I spent the majority of my early vegetarian years eating a balanced diet of carbs and cheese. My Dad used to joke about me being “the vegetarian who doesn’t eat vegetables”.
It wasn’t until I began studying cooking in college that I fell in love with vegetables. Why? Because that is when I learned that there are countless amazing ways to prepare vegetables so that they taste not just good, but amazing!
Still though, I didn’t start appreciating raw vegetables (you know, without the pool of ranch dressing) until after I went vegan. One of my tricks to eating mass amounts of fresh vegetables? Baked Sriracha and Soy Sauce Tofu. It pairs SO well with raw vegetables, whether it’s salads, vegan lunch bowls, veggie wraps, veggie sandwiches, or raw spring rolls!
Right now I am IN LOVE with these Fresh Vegetable Crunchy Rolls!
Zingy strips of sriracha & soy sauce tofu with thinly sliced crisp red bell pepper, cucumber and carrots all conveniently rolled into a rice paper wrap and served with some insanely flavourful spicy-sweet peanut sauce.
This is definitely my new favourite way to eat vegetables. These fresh vegetable crunchy rolls are:
- high in nutrients (protein and fibre plus tons of vitamins and minerals!)
- light but super satisfying
- customizable to your liking
- a great way to eat tons of fresh produce
- SO DELICIOUS you won’t believe that you’re eating mostly raw vegetables!
- quick to prepare (and easy to make lots at once)
- great for lunches and make ahead meals
- very easy to make (after you get the hang rolling the rice wraps themselves!)
In my Baked Sriracha and Soy Sauce Tofu recipe I recommend cutting your block of tofu into 1″x1″ squares, but for this recipe you’re going to cut it into 1/4″ slices. I usually like to increase the soy sauce and sriracha mixture and baste it on multiple times while the tofu bakes. In this recipe the strips of seasoned tofu create these amazing pops of flavour throughout the whole roll, so flavourful tofu is a must!
Until a month ago, I’d never used Vietnamese spring roll wrappers. Have you used them before? They seemed SO weird when I first tried using them! They can be a little tricky to use at first, but you just have to get to know their little quirks, and learn how to work around them. Through trial and error I’ve learned some valuable tips that should help you get used to using rice wraps ASAP!
(Edited to add: The tips below is what works best for me, but it’s not technically the proper way to hydrate rice papers. Check out the comments for additional tips.)
My tips for wrapping the spring/crunchy rolls:
- Soak them in HOT water – The wraps hydrate much faster when you use hot water. I just use tap water turned as hot as possible.
- Soak them for LONGER than the package indicates – The directions on my package of rice wraps suggests soaking each wrap for 10 seconds. In my experience, this is nowhere near long enough. I soak mine for AT LEAST 30 seconds. How long you soak your rice wraps will completely depend on the type/brand of rice paper you use. From looking on the internet it seems like most people soak their wraps for 3-5 seconds, but I can’t work with mine without soaking them until completely soft and flexible.
- Lightly shake off the excess water – Before placing them on your work surface
- Lay hydrated rice wraps on a hard/sturdy surface – I suggest laying them straight onto your counter. I don’t recommend using a cutting board or textured surface.
- Let the wrap sit on your counter for 30 seconds or so before working with it – This helps the wrap absorb the last of the moisture before you start to assemble. The rice wraps WILL NOT stick properly if they’re sopping wet. They need to get a little tacky/sticky before you work with them.
And if that’s not enough to make you a pro, I’ve included a nifty little GIF down here to show you how I roll mine!
- ½ red pepper, julienned
- 1 large carrot, julienned
- ⅓ -1/2 long English cucumber, julienned
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced on a diagonal
- small handful of baby spinach, gently bunched up and sliced thinly
- ½-1 full recipe of Baked Sriracha & Soy Sauce Tofu (optional: double the marinade), chilled and cut into thin strips
- sesame seeds
- 5-10 rice papers (I used 22 cm papers)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (or Bragg's Liquid Aminos - GF)
- 3 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tbsp sriracha
- 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce (can substitute with 1 more tbsp sriracha)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp brown sugar (or maple syrup)
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 2-3 tbsp water to thin
- While the tofu is baking you can begin to prepare all of your ingredients. Finely julienne the red pepper, carrot, and cucumber (you can use a julienne peeler for the carrot and cucumber as well) I aim for slices between 4-5 inches long (but this depends on the size of your rice paper, mine are about 8" (20 cm).) Thinly slice the spinach and green onion.
- Once the tofu has finished baking, place it in the fridge to chill. In the meantime you can mix up the Spicy-Sweet Peanut Sauce (recipe below.)
