Vegan Vietnamese Tofu and Mushroom Spring Rolls

This recipe is influenced by a summer roll recipe from Eat More Veg - if you would like to know more about this excellent cookbook, then check out our article on our top 10 recipe books.

"Tofu is the king of all proteins. It is extremely versatile and adapts to any recipe." - Martin Yan

How to make homemade vegan Vietnamese spring rolls

Ingredients for tofu spring roll mixture

• 1 pack x Rice paper spring roll wrappers

• 1/2 block x Tofoo naked tofu

• 5 x Large mushrooms chopped

• 2 x Garlic cloves finely sliced

• 2 tsp x Grated ginger

• 1 tbsp x Soy sauce

• 1 tbsp x Chinese crispy chilli oil

• 1 x Large carrot, grated

• 2 x Kale leaves, chopped

• 2 x Spring onions, peeled and chopped

• 1 tbsp x Vegan oyster sauce

• 1 tbsp x Golden syrup

• 1 tbsp x Corn flour

Instructions:

• Heat oil in a wok over a medium heat and add the tofu, stir and fry off for 2 minutes

• Add the garlic and ginger then stir

• Drizzle over the crispy chilli oil, and then add the mushrooms. Fry until beginning to soften

• Add the soy sauce and then the red cabbage. Continue to stir fry for another 3 minutes until cabbage is no longer raw.

• Add the carrot and then the kale and spring onions. Combine into the mixture

• Drizzle over the oyster sauce and golden syrup

• Keep stir frying until all of the ingredients have cooked in, then add the cornflour and stir. Once fully integrated, turn off the heat and stop the cooking process.

• Now it’s time to make the rolls:

  • Take two rice paper wrappers and soak them in cold water until soft.

  • On a clean work service, lay out a clean, moist tea towel so that the surface area is larger than a rice paper wrapper.

  • Place the soaked wrapper onto the tea towel, then add a tablespoon of mixture onto the bottom third of the wrapper.

  • Roll the wrapper over the mixture and then tuck the two ends over the top. Roll over again so that the spring roll is a cylinder.

  • Place to one side and then take the second wrapper and place on the tea towel. Place the spring roll in the second sheet and repeat the action so the roll is double skinned.

  • Repeat until all the mixture is used up in a spring roll!

  • See the video above for the action

• To make the rolls crispy:

  • Preheat your air fryer to 200c, when ready pop your rolls in (don’t add oil)

  • Fry them for 7 minutes then flip and finish with another 7 minutes in the air fryer.

• Take them out and serve with the dipping suggestions below

How to use rice paper wrappers

Vietnamese summer roll pastry differs from that of Chinese spring rolls in that these are made of rice and are super thin. Whereas the spring roll we all know from our Chinese takeaway is a thin pastry disc, rice paper wrappers are more akin to prawn cracker shards. The way to activate them is a lot like using gelatine, you need a dish wide enough to place the dehydrated wrapper in without bending it, and then fill it with around 3cm of water. Take a disc and place it in the water until it becomes pliable and soft. The trick then is to get it flattened on the tea towel without it wrinkling and becoming useless (think like clingfilm when it’s just been pulled off the roll).

Once it is placed out on the tea towel you can wrap your filling. The fun thing about these rolls is they don’t need to be cooked, so you can have them sticky and soft or pop them in the fryer to crisp them up!

Dipping sauce suggestions for Vietnamese spring rolls

There are dozens of fantastic sauces that can be used with spring rolls, however for this particular recipe I would recommend the following:

Peanut dipping sauce:

Take three tablespoons of peanut butter, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of rice wine vinegar and a grated clove of garlic. Mix together until smooth and then taste, if it’s too sharp or sweet then adjust with either sugar or soy.

Crispy chilli oil:

See our full recipe for Chinese crispy chilli oil

Okonomiyaki Sauce:

Mix three tablespoons of tomato ketchup, two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Stir to combine. You can also paint this on the rolls before you put them in the air fryer, they will go crispy on the bottom but rich and gooey on the top.

How to make tofu taste good:

Tofu is particularly bland when uncooked and unloved. In fact there are many famous quotes from chefs and food celebrities around how awful tofu is. But tofu’s strength is that it doesn’t have a strong flavour, it means it absorbs all the flavours around it. If you make sure that tofu has plenty of time to either marinade or cook in a sauce then you will find the flavour profile changes completely.

The other option is to make it super crispy, one of our favourite ways to have tofu is as a snack in the air fryer. Simply toss in cornflour and then fry for around 10 minutes until super crispy, seasoned tofu with paprika and chilli powder works especially well.