These easy rice paper rolls make a delicious lunch or dinner and are a great way to use up leftover roast chicken.
Some of you might call these ‘summer rolls’ but my kids and I know them as rice paper rolls. They may look fancy and difficult to make, but in fact they are so easy, the kids can make them!
In my life before children, I used to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant at least once a week. It was not a flashy place, they had no table cloths and the rips in ancient vinyl chairs were mended with gaff tape, but oh man was the food good. Every time I went I ordered the same thing, rice paper rolls.
The restaurant is gone now, and I will never make rice paper rolls as good as theirs, but our homemade rice paper rolls are still pretty good, and they are a great way to use up leftover roast chicken and a great in the lunch box!
Find lots more non-sandwich lunch box ideas here.
Leftover Chicken Rice Paper Roll Recipe
You can fill rice paper rolls with whatever you like, as long as you remember the essentials – rice vermicelli noodles and a scattering of mint! Once you have those two ingredients you can fill them with a variety of veggies, leftover roast meats, or get a little fancy and add some prawns or tofu!
Our favourite filling is left over roast chicken, carrot, cucumber, and shredded lettuce.
You can buy packets of rice paper at the supermarket. They come as round, opaque sheets which look a bit like plastic when it’s dry, but soak them in water for a few seconds and they become soft and pliable and you can fill them with goodies and wrap them up ready to eat.
There is no cooking required to make these, so while you may need to help the kids cut up the fillings, once that is done the kids can do the rest. Putting it all together and rolling it up is not as hard as it looks.
The kids can choose whatever fillings they like, and while some of the rice paper rolls may turn out a bit wonky looking to start with, they will still taste good!
How to Roll Rice Paper Rolls
You’ll need a damp tea towel to work on (so the rice paper doesn’t stick) and then it just a matter of folding and rolling. As long as you don’t overfill your rice paper rolls, or soak the rice paper for too long, the rice paper is very forgiving and the more you make the better you’ll get at it.
Step 1 – with the filling in the centre, fold the left side over and tuck it under the filling as best you can.
Step 2 – fold the top down
Step 3 – fold the bottom up
Step 4 – roll it all over.
We made a quick video to show you how to roll rice paper rolls.
Fill these rice paper rolls with whatever filling you like for a delicious lunch or easy dinner.
Rice Paper Rolls
Ingredients
Instructions
Please note: this recipe uses Australian measurements and temperatures, if you need to convert measurements or temperatures you can find our printable cooking conversion chart here.
I miss eating at that funny old vietnamese restaurant, and I miss their delicious rice paper rolls, so every now and I set the kids up chopping veggies, and soaking rice paper, and I sit back, eating rice paper rolls and pretending I am back there. Unfortunately I have to share with the kids, and help clean up the kitchen afterwards, but it’s still pretty good.
Do your kids like to cook?
Try one of these easy, kid-friendly, recipes :
Would these keep well in the lunchbox? How best to pack for lunch?
TIA
They keep fairly well in a lunch box if they are wrapped in plastic wrap. They are ok in a small airtight container, but they may dry out a little if there is lots of air space.