Veggie Rice Paper Wraps

February 16, 2021

By Anna Varriano

These veggie rice paper wraps are a hit among veggie lovers and carnivores. They are fun to make, and easy enough to get many hands (even little ones!) involved. They make a great starter to a meal, or they can be a meal on their own, and are even great to have on hand as a snack! They store well for several days and you can change up what you put in them – and what you dip them in – to suit your taste. Get creative!

I’ll be dividing this recipe into two parts: one part for the wrap, and one part for the dip we decided to make to go with the wraps.

What You’ll Need For The Wraps

  • A package of rice vermicelli noodles. These are completely optional – and if you do use them, you’ll only need one ‘fold’ of noodles as you don’t really want to put a lot of them in each wrap. Prepare them as per package (which is usually just soaking them in hot water for 15 minutes or so) and then drain and rinse under cold water and set aside.
  • A package of round rice paper ‘wraps’. I used the medicum-sized ones.
  • An assortment of colourful julienned veggies to suit your taste. I used a couple of carrots, a cucumber, a yellow bell pepper, and an avocado. Use what you like. Bean sprouts or other sprouts would be a great addition. We kept ours vegan, but you could add some cooked chicken or other protein if desired.
  • Fresh herbs to suit your taste. I used basil, and would have also used mint and/or cilantro had I had some. Whatever you use, use the leaves only.
  • Some chopped up nuts for some textire. I used peanuts.
  • A vessel that is deep enough to hold an inch or so of warm water and wide enough to allow you to soak the rice wraps in fully flat. I used a large skillet.

Soaking/Prepping the Rice Paper

You can find rice paper at just about any grocery store. They come in various sizes, and you can choose whichever size you want depending on how large you want your wraps to be. I used the medium-sized ones as I like to tuck in the ends of my wraps when I make them. These are the ones I used:

Rice paper is thin and hard, so you have to soak it in warm water to allow it to become soft and pliable. This usually only takes about 10 to 15 seconds.  It is important that you only soak the papers ONE AT A TIME, as you are ready to use them as they become very stick once they’re soaked. Replace/replenished the warm water you soak the rice paper in from time to time. Here’s what my soaking station looked like:

Use your fingers to make sure that every part of the rice wrap gets submerged/soaked in water. You can see in the photo above that some of the edges curled up. I just gently pushed them under the water and also gently moved the rice paper around so all parts of it got a good soak. Since the rice paper gets sticky once it starts to soften, do your best to prevent it from folding in/over on itself (don’t panic if it does – you can usually carefully peel it apart!). Once the rice paper starts to soften, remove it from the water and place it on a smooth, flat surface. I used a cutting board, like this:

Select Your Fillings

Now comes the fun part – selecting your fillings! You can make your wraps all the same, or change them up for some variety and/or to cater to everyone’s taste! The only ‘rule’ to follow is to place all of your fillings closest to the edge of the rice paper that is facing you, in the first third of the circle so to speak. You can put as much or as little filling as you like, depending on how thick or thin you want the wraps to be. Not sure? Experiment! This is what ours looked like just before we rolled them up:

Get Rolling!

The rice wrap will be a bit sticky, which is great for rolling. Before you start rolling, make sure that all of your fillings are compactly placed. Then starting with the edge of the rice paper that is closest to you, pull it over your fillings and start to roll tightly, folding in the edges about halfway through your roll. Here’s a video to demonstrate!

Here’s what it looked like when we were all done rolling all our wraps -uncovered and then covered with damp paper towel … and since we didn’t eat them immediately, I also covered everything with plastic wrap (not shown below!) to make sure the rice paper didn’t dry out at all and then kept the wraps in the fridge until we were ready to eat them.

We ate most of these rolls within a few hours and stored the left overs in a sealed container, putting damp paper towels between the layers of wraps. They can be stored in the fridge for 2 or 3 days, but are best eaten freshly made.

These wraps are screaming for some dip, and it can be as simple as some store-bought tamari sauce as is or with a bit of sesame oil and grated fresh ginger root added, or plum sauce, or whatever sauce you think you’d enjoy with them. We chose to make a ginger-garlic-soy-peanut butter dip … 

What You’ll Need for the Peanut Dip

  • 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 2 to 3 TBSP soy or tamari sauce (start with 2 – you can add more at the end if you think it needs it)
  • 1 TBSP sesame seed oil
  • 1 TBSP rice vinegar (if you don’t have any, you can use apple cider vinegar … that’s what I did this time around!)
  • 2 TBSP maple syrup
  • 1 tsp to 1 TBSP finely grated fresh ginger root (the amount depends on how much you love ginger!)
  • 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
  • water (start with 2 TBSP and add more at the end if you want to thin out the dip)
  • NOTE – you can play around with this ‘recipe’ to suit your taste. I was tasting and adding as I went along!

Put all the ingredients into a small sauce pan over medium-low heat and stir until well combined. Warm for a minute or two. That’s it, that’s all … in fact, you really don’t have to ‘cook’ this sauce at all, but we like it a bit warm and I find warming it for a bit helps to bring all the flavours together.

It will still be equally delicious if you simply whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl or mix them up for a few seconds in a small food processor or ‘magic bullet’ type blender. 

Serve & Enjoy!

I like to cut the wraps in half on a diagonal cut to show off the colourful fillings, but you can definitely serve them whole! Arrange on a platter with some fresh herbs and a bowl full of dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

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