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Lumpia
Published Dec. 14, 2023
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- Total Time
- 1 hour 45 minutes
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1medium yellow onion, finely minced
- 1large egg
- 1tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for frying (about 6 cups)
- 2medium carrots, scrubbed or peeled, finely minced
- 3garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1pound ground pork
- ½cup drained and finely chopped water chestnuts (from an 8-ounce can), or ½ cup peeled and finely diced jicama (optional)
- 2teaspoons soy sauce
- Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- Black pepper
- 15 to 20frozen lumpia or spring roll wrappers (also labeled as spring roll pastry, not round rice paper rolls), thawed according to package directions
- Sweet chili sauce, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Place the onion in a fine-mesh strainer and press on it with the back of a spoon or a spatula to squeeze out most of the liquid. In a small bowl, beat the egg with 2 teaspoons of water to make an egg wash.
- Step 2
In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium. Add the onion and carrots. Cook, stirring frequently, until slightly softened, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the meat, and cook, stirring constantly and breaking up the meat, until just cooked through, about 6 minutes. Stir in the water chestnuts (if using) and soy sauce. Season with salt (about 1½ teaspoons) and pepper (about 1 teaspoon). Remove from the heat, taste and adjust seasonings. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
- Step 3
Roll the lumpia: Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper. Place a wire rack on a second sheet pan. Have a small bowl of water and damp paper towels nearby to clean your hands as you roll. Peel off 1 wrapper and arrange it on a clean surface so it looks like a diamond. Keep the rest of the wrappers covered with a clean, damp kitchen towel or a couple of paper towels.
- Step 4
Place 2 tablespoons of filling on the wrapper, 3 inches up from the nearest corner. Shape the filling into a log: Lift the nearest corner over the filling and cover it, making sure it’s airtight. Fold in the left and right corners tightly like an envelope, tucking in the corners. Tightly roll the log away from you, stopping about 2 inches from the top, brush the exposed portion with the egg wash and roll to tightly seal in the shape of a cigar.
- Step 5
Place on the parchment-lined sheet pan, drape with a second clean, damp kitchen towel or additional paper towels, and continue until you use up all of the filling. Halfway through the rolling process, in a deep, heavy-bottomed pot, add enough oil to come 1½ inches up the sides and heat over medium until the temperature reaches 370 degrees.
- Step 6
Working in batches to avoid overcrowding, fry the lumpia 4 to 5 at a time, turning them a few times with tongs, until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Adjust the heat as needed to maintain the temperature. Transfer the fried lumpia to the wire rack, and continue with the remainder. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving with sweet chili sauce.
- Place uncooked lumpia rolls on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan and transfer to the freezer, uncovered, overnight. The next day, transfer to a resealable plastic bag and freeze them for up to 3 months. Fry the lumpia from frozen, as directed in the recipe, until golden brown, adding an extra minute.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I’m Filipino, born and raised. This is almost exactly how my mother made lumpiang Shanghai. The bottled sweet chili sauce dip is definitely a Filipino-American twist. My mother would make a sauce by simmering one part vinegar to one part water, a dash of ketchup for color, more sugar than you’d think, grated fresh ginger, all of it thickened to desired consistency with a cornstarch slurry.
Just like my grandma made! Except with chicken and no onions. That was just my kid prejudice that she indulged, there’s nothing wrong with them. Don’t skip the jicama/water chestnuts and try to get the thin Filipino wrappers! That makes the difference. If my family didn’t have the real wrappers, we just turned them into meatballs rather than use the thick egg roll wrappers.
Lethal sticks of deliciousness (naimas)! De rigueur appetizer for every Filipino holiday! We always hit these with white vinegar and minced raw garlic for extra eructation!
Oh the meatballs are a great idea! I have celiac disease so I can’t eat the wrapper but I could make them into meatballs! Thank you!
Not Filipino, by married a Pinoy and have mestiza girls! Ironically, I'm the one who makes the homemade version--my in-laws by them at the sari sari store! If you have to eat GF, try using rice paper wrappers. We do those for my daughter and they fry well.
Sure there are as many ways to make Lumpia Shanghai as there are “gumbo” in my home state of Louisiana. Learned from my college roommate from Manila- ground pork- raw shrimp chopped finely w chef’s knife… raw onion & carrots shredded w food processor- black pepper, grated fresh garlic- 3:1 ratio Asian soy sauce:fish sauce until moist but not wet. Cut wrappers into 1/4ths/squares & roll long side to long side, sealed w egg wash. ends are “open” fry and dip in Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce…Yum!
Am I missing something? What is the egg wash for?
The filling was good. Wrapper is too thick, tasted a bit doughy. I’ll definitely try to hunt down the Filipino wrappers. That could make all the difference!
Thanks for the inspiration, I did this for two for Super Bowl yesterday along with 3/4 sections of snow crab. I added a small amount of turnip along with the H20 chestnuts: same crunch different tang and used a butter spray in my big air fryer 6 turn 6 min because my peanut oil half gallon did some cod Friday night…. A delightful new treat! The other half made up are now frozen.
Agree about the meatballs! Would love to enjoy the filling without the fried wrapper at least part of the time..and I’m not just saying that because my wrapping skills embarrassingly in lack.
Probably in the New York City area you can get the right kind of egg roll wrappers in a supermarket, in the Boston area, though (and probably anywhere less cosmopolitan than New York), you’ll probably need to go to a Chinese or Asian market. The wrappers in regular supermarkets are usually much too thick to make these.
These are good, not too hard, and guests loved them.
Made these for friends at Thanksgiving last year, but dipped them in homemade banana ketchup. It went over bigger than I intended. In Michigan, the sweeter/less fiery sauce was a welcome addition.
I lived in Manilaas a child and can’t wait to try this recipe!
Here in Hawaii, lumpia often appear at large gatherings, retirement parties, staff parties, Super Bowl parties, you name it. This article made my mouth water. Sometimes, the Filipino family on our street will make them for block parties.
My mom also added green beans and bamboo shoots. We didn’t use pork - chicken and shrimp for meat and left out the meat for vegetarians. I veganized it by using frozen beef crumbles. Then added bamboo shoots. Used aquafaba instead of egg whites. Totally held together and all the Pinoy family approved!
Not Filipino, by married a Pinoy and have mestiza girls! Ironically, I'm the one who makes the homemade version--my in-laws by them at the sari sari store! If you have to eat GF, try using rice paper wrappers. We do those for my daughter and they fry well.
Sure there are as many ways to make Lumpia Shanghai as there are “gumbo” in my home state of Louisiana. Learned from my college roommate from Manila- ground pork- raw shrimp chopped finely w chef’s knife… raw onion & carrots shredded w food processor- black pepper, grated fresh garlic- 3:1 ratio Asian soy sauce:fish sauce until moist but not wet. Cut wrappers into 1/4ths/squares & roll long side to long side, sealed w egg wash. ends are “open” fry and dip in Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce…Yum!
Can these be air fried?
The meatball is a great suggestion. I'm going to leave it ground up and make lettuce wraps instead as another GF option.
Are these wraps made of rice or wheat?
I did a search on the Internet for lumpia wrapper recipes. All of the recipes I looked at used wheat flour. I assume the same will be true for store-bought wrappers.
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