Chả giò is by far one of my favourite childhood dishes. It’s Vietnamese spring rolls and it’s commonly eaten with cold vermicelli noodle salads or as a hand roll with fish sauce. It’s very easy to make but it’s definitely a labour of love! It takes 2-3 hours to make, mostly prepping the ingredients so I highly recommend you make a big batch and freeze.

Most of the ingredients are definitely not commonly seen in your normal grocery stores, so I highly suggest you make a trip to your Asian supermarket (even better if it’s a Vietnamese grocer)!

1. Pork: definitely do not use lean pork mince. Go for something a bit fattier so that the spring rolls are not dry. You can substitute for chicken if you can’t eat pork.
2. Jicama: it’s a root vegetable that’s commonly used in Vietnamese cuisine. It’s sweet and crisp. You can find it in the frozen section of your Asian (more specifically Vietnamese) grocery. Use cassava if you cannot find it, this is more easily source in Chinese grocery stores.
3. Woodear Mushroom: it comes dried and you need to rehydrate it with hot water for around 5-10 minutes. It’s crunchy and delicious, add a nice textural element to the spring rolls.
4. Filling: you need your filling mixture to be really dry, otherwise it will be soggy when you fry it. To prevent this from happening, you will need to squeeze out all the water and moisture from your veggies. So julienne them and then use a cheese cloth or paper towel to squeeze them.
5. Cellophane noodles: you only need to blanche this for 10 seconds! It should still feel uncooked. Its purpose is to soak up any leftover moisture of your filling mixture.

How to eat!

Hand Rolls

1. Northern Style: Get a piece of rice paper (there are 2 types: one where you have to soak it in water and one you can eat it dry – get the dry one. It’s called “Bánh tráng không nhúng nước” in Vietnamese). To your piece of rice paper, add a piece of lettuce, some vermicelli, carrot, cucumber coriander, Vietnamese mint and a spring roll. Roll it all up and dip it in some fish sauce.
2. Southern Style: same thing but without the rice paper. Use lettuce to wrap everything instead.

How to eat – continued!

3. Cold Vermicelli Salad bowl:

This method is a little bit more carb heavy. Add a decent amount of vermicelli noodles to the bottom of your bowl and top with lettuce, herbs, carrot, cucumber and chopped up spring rolls. Dress with fish sauce and mix well.

4. Or just enjoy them on its own!