- Cut your chilled tofu into thin strips.
- Prep your area. Find a nice clean space of counter to work on and fill a large bowl or pie plate with HOT water. Grab your sesame seeds and all of your prepped veggies.
- Soak a single rice paper in the hot water until it's completely soft and flexible. This could take anywhere from a few seconds to more than 30 seconds depending on the brand/type of rice paper. I have best results soaking them for about 30 seconds.
- Gently shake the excess water from the rice paper, lay it straight out onto your work space.
- Let it sit for about 30 seconds to absorb any excess water, The papers won't stick together properly if they're really wet.
- Sprinkle some sesame seeds in the center of the wrap.
- Lay the julienned vegetables down in the middle of the wrap. Use approximately ⅕ of each ingredients per wrap (use a little more or a little less depening on how many wraps you want to make and how big you'd like them to be.) I like to fill mine with a little bit of spinach, lots of cucumber and carrot, a little red pepper, and lots of tofu topped with a sprinkle of green onion.
- Try to keep the fillings laid neatly, making sure to leave ample room on each side to easily fold the wrap.
- Lift the side of the rice paper that's closest to you, gently pull it forward (away from you) over the fillings. Hold the wrap firmly while you fold in each end of the wrap. Continue rolling to seal the seam. Refer to the GIF above for a demo.
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk vigorously OR combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse.
- Store extra sauce in the fridge. I like to keep mine in a glass salad dressing bottle. It may thicken up when refrigerated, I just run my bottle under hot running tap water until it softens back to a liquid.
- Makes approx. ½ cup of sauce.
Good recipe idea, I especially love the tofu preparation. Also, the pictures are awesome ! I would also add some rice vermicelli to make these rolls complete.
One little sidenote though : that is not how you rehydrate rice papers.
The right way is to dip each piece of rice paper in water, so that both sides are wet, shake off the excess, move it to a plate (or whatever support you’re using) while it’s still rigid, let it rest until it finishes rehydrating. You do not leave it to soak in water, because then when it’s soft and pliable, you’re left dealing with something slippery and hard to work with (as your pictures show).
Check out this video if you want to see the technique.
Thanks for the tip Mike! I have so much trouble trying to work with rice papers that way but I’ll give it another shot. I’ll make sure to add a note in the post. Thanks again 😀
The trick to soaking the rice wraps is to use a glass pie plate (stays hot longer) or flat round dish. I have a tea kettle close by to refill the dish as water inevitably cools. Pour boiling hot water in dish, use tongs, I prefer silicone ones, and dip the rice paper in dish and count to 15. Take it out while still little stiff it will keep softening. After water cools, just pour out (recycle) and repeat. This is best way to avoid tearing and burnt finger tips.
Hi Brittany,
I just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate the hard work you put into your website, but especially, this recipe! We are slowly changing our diets and adopting vegetarian dishes. The WHOLE family loves these and the kids are always estatic when they see us making these. They even ask for them! Quite something as our 15 year old son is reluctant to give up his carnivore ways!
Once again, thanks so much for your site! Both my wife and I are regular visitors.
Thank you so much Steven! I truly appreciate you taking the time to comment, this was so wonderful to read. This is one of my favourite recipes too 😀 I’m so happy to hear that your family is enjoying more plant-based meals, that’s fantastic!
I looked at a ton of viet summer rolls recipes today and decided yours looked the most similar to my taste.
Was beautiful. Thanks for posting i appreciate great help! :)*
Thanks Jen! I hope you love them as much as I do! 😀
All spring and summer so far have lived on watermelon, and on top of rice cakes: sliced avocado and sliced tomatoes and spicy seasoning salt and pepper and garlic. Really fresh and nice. Sometimes hummus or tofurky sliced meats and pickles, but really just avocado and tomato. oh, and mangoes like they are going out of business@!
I’ve got to tell you I have NOT eaten enough mangoes this summer. I need to get on that ASAP. Thanks for commenting Sam!
I love your vegetable roll recipe! I really like the idea of using tofu in the roll, and sriracha soy sauce marinade – the best!!. I have a vegetable roll recipe where I use rice paper as well – man those wrappers can be tricky to work with. I used daikon root along with other vegetables and it was delicious. http://doubletherecipe.com/2016/01/08/vegetable-spring-rolls/
Thanks for another great post!
Thank you so much Valerie! Checking out your recipe ASAP, I’ve never played with daikon root before!
I made these today for a Work Christmas party. A little labor intensive. But TOTALLY worth it.
So. Good. Had never worked with rice paper before, and based on your tutorial I wa sable to execute from the first one. No problems.
