Rice paper dumplings

Name: Rice paper dumplings
Prep time: 14 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 39 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: 1/4 White Cabbage; 1 Carrots; 100g Shiitake Mushrooms; 400g Ground Pork; 2 cloves minced Garlic; 20g Ginger; 2 tsp Soy Sauce; 2 tsp Sesame Seed Oil; 3 sliced thinly Spring Onions; 20 Rice Paper Sheets; 75 ml Vegetable Oil; 2 tablespoons Soy Sauce; 2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar; 1/2 tbs Sesame Seed; 2 sliced Spring Onions

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Pork recipe with Vietnamese flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 49 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 39 min total

1/4 White Cabbage
1 Carrots
100g Shiitake Mushrooms
400g Ground Pork
2 cloves minced Garlic
20g Ginger
2 tsp Soy Sauce
2 tsp Sesame Seed Oil
3 sliced thinly Spring Onions
20 Rice Paper Sheets
75 ml Vegetable Oil
2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar
1/2 tbs Sesame Seed
2 sliced Spring Onions

Step-by-step instructions

Tip the cabbage into a food processor and blitz until finely chopped. Season with ½ tsp salt, toss well and set aside for 15 mins. Tip into a clean tea towel and squeeze out as much water as you can. Tip into a bowl with the carrot, mushrooms, pork mince, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and spring onions. Season with black pepper. Scrunch everything together using your hands, mixing well until everything is combined.
Soak the spring roll sheets for a couple of seconds in a shallow dish of warm water, then transfer to an oiled chopping board. Working with one sheet at a time, spoon 1 heaped tbsp of the filling into the middle, then fold the bottom up and over the filling. Fold down the top of the sheet, then the sides to fully encase and make a neat square. If the dumpling feels a little fragile, soak another sheet and wrap it again. Repeat with the remaining sheets and filling, transferring the dumplings to an oiled plate as you go.
Heat the oil in a large, non-stick frying pan (ensuring it is no more than a third full) over a medium-high heat and fry the dumplings for 3-5 mins until golden brown. Use a slotted spoon or spider to turn them, then cover with a lid and cook for another 3-4 mins until golden. Remove the lid and cook for 1-2 mins.
Meanwhile, combine all the dipping sauce ingredients in small bowl. Serve the dumplings with the dipping sauce on the side.

Why this works on a weeknight

Rice paper dumplings lands at about 39 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Rice & Grain Bowls collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Rice paper dumplings actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍚 Rice & Grain Bowls Pork Vietnamese