Shrimp Rice Paper Spring Rolls With Peanut Sauce

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These shrimp rice paper rolls are filled with shrimp, colorful, fresh veggies, and are dipped in an amazing creamy peanut sauce.

An overhead shot of a platter of shrimp rice paper rolls with peanut sauce.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Ingredient Notes
Equipment You’ll Need
Step by Step Directions
Tips & Variations
FAQ
Shrimp Rice Paper Spring Rolls With Peanut Sauce

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

These shrimp spring rolls are beautiful, tasty, and fun to make! They are easily customizable to your favorite crisp vegetables and the shrimp can be left out if you're going for an all veggie spring roll.
There is no deep frying involved, so cooking time is minimal and clean up is a breeze.
These fresh spring rolls can be served as a refreshing appetizer or as an addition to a meal.

Ingredient Notes

Ingredients needed for shrimp rice paper rolls.

Rice paper wrappers

Rice paper wrappers - also known as rice paper sheets or spring roll wrappers. You can often find these in the international food aisle at grocery stores or in Asian supermarkets. They are made from rice flour and when soaked for a few seconds in cold water or warm water they turn into translucent rice paper that can wrap and stick to itself, making it perfect for wrapping up all of the tasty fillings.

Filling ingredients

We recommend including the following as main ingredients for a colorful and varied spring roll. We have also listed some other options for fillings you can add to these rice paper shrimp rolls. They are easily customizable to your favorite fillings!

Shrimp - our favorite way to use shrimp in this recipe (and the easiest way) is to use precooked shrimp. If you are going to use raw shrimp, look for medium or large shrimp that has been deveined. Cook and cool the shrimp before assembling the spring rolls. If you find it difficult to wrap a full piece of shrimp, you can make shrimp halves or cut into small pieces of shrimp.
Vermicelli rice noodles - we like to use the thin rice vermicelli noodles for this recipe as it is most authentic to the traditional Vietnamese spring rolls or Thai shrimp rolls. If you are having a difficult time finding these noodles, the pad thai rice noodles can also work, but they will be a little more difficult to work with and eat.
Butter lettuce - our favorite lettuce to use in these spring rolls is butter lettuce. Simply tear up a lettuce leaf and add a piece of lettuce to each roll. Green leaf lettuce or red leaf lettuce could also work.
Shredded carrots - for ease, you can buy the bag of shredded carrots to reduce the chopping needed to prepare the fillings for this recipe. If you prefer to cut your own carrots, we recommend doing a julienned cut into thin strips.
Cucumber - fresh cucumber is delicious in these rice paper rolls with shrimp! Julienne the cucumber into thin strips (see the ingredients photo if needed).
Red bell peppers or shredded red cabbage - we like to include one of these for additional crunch and contrasting color. Feel free to use one or both!

Additional filling ideas:

Cilantro or mint leaves (or other fresh herbs of choice such as Thai basil)
Chopped green onions
Thinly sliced jalapeño
Mango
Avocado
Bean sprouts

Peanut sauce

Natural peanut butter - we prefer to use creamy peanut butter but you can swap for chunky peanut butter if needed. Our favorite options are Kirkland's creamy peanut butter and Teddie peanut butter.
Soy sauce (or coconut aminos or tamari for a gluten-free option)
Rice vinegar
Sesame oil
Lime juice - you could also add a little bit of lime zest if you want more of a limey flavor.
Minced garlic and ginger
Honey or maple syrup - use maple syrup if you need a vegan option.
Sriracha or red pepper flakes - you can up this if you like more of a kick.
Water - to thin out the sauce to the perfect consistency.

See the recipe card below for a complete list of ingredients and measurements.

Equipment You’ll Need

Medium-sized sauce pan
A large bowl
Cutting board and knife
Measuring cups and spoons
A medium bowl for the peanut sauce
A shallow pan or dish
A tea towel

Step by Step Directions

For the full recipe instructions, scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of the page.

A plate with cooked shrimp and vermicelli rice noodles.

Step 1: Bring a medium-sized pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook the noodles according to package directions, until they are al dente. When the noodles are finished cooking, drain them, rinse them under cold water, and either put them in a large bowl or back into the cooled pot. We recommend tossing the noodles with 1-2 tsp of sesame oil to prevent sticking and add additional flavor to the noodles. You can also add salt to taste to the noodles as well.

Step 2: Prepare the shrimp (remove any tails as needed or cook if using raw shrimp).

Step 3: Prepare the vegetables you will be using for the shrimp rice paper rolls. Cut vegetables into thin strips so they can fit nicely on the rice paper sheet and roll up more easily.

Step 4: Prepare the peanut sauce. Measure out the ingredients and put them into a medium bowl. Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Set aside.

Two rice paper sheets with shrimp, noodles, and veggies laid down the center of the sheet.

Step 5: Fill a shallow sauté pan or pie dish with water (cool or warm). Get a lint free tea towel and dampen it with water (this will help the rice paper sheet so it doesn't stick to the towel). Place both on a flat work surface.

Put the rice paper wrapper into the water for about 15 seconds, until it is pliable. Take it out of the water and place it on the damp tea towel.

Place the fillings down the center of the wrapper, leaving about 1" on each side to leave room for rolling.

Step 6: Fold over the bottom of the wrapper and the sides of the wrapper. Begin to roll upwards until the fillings are enclosed. Serve immediately with the peanut dipping sauce.

Tips & Variations

If you're trying to cut down on prep time in the kitchen, you can always prepare the peanut sauce and chop up the veggies beforehand to make assembly a breeze!
While we will always use our favorite sweet and savory peanut sauce, another popular dipping sauce for fresh summer rolls is sweet chili sauce. You can usually find this at many local grocery stores in the international food aisle.

An up close shot of shrimp rice paper rolls with a small bowl of peanut sauce.

FAQ

How should I store leftovers?

For best results, we do not recommend storing the shrimp summer rolls. We have found that storing pre-made shrimp rolls in the fridge results in the rice paper wraps drying out and breaking apart. For this reason, we recommend to make the shrimp rolls fresh, right before you are planning to eat them.

Is it (GF/DF/V/VG)?

This recipe can be made gluten-free by using coconut aminos or tamari in the peanut sauce in place of regular soy sauce. This recipe is dairy-free. To make this recipe vegetarian, simply omit the shrimp and add more fresh vegetables and rice noodles to the rice paper sheets. To make this recipe vegan, simply omit the shrimp and use maple syrup in place of honey in the peanut dipping sauce.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe