Recipe for Filipino Lumpia You Can Make at Home!
Since we opened our food trucks, one of our most popular dishes has always been the fiipino lumpia eggrolls. They are a popular Filipino snack food, that are crispy and so delectable. We have these at almost every party and barbecue we have and they are always an instant hit. Today we will show you exactly how easy it is to make Filipino Lumpia. Serve these at your next football or poker night for a great “WOW” appetizer. They are surprisingly easy to make and people really love them.
One thing about making new foods is that many people become intimidated simply because they have never made something similar before, if that is you, don’t be intimidated! Making Filipino Lumpia Eggrolls is way easy than you would imagine!
Filipino Lumpia Ingredients
The tools you’ll need to make lumpia are pretty simple, you’ll just need a few things to get started. You’ll want a piping set to make it much easier, get one here. If you have ever done any cake decorating it is likely that you already have a piping set. It is basically a plastic bag where you will put the filing for the lumpia, and then you’ll add a metal tip which will help you pipe the egg roll filing right onto the eggroll wrappers.
Now for lumpia you want to use less filing than what you might find in an eggroll. They are a bit smaller in width than eggrolls. Consider the shape of a cigar or cigarello. That is more of the size of Filipino Lumpia. And trust me, if you never tried this pinoy favorite and have only ever had eggrolls, it’s time that you give Filipino lumpia a chance.
For Filipino Lumpia you won’t need too many different ingredients it’s all basically the same, you’ll want to get a quality oil of your choosing, in this recipe we decided to use canola oil. You’ll need one onion and a bag of shredded carrots.
The seasoning for filipino lumpia consists of ginger, salt, soy sauce, and pepper if you like. For the filing you can use either ground pork or ground beef, and if you like you could even use ground chicken although that isn’t traditionally what is used for the filing. Make sure that you’ll got at least one package of spring rolls.
Tips to Make Filipino Lumpia Successfully
If it is your first time making lumpia, you’ll want to make sure that you have a damp towel to cover your spring roll wrappers while you are working. You will pull a few wrappers out and put in the filing before you make more. If you don’t cover the wrappers you aren’t using with a damp towel then the edges will become crispy and unusable. This is really a step that you do not want to skip!
Another thing is when you are using hot oil and frying, make sure that you don’t over load the oil. This simply means don’t put too many lumpia in the hot oil at one time. Also make sure that you heat your oil up hot enough before you start frying. This is another mistake people commonly make when frying. Make sure the oil is HOT! You can also get a fryer scoop to help you remove the lumpia from the pan after frying.
Can Filipino Lumpia Be Made in an Air Fryer?
Yes! You can definitely make these in the air fryer if you are trying to cut down on oils and fats. In this case try using a meat such as ground chicken or turkey in place of the traditional filipino lumpia filing meat, ground pork, which has a much higher fat content. Make sure they are cooked all the way through and heated to an internal temperature of at least 142 degrees Fahrenheit. Never tried cooking in an air fryer? It’s surprisingly delicious. I have always had amazing success with cooking in the air fryer and don’t notice that it negatively impacts the flavor of my food. If you are interested in getting an air fryer, this is a great one, you can also use it for dehydrating food and making jerky and other fun food like rotisserie chicken. Air fryers have become so popular lately and rightly so, because of how easy and fast they make cooking.
Also another benefit of cooking in the air fryer is that there is significantly less mess to clean up, and right now oil has almost doubled in price, we actually made a Youtube video
Lumpia Wrappers
So you may be wondering what lumpia wrappers you’ll want to get for this recipe? It’s really not that big of a deal which ones you pick, as long as you pick spring roll wrappers you should be getting the correct ones. You can find them in most major grocery stores, on amazon here, or in any Asian super market. You won’t really go wrong here so don’t be intimidated by this part of the recipe. There is really such a variety to choose from that you can pick whichever suits your liking.
What is really important about the lumpia wrappers is how tightly that you wrap your lumpia. Now this part may take some practice because most people can’t wrap quite as tightly when they are first getting started. You want to roll this as tightly as you can because it makes for a better end result. If you wrap it losely it could come apart when frying or end up being soggy from too much oil getting into the wrappers.
See how tightly you can wrap and let us know how it goes! If you need any help or have questions you can always shoot us a DM on Instagram or send us a photo on Instagram of your final product!
Filipino Lumpia
Equipment
- 1 Cake Piping Bag
- 1 Metal Tip for Piping Bag
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1 bag shredded carrots
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 pound ground pork
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 cup canola oil For Frying
- 1 pkg Spring Roll or Lumpia Wrappers
- 1/2 cup water (for flour paste)
- 1/4 cup flour (for flour paste)
Instructions
- Prepare the filing. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat.
- Saute the onion, carrot, and ginger until the onion is slightly translucent. Do not overcook the carrots.
- Remove the onion mixture from the pan and let cool, two or three minutes.
- In a large bowl add the ground pork and mix in the prepared onion and carrot mixture.
- Add the salt, pepper, soy sauce, and stir for a few minutes until it is completely mixed.
- Make a flour and water paste. In a small bowl mix 1/2 cup water with 1/4 cup flour.
- Put filing into a cake piping bag
- Lay out one lumpia wrapper and pipe filling at the bottom of the wrapper, making sure to attach a metal tip to the cake piping bag. Pipe a line of filling across the bottom of the lumpia wrapper
- roll the filing up until there is about an inch of the wrapper remaining
- Paint an inch of flour/water paste for glue to the edge of the inside of the wrapper and complete the roll so that it stays in place.
- Heat 1 cup of canola oil in a frying pan, add more oil if needed. Make sure oil reaches a hot temperature before adding lumpia
- Carefully place four to five lumpia in the hot oil at a time and make sure that it is not burning. Cook for a minute on all sides until it is perfectly toasty and golden brown.
- Remove from the oil and place on a paper towel or wire rack to drain excess oil.
