Vietnamese spring rolls were first introduced to me by my very best friend. Some days I really want a spring roll, but I just don't have any rice paper left in my cupboard. So, I make the next best thing, Vietnamese Spring Roll Salad!
This dish works beautifully as a meal prep dish by the way. I love making it for my lunches at work and while I make it I chop up extra lettuce for my dinner side salads. Saves my time and my money!
Meal prepping is something that can be done by just about anyone. If you're new, I highly recommend only meal prepping a couple of meals a week. Just ease yourself into it. Meal prepping can take time, and although it does become faster the more you do it, in the beginning, it is best to take time and figure out what works for you.
What I found works best for me and my schedule is to meal prep my lunches every Sunday, just 5 meals a week. Some weeks I will slightly prep some dinners, such as put chicken in baggies with seasoning and throw it in the freezer, or cut up some vegetables to make room in the refrigerator. I would love to have a full day to meal prep everything (I plan my dinners for every week so nothing is up in the air and it is possible to prep if I wanted to) but I'm a mom and work full time and love having a small social life...alas I have but one or two hours each weekend.
Like I said before when I make this meal I like to make a huge salad so that I can have some for my lunches and leftovers for my side salads at dinner. That's why I used 3 heads of romaine, 1 iceberg lettuce, and the 4 pack of Aldi artisanal lettuces, along with some cilantro. Hense this big AF bowl of greens.
Just call me Merlin because that chopped-up salad is magical.
The other ingredients in this salad are cucumber, carrots, bean sprouts, vermicelli noodles, and your meat or seafood of choice. The dressing is a play on the dipping sauce you eat with spring rolls.
A few tips, use a spoon to take the seeds out of the cucumber if you are meal prepping. The less moisture the better for meal prep. It helps keep everything fresher. So pull that spoon out of your utensil drawer and gut that cucumber!
Another more fun tip, use colorful vegetables like these rainbow carrots!! I found them at Wegmans in the organic section. I've been on a rainbow carrot kick lately. They are just so cute and tasty!
And lastly, when you make your dressing ALWAYS mix your peanut butter with your hoisin sauce BEFORE adding water or soy sauce. Trust me, you do not want flecks of peanut butter floating around your dressing, you want a nice and uniform dressing that almost looks like chocolate sauce.
Vietnamese Spring Roll Salad
Ingredients:
Lettuce
1 Cucumber
1 1/2c Carrots
1/2c-1c Bean Sprouts
Cilantro
1-2lbs Meat (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, etc...)
Vermicelli Noodles (Pho Noodles)
Hoisin Sauce
Peanut Butter
Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Sesame Oil
Directions:
Marinate your meat for at least 20 minutes in soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil, 2TB of each. Cook the meat in your preferred method until it is fully cooked. Chop up the lettuce and cilantro, mix them together in a bowl. Boil a pot of water and put the vermicelli noodles in the pot for 5-10 minutes, then drain and cool.
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