Thank you for all you put into this blog!
Thank you so so much Jonathan! These are perfect for a Christmas party, nice choice! Do you have a food processor? That can help cut down on prep time if you use it for slicing. And I’m SO glad my tips helps you with rolling the rice papers! 😀
Awesomeness in a cute little package.. Where in the world have these rice paper wraps been all my vegetarian life??!! Thanks so much for sharing..
Thanks Carrie! Hope you love them (and rice papers are awesome for vegetarians and vegans yay!)
We made these the other night and they were incredibly delicious! We have four kids and everyone loved them. Two of my kids don’t like anything even mildly spicy so we replaced the peanut sauce for a sweet sauce in theirs. Anyway, it’s rare that we find a recipe that all six of us love and this was one of them. In fact, I’m making them again tonight for a dinner party.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Lisa! 😀 And thanks for commenting, I really appreciate it!
Hey there!
My roommate and I made these tonight, they were SOOO great
We are changing our diet to plant based, bit by bit and your blog helps us a lot!
we will definitely make these again.
Thanks again for all the work you put in this website!
XXX
Janne
Thank you so much for commenting Janne 😀 I’m so happy to hear you and your roommate are enjoying the site (and the recipes!) and I think you’ll both love eating plant based! Good luck! 😀
This looks awesome! Thank you for taking the time to document this. Your site is a real inspiration to me. Are these best eaten fresh or do you think they’d be good prepped on Sunday and eaten during the week as lunches?
Best eaten fresh! I’ll often eat them for the next day or 2, but 2 days is the MAX (the rice papers will deteriorate.)
I love rice paper rolls!
These look great…another one I really like is this one for Sriracha tofu vegetarian rice paper rolls
Thanks for sharing.
Jenny
Oh those look delicious! I’ll have to try that recipe some time, thank you!
thanks so much for this post i am going to try them today!! keep doing what you are doing,great work,just wanted to let you know that people appreciate what you do :)at least i do,vegan for almost 2 years
thaks again 🙂
Wow, thank you so SO much Ana! I hope you know how appreciative I am of your comments, you made my whole day! I hope you have a wonderful week and THANK YOU for commenting! 😀
Hello! This looks delicious!! What brand/type of tofu did you use?
Thank you!!
Laura 🙂
Hi Laura! I used Sunrise Soya’s Extra-firm tofu.
Amazingly simple and delicious recipe, the kind I like! Have you tried adding white vinegar to the sauce? I added a bit and it gives it just a little more kick. Thanks for sharing this!
Oooh, thanks for the suggestion Tim! I’ll try that next time. Thanks for commenting!
Made this today and it’s just yummy. Thanks for your rolling gif – it really helped me
The dipping sauce is really delicious as well.
Wonderful to hear! I’m so glad the gif was helpful. Thank you for commenting!! 😀
Some of our family members want these fried, could we fry them up? (Pan fry, not deep fry like the restaurants probably do)
Eh, you can (we’ve tried it before) but choose your veggies wisely (you might not like hot cucumber?) It does work but I’d try frying and tasting one first to find out which way you prefer them.
I loved this recipe! It was super delicious! I’m going to make this again and add some glass noodles and some cilantro! Would highly recommend !
Oh that sounds wonderful, I think I’ll give that a try too. Thanks for commenting Chelsea!
These look amazing. I’m currently pregnant and craving spring rolls… so, is like to make a bigger batch and save them. A few questions… how long do the keep and how should I store these? Thank you!
Lindsay
Hi Lindsay! I find they last about 2-3 days. The ingredients will still be good after that but the rice paper continues to absorb moisture so you might prefer the texture when they’re freshest. If you want to prep more to last a bit longer I’d just have all the ingredients prepped and roll them in 2 batches (1st day and again on the 3rd day or so – I hope you know what I mean!) To store, I just lay them on a plate and put a sheet of plastic wrap between layers. Let me know if you have any other questions!
I was a bit nervous to work with the rice paper wrappers but between your instructions and the gif I got everything to work perfectly! These are just like the ones that we get at a local restaurant and I am thrilled that I can now make them at home! Great recipe and I am very glad that I found your site!
I’m glad you found the gif helpful! I’m thinking of including them more often 🙂 Thanks so much for commenting Debbie!
Is there something else I can substitute for the peanut butter; because my cousin is allergic
I would try almond butter instead of peanut butter!
you musyt googke and find WOW butter. made from soya and EXACTLY like peanut butter but without the nuts. Awesome product
Oh I think I’ve seen that! Okay, I’ll be sure to try it some time. Thank you!