This is one of my favourite summer meals. You know when you’re in the middle of a heatwave and the idea of turning on the stove makes you feel exhausted and even hotter, but you’re also wanting a fast, nourishing warm (ish) dinner? This ticks all the boxes.
I can’t claim this is an authentic Bún Chả Giò Chay as it very much changes every time I make it, depending on what vegetables I have in the fridge that need using, but it’s certainly delicious. Full of vegetables, refreshing, tangy and spicy. Absolutely perfect for those CBF-ed evenings and it’s also faster to put together than waiting for roughly the same thing from UberEats!
Bún Chả Giò Chay (Vietnamese rice noodle bowl with spring rolls)
Serves 2-4 (well, the two of us with leftovers for one)
200g dried rice vermicelli noodles (usually they are dried in individual nests so use 4 of those if so)
1 large or 2 medium carrots, julienned
Any other raw vegetables you have - I usually use cucumber cut into thin strips, red capsicum (pepper) cut into thin strips, whole or halved raw sugar snap peas or snow peas, julienned zucchini (courgette), and/or green beans - a small amount of each or a large amount of one will do!
1 cup cooked frozen green peas, baby green beans or edamame beans (optional)
A handful of spinach leaves, shredded
Vietnamese mint, as much as you like, roughly chopped (ordinary mint is fine but Vietnamese is wonderful if you can get it - I often use both as I love mint in savoury dishes)
Chives or the green part of spring onions, as much as you like, finely chopped
Any other soft green herbs such as coriander, Thai basil, etc that you might have, finely chopped
1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced (take out the seeds if you don’t want it too spicy)
12 mini frozen vegan spring rolls (in the UK I remember you could sometimes buy spring rolls in the chilled section of Sainsbury’s, ready cooked, so that’s even more of a time saver!)
Seeds (linseed, hemp or pumpkin), to sprinkle over to serve (optional)
3 heaped dessertspoons (roughly 60g) peanut butter or tahini (or see tip below)
2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari, plus extra to serve
1 tablespoon maple or brown rice syrup
1½ tablespoons rice wine vinegar or lime juice (sometimes I use both)
Water to loosen
Extra lime juice to squeeze over
(it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you doubled the sauce ingredients and saved any leftovers in a clean jar in the fridge for a stir fry or to dip dumplings into later in the week, just saying)
Boil the kettle and put your spring rolls in the oven or air fryer to cook.
Place your rice vermicelli noodles in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over and leave to soak and soften. Perhaps set a timer for 5 minutes so you don’t forget!
While the noodles soak and the spring rolls cook, prepare the vegetables if you haven’t already. Assemble the vegetables, chopped chilli and herbs in large serving bowl.
Drain the noodles and rinse briefly under the cold tap. Shake well and leave to cool and drain thoroughly while you make the sauce.
For the sauce, I find the easiest thing is to put everything in an empty clean jar and shake vigorously to combine. As making jams and chutneys is a hobby of mine, I always have a jar hanging around!
In your jar (or bowl), place the first four sauce ingredients, and then determine if more liquid is needed - I usually pour in a little water from the kettle which, at this point, will still be hot but not boiling, which is good for loosening the peanut butter.
Speaking of which, I discovered this AMAZING peanut butter at the supermarket the other week and it is fantastic for a dish like this. It’s made in New Zealand and has wonderful smoky, spicy notes of paprika and chilli. Good news, looks like you can buy it wherever you are in the world! Highly recommended.
Put the lid of the jar on securely and shake, shake, shake until well combined. You might need to add some more water (or lime juice) so it’s not too thick. You want it the same consistency as a salad dressing. Err on the side of thinner rather than thicker.
Right, now it’s time to bring everything together. Get your drained noodles and add them to the bowl of vegetables, chilli and herbs. Pour over the sauce and then toss together with tongs or salad servers until well combined.
Prior to tossing!
The noodle salad can be left for five minutes or so until the spring rolls are ready. If your spring rolls are longer than that away, I would add the dressing when they are almost done.
Allow your spring rolls to cool slightly once they’re out of the oven or fryer, then cut each one in half (I forgot to do this in the one pictured - it’s much nicer when they’re cut in half rather than left whole, I think!)
Place a serving of noodle salad in a bowl and top with pieces of spring roll. You can sprinkle with some seeds or nuts for crunch, some extra fresh chilli or a drizzle of sriracha if you like it hot, or a squeeze of lime juice. You can also add more soy sauce, depending how salty you like it.
Enjoy outside as the sun goes down or in front of the TV with a cold beer! And be prepared to fight over who gets the leftovers for lunch the next day.