Green Summer Rolls with Sugar Snap Peas and Sesame Dip

A recipe by Julia | Photos by Julia

When we spot summer rolls on the menu at a Vietnamese restaurant, the only question isn't whether we're ordering them — it's whether two will be enough. What did our lives even look like before summer rolls?! Bleak, grey, and dull. Okay, we might be exaggerating just a little here, but the fact that we love summer rolls is undeniable. And not just when they're served to us at a restaurant, but also when we make them ourselves. Too complicated? Only if you try to do everything alone.

The Summer Roll Round Table
Summer rolls, known as Gỏi cuốn, originally come from Vietnamese cuisine, where fresh rice paper rolls filled with rice noodles, herbs, vegetables, and often meat or shrimp are served as a light, cold meal with dips like Nuoc Cham or peanut sauce.

And honestly, summer rolls are a wonderful group activity that brings your friend group together. Just imagine: a monthly summer roll round table? Please invite us! First you chop together, then everyone rolls their own favorite ingredients at the table — as much as they like. And if you're into themed evenings, these green summer rolls couldn't be more fitting. Some people slice cucumbers, sugar snap peas, and tofu, others cook the rice noodles, group three preps the herbs, sprouts, and lettuce leaves, and the fourth faction gets to whisk together the sesame dip. All you need now is a bowl of water for the rice paper and you're good to go.

For future round tables, our autumn rolls with pumpkin, winter rolls with quince dip, and colorful summer rolls with two dips are ready and waiting. And if you ever don't feel like rolling anymore, just turn your leftover ingredients into a summer roll salad.

The Lettuce Leaf Hack
If you've ever been close to losing it while rolling: we see you. We feel you. Rice paper can tear quickly if you've soaked it a few seconds too long. And things get even trickier when you're not just rolling sturdy, evenly cut ingredients, but also trying to wrangle mint leaves flying around while soft rice noodles and oddly shaped avocado slices are in the mix. Our trick that has genuinely saved us many times: grab a larger lettuce leaf and wrap all the fillings — in this case rice noodles, tofu, cucumber, sugar snap peas, sprouts, and herbs — inside it first. This gives you a little "lettuce roll" that you then simply wrap in the rice paper. The filling stays together, you have to fight less, and even if you don't have much rolling experience yet, the results will be noticeably more stable AND your roll gets an extra lettuce crunch.

How to Customize the Recipe
We chose the ingredients here mainly based on color: cucumber, sugar snap peas, green sprouts, cilantro, mint — plus tofu and rice noodles, even if they aren't green. You can easily adapt the recipe and add, for example, green bell pepper or thinly sliced asparagus, depending on what's in season and what you have in your kitchen. And because we love peanut dip as the classic summer roll companion but also want to show you new ideas, we went with a sesame dip this time — made with tahini, soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, lime, and a little agave syrup. Also very delicious! So what are you waiting for? Round up your friends and get rolling!

Green Summer Rolls with Sugar Snap Peas and Sesame Dip

approx. 10 summer rolls

30 minutes

Ingredients

For the summer rolls:

200 g (7 oz) sugar snap peas
1 cucumber
approx. 15 g (0.5 oz) fresh mint
approx. 30 g (1 oz) cilantro
300 g (10.5 oz) fried tofu (or other firm tofu)
100 g (3.5 oz) thin rice noodles
approx. 30 g (1 oz) sprouts
10 lettuce leaves (optional)
10 sheets rice paper

For the sesame dip:

100 g (0.33 cup) tahini
2 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari for a gluten-free option)
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 lime (juice and zest)
1 tsp agave syrup
1 small garlic clove

Instructions

Start by prepping and cutting all ingredients — ideally to the same length so rolling is easier later on. Trim the ends of the sugar snap peas if needed and remove any tough strings. Cut the cucumber into thin strips. Pick the mint leaves from the stems or wash the cilantro. Cut the tofu into long pieces and cook the rice noodles according to package instructions.
For the dip, stir together the tahini, soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, and lime zest with the agave syrup. Peel a garlic clove and grate it in. Season with salt to taste and add a little more of any ingredient as needed.
Dip one sheet of rice paper into warm water for a few seconds, then place it on a clean work surface. Arrange the filling ingredients on top of each other in the center of the lower third of the paper. Gently fold the left and right sides of the rice paper over the filling, then roll tightly from bottom to top. Prepare the remaining rolls the same way.

Tip: If rolling in rice paper feels tricky, wrap all the fillings in a lettuce leaf first. Then place the lettuce roll onto the soaked rice paper and roll it up as described above.