trang (rice paper).

9. Wet just before making each roll. It took me about 5-10 seconds of soaking. Be sure to remove it before it reaches your desired softness to make it easier to handle.

10. The technique of rolling is totally up to you. Do what feels good to you or makes you happy. Put in less than you think you need so the rolls don’t burst. Usually it will look better to display lettuce rather than noodles on the bottom. A tighter roll will look better, and displaying the meat on top makes it more attractive. This is what I did:

10 a.m. Add some lettuce near the bottom and leave about 1″ to 1.5″ space on the sides. Layer with some mint and some chives.

10b. Add the shrimp near the center, colored side down.

10c. Add pork on top of the shrimp and some bun (rice noodles) on top of the vegetables. Make sure the rice noodles are evenly distributed.

10d. Fold the sides in to make it snug and add a little more chives. Then fold the base up to cover the rice noodles. You want to keep the roll snug, so squeeze it slightly as you roll it up. Once you get to the meat, loosen the tension so it doesn’t break.

11. Nuoc cham recipe (Vietnamese sauce recipe):

Add 1 tablespoon of hoisin sauce and 2 tablespoons of water to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Transfer to a bowl and cool. Add chopped walnuts and some hot sauce. I used Koon Chun hoisin sauce and Sambal Oelek chili paste (the one without the garlic!).

Attend!