Nem Rán — Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls

Posted On August 8, 2026

Makes: 20 spring rolls
Prep/Cook Time: About 1 hour

Ingredients

• 200 g ground pork
• 100 g glass noodles
• 3 eggs
• 3 oz wood ear mushrooms, minced
• 3 oz shiitake mushrooms, minced
• 3 oz green onion, minced
• 3 oz onion, minced
• 3 oz carrot, finely grated and minced
• 3 oz bean sprouts, minced
• 3 oz jicama
• 20 rice papers
• 3 oz oyster sauce
• 20 [unit unspecified] fish sauce
• 1/2 liter cooking oil, for frying

Instructions

1. Soak the glass noodles in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain, then chop them into short pieces.
2. In a large bowl, combine the ground pork, noodles, eggs, mushrooms, green onion, onion, carrot, bean sprouts, jicama, fish sauce, and oyster sauce. Mix thoroughly.
3. Place about 1½ tablespoons of filling near one end of a rice paper wrapper, forming it into a short sausage-like shape.
4. Fold the sides of the wrapper inward, then roll tightly from the filling end.
5. Seal the edge by brushing it with a little egg white.
6. Heat the cooking oil over medium-high heat.
7. Fry the spring rolls, turning frequently, until golden brown and the pork is cooked through, about 5–7 minutes.
8. Remove and drain on paper towels.
9. Serve hot with spring roll dipping sauce.

Note about the original recipe

The ingredient card literally lists “20 Fish sauce” without specifying grams, ounces, teaspoons, or milliliters. Given the rest of the recipe, 20 mL (about 1⅓ tablespoons) would be a plausible interpretation, but that’s an inference rather than something stated on the card.

Also, the card calls for 3 whole eggs in the filling but then says to use “a bit more egg white” for sealing. So you may want to reserve a little egg white before mixing the eggs into the filling

Nước Chấm — Vietnamese Dipping Sauce

Makes: About 5–6 small dipping portions

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons sugar or honey
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime or kumquat juice
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 6 tablespoons hot water
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ fresh red chili, thinly sliced crosswise
• ¼ carrot or pickle, thinly sliced

Instructions

1. Combine the fish sauce, lime or kumquat juice, sugar, and hot water in a small bowl.
2. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved.
3. Add the minced garlic, sliced chili, and carrot or pickle.
4. Divide among 5–6 small dipping bowls and serve.

One discrepancy in the original

There’s a small mistake on the recipe card: the ingredient list says carrot/pickle, but the instructions say to add “cucumber/onion.” Given traditional nước chấm and the ingredient list, thinly sliced or julienned carrot makes considerably more sense.

Also, for the spring rolls, I’d probably use sugar rather than honey. It’ll give you the cleaner, more typical sweet-sour-salty nước chấm flavor.