Salmon belly spring rolls are super tasty and easy to make on a weeknight. It’s fun, delicious, and healthy.
Salmon Belly Spring Rolls
Salmon belly spring rolls is super tasty and easy enough to make on a weeknight.
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp Fish sauce
- 1/2 lbs Salmon belly
- 3 Romaine lettuce leaves (iceberg lettuce works too)
- 1 Small cucumber (or ½ of an American cucumber)
- 1 handful Beansprouts
- 3 stems Vietnamese mint (regular mint works too)
- 3 stems Thai basil
- 1/4 cup Đồ Chua
- 1 handful Vermicelli
- 10 Spring roll rice wraps
- 2 cups Filtered water
Instructions
Prepare vegetables
- Wash all vegetables separately and set aside each to dry
- Cut 1 Small cucumber into strips long ways into 2-3 inch slices
- Cut 3 Romaine lettuce leaves into smaller 2-3 inch strips. Put cut pieces of Romaine into a salad tumbler to wring of excess water.
- Heat 1 handful Beansprouts in the microwave for 1 minute. If you like beansprouts crunchier, you can heat for less time or not at all.
- Plate vegetables so it's easy to grab when wrapping the spring rolls.
Cook vermicelli
- Heat up a small pot of water and wait until the water boils.
- When the pot of water gets to a boil, add the 1 handful Vermicelli and boil for 3-5 minutes on heat. Then turn off the heat and allow vermicelli to sit in the hot water for another 3-5 minutes. Pay attention to the instructions on the packaging as each brand is a little different. Make sure to stir the vermicelli occasionally to prevent the noodles from sticking to each other and to the pot.
- Remove the vermicelli from the hot water and rinse with cold water. Allow to dry and cool. Set aside until ready to eat.
Cook salmon belly
- While heating up the pot of water for the vermicelli, separately heat up a non-stick frying pan on medium heat. No oil is needed because the salmon belly will naturally release oils as it heats up.
- Add 1/2 lbs Salmon belly to the hot pan and cook for 1½ to 2 minutes.
- Flip each piece of fish using a spatula or wooden cooking chopsticks. Allow each side of the salmon to brown.
- Plate the hot fish and cut into smaller chunks for ease of wrapping.
Wrapping the spring rolls
- Add 2 cups Filtered water to a wide diameter bowl
- Dip each spring roll rice wrap into the water for 3 to 5 seconds, soaking as much of the wrap in water as possible. Put the wet rice wrap onto a large flat dish.
- Add a few chunks of salmon belly, a few mint and basil leaves, some beansprouts, a few slices of cucumber, a few strips of lettuce, and a bit of vermicelli in the middle of the wet wrap. Make sure ingredients are organized in a row so that it is easy to wrap.
- Using both hands, wrap the spring roll one corner at a time. I like to go bottom, right, left, top. When completing the wrap, roll the contents of the roll away from you using the dish as an anchor.
- Dip in fish sauce and enjoy! Use a small spoon to scoop fish sauce into the spring roll if you don't want the contents of the roll to spill out!
Helpful Tips
- To enjoy on a weeknight, consider making salmon belly spring rolls the same week you enjoy other Vietnamese dishes. That means you need to gather ingredients, wash veggies, and make the fish sauce only once on a weekend and refrigerate the rest. That way, all you need to do is cook the salmon belly and heat up the vermicelli on the weekday.
- Wringing the lettuce of excess water is very important! Too much water weakens the rice paper and makes it easier to tear.
- Err on the side of less water when dipping the rice paper in water for the same reason.
- If you make salmon belly spring rolls or other spring rolls enough, you can upgrade from a bowl of water to a fancy vertical rice paper holder. This saves space on the table.
- Try adding fewer ingredients into each spring roll the first time. I know you’re trying to maximize your SRPB ratio (or spring-roll-per-bite), but TRUST ME. You don’t want to overstuff the roll only to have the rice paper break.
- Be one with the roll. Go one corner at a time, and get used to using all ten fingers when wrapping. Press the roll-y goodness into the flat plate for best roll control.
- When eating the salmon belly spring rolls , dip into the fish sauce on the first bite, but use a spoon for subsequent bites. It’s quite heartbreaking when you’ve made it this far only to have the contents of your masterpiece fall into the sauce.
