It’s strange how a common pantry ingredient can suddenly step outside its standard use. We’ve seen it with 2-minute noodles that have been repurposed into a crunchy topping for salads, or even soaked to turn into a cheat’s gnocchi. And now it’s happened with those sheets of rice paper, mostly seen soaked and then wrapped around noodles, prawns and some greenery to make Vietnamese rice paper rolls. 

That’s the beauty of rice paper – once soaked, it becomes malleable, so it can be used to wrap things up. But equally magical is how rice paper turns deliciously crispy when fried. 

Now, these attributes have inspired a legion of social media fans to repurpose rice paper in myriad wonderful, and often weird, ways – whether it’s smashed into little pieces to form crunchy ‘scales’ on fillets of fried fish; soaked in melted butter and layered up to make strange croissant-like things; or cut into squares and baked to make pillow-like puffs for filling. Here are the best rice paper recipe ideas for you to try at home.

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How to make rice paper nachos 

If you shallow-fry rice paper, it will become white and crispy. Break up the resulting wafer-like sheets and top with whatever you want: perhaps sliced long green shallots with chopped raw salmon and avocado with Japanese mayo and a little sriracha. Or combine your rice paper with another current social media obsession and top the white, crispy paper wafers with musubi-style thin slices of fried Spam tossed in a soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sugar caramel. Add slices of red chilli and torn Korean seaweed sheets for colour. 

How to make rice paper quesadillas 

Fry two sheets of rice paper to sandwich fillings like chopped kimchi and grated cheddar with gochujang; ginger and garlic-spiked pork mince with diced snow peas and mushrooms; or grated veg (carrots, cabbage and thinly sliced onions). Shallow-fry any of these until cooked through. The pork mix was particularly successful; in part because I wasn’t shy with the seasoning and I didn’t use too much filling, allowing the edges to get extra crisp and frilly in the pan. You can take the same approach to make crispy rice paper cigars.

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Credit: Chris Court

How to make rice paper prawn crackers 

Halve green prawns and toss with a little soy sauce and finely chopped long green shallot. Sandwich between squares of rice paper. Wet edges to stick together. Shallow-fry and serve these crispy prawn wafers with lime-juice-spiked mayo. You could do the same thing with thicker slices of tuna sashimi – just make sure the oil is nice and hot so the fish stays a little pink. 

How to make Japanese rice paper prawn parcels 

Finely chopped prawns with finely diced shallots make a great filling for rice paper. Soak  rice paper and fold around a fat nugget of filling. Shallow-fry on all sides until crisp. I like adding a strip of nori for flavour and colour. Serve with wasabi-spiked soy. You could also parcel up and fry a filling of banana and salted caramel this way for a sweet treat. 

How to make rice paper sausage rolls 

Soak two sheets of rice paper in beaten egg. Lay on top of each other. Put a finger of leftover spiced mince meat or sausage meat in the middle. Fold over the sides and roll up. Bake in an air fryer until crunchy and golden.

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