recipe: baked lumpia
Lumpia = Filipino eggrolls. This past summer, my sister showed me that eggrolls, etc., can be just as easily baked as fried. Much easier and much healthier! Yay! I came up with an easy and amazingly tasty sauce to dip them in, and they were a big hit with all 3 generations on our family vacation! Now they're on frequent rotation in my & L's menu. The main difference between egg rolls and lumpia is that lumpia is more fun to say.
These reheat nicely in the oven or toaster oven. (Microwave would probably be gross.) Yields 16-20 lumpia.
Ingredients:
- 1 package egg roll wrappers
- about 1 pound of proteiny substance (I use ground turkey, but tempeh, tofu, TVP, ground beef, ground pork, leftover chicken, etc. would also work nicely)
-
- fresh ground black pepper
- about 3 cups of shredded veggies (I get a bag of organic broccoli slaw--shredded broccoli and carrots--when I'm lazy, which so far has been every single time I've made this; shredded cabbage would be more authentic)
- about 2 fistsful of dried bean thread (thin, glassy noodles you can find in Asian groceries and often in the "ethnic" section of a regular supermarket)--you could omit these if you can't find them or they sound too weird
- a jar of apricot jam (I prefer fruit-only)
- soy sauce (I use Bragg liquid aminos instead)
- sesame oil
- spray oil
Process:
- Fry up your protein of choice with a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce, and, if you're using them, your oniony and/or garlicky things. Give it all a few good grinds of pepper, to taste.
- When that's done and most of the grease has cooked away, throw in your shredded veggies and stir-fry or steam until soft. Remove from heat.
- Meanwhile, boil some water, and when it's boiling, turn it off and throw in the bean thread. They'll soften up in about a minute or three. Drain them, chop them up a bit, and stir them into the protein/veggie mix.
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Spray a cookie sheet lightly with oil.
- Assemble the lumpia: With a wrapper on your counter on a diagonal, place about 3 heaping tablespoons of the filling diagonally lower than center, leaving some space at both ends. Fold the bottom corner along the length of the filling over the filling, tuck in both ends, and roll neatly. Keep the roll tight as you assemble. Sealing them with water as you would if you were to fry them isn't important when you're baking them, so I don't bother. Lumpia can be placed very close to each other on the cookie sheet. Repeat till you run out of wrappers, filling, or patience. With the quantities above, I almost always end up with exactly the right amount of filling for my pack of wrappers. Handy!
- Spray the tops of the completed lumpia lightly with oil.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, until lumpia are golden-browned and crunchy-looking.
- While the lumpia are baking, make the Dippy Sauce(TM): Dump the jam into a bowl, jar, or 2-cup measuring beaker. Add soy sauce and sesame oil to taste. I probably use about 1-2 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil, but this may be way off; just put in a little to start, taste it, and add more soy sauce and sesame oil until it's unutterably yummy.
- When lumpia are done, let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes or so before eating so you don't turn the roof of your mouth into a molten land of pain.
- Devour! You can make a satisfying meal from 2-4 of these, depending on your appetite and will power.
These reheat nicely in the oven or toaster oven. (Microwave would probably be gross.) Yields 16-20 lumpia.
Ingredients:
- 1 package egg roll wrappers
- about 1 pound of proteiny substance (I use ground turkey, but tempeh, tofu, TVP, ground beef, ground pork, leftover chicken, etc. would also work nicely)
-
- fresh ground black pepper
- about 3 cups of shredded veggies (I get a bag of organic broccoli slaw--shredded broccoli and carrots--when I'm lazy, which so far has been every single time I've made this; shredded cabbage would be more authentic)
- about 2 fistsful of dried bean thread (thin, glassy noodles you can find in Asian groceries and often in the "ethnic" section of a regular supermarket)--you could omit these if you can't find them or they sound too weird
- a jar of apricot jam (I prefer fruit-only)
- soy sauce (I use Bragg liquid aminos instead)
- sesame oil
- spray oil
Process:
- Fry up your protein of choice with a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce, and, if you're using them, your oniony and/or garlicky things. Give it all a few good grinds of pepper, to taste.
- When that's done and most of the grease has cooked away, throw in your shredded veggies and stir-fry or steam until soft. Remove from heat.
- Meanwhile, boil some water, and when it's boiling, turn it off and throw in the bean thread. They'll soften up in about a minute or three. Drain them, chop them up a bit, and stir them into the protein/veggie mix.
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Spray a cookie sheet lightly with oil.
- Assemble the lumpia: With a wrapper on your counter on a diagonal, place about 3 heaping tablespoons of the filling diagonally lower than center, leaving some space at both ends. Fold the bottom corner along the length of the filling over the filling, tuck in both ends, and roll neatly. Keep the roll tight as you assemble. Sealing them with water as you would if you were to fry them isn't important when you're baking them, so I don't bother. Lumpia can be placed very close to each other on the cookie sheet. Repeat till you run out of wrappers, filling, or patience. With the quantities above, I almost always end up with exactly the right amount of filling for my pack of wrappers. Handy!
- Spray the tops of the completed lumpia lightly with oil.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, until lumpia are golden-browned and crunchy-looking.
- While the lumpia are baking, make the Dippy Sauce(TM): Dump the jam into a bowl, jar, or 2-cup measuring beaker. Add soy sauce and sesame oil to taste. I probably use about 1-2 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil, but this may be way off; just put in a little to start, taste it, and add more soy sauce and sesame oil until it's unutterably yummy.
- When lumpia are done, let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes or so before eating so you don't turn the roof of your mouth into a molten land of pain.
- Devour! You can make a satisfying meal from 2-4 of these, depending on your appetite and will power.