Vegetarian Egg Rolls
The egg roll. Simple, greasy, delicious.
Egg rolls used to be one of my go-to foods to order when we got Chinese take out as a kid. The thing no one told me about being a vegetarian before I became one, is that when you take the pork out of the egg roll, they decide its better as a spring roll… thats just sad!! I think veggie spring rolls have their place, but they do not replace the egg roll’s deep fried, fatty deliciousness.
I decided if no one was going to give that to me, I was going to give it to myself!! Thank you, Cristen. You’re welcome, Cristen.
I am really not very well versed in any sort of frying, so I decided to go with a shallow fry, rather than a deep fry… it just seemed more manageable to me. If you’re looking to cut some oil and fat here, you could also air fry or bake and I’m sure they’d still be good, but they’re not an egg roll without frying.
The filling is simple: onions, garlic, cabbage, carrots, scallions and soy chorizo or tofu. You pack this into the wrapper, wet the corner and roll on up. It took me a few tries to understand how to roll these, so I inserted the graphic from my Nasoya packaging above. To make this vegan, you just need vegan egg roll wrappers!
Once the egg rolls are wrapped and your frying oil is heated (I used coconut oil, but its your choice what you use), you can place the egg rolls in the pan and fry on each side until golden brown.
Graphic is from the package of Nasoya egg roll wrappers I used
There it is. A tasty egg roll reminiscent of the ones you could get from Chinese take out. It is just as fatty and greasy and you could even do what I did and serve it up with other dishes you remember from Chinese take out. I served mine with tempura cauliflower and garlic broccoli
Vegetarian Egg Rolls
Ingredients:
- 1 pack egg roll wrappers make sure you have at least between 10-15 wrappers (find vegan wrappers if vegan)
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1 package soy chorizo (or tofu, if you can't find this near you)
- 6 cups shredded red & green cabbage
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 cup scallions cut however you prefer
- 1.5 cups refined, filtered coconut oil or any frying oil you prefer
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions:
- Add sesame oil to a large pan. Dice onions and garlic. Add onions and garlic to pan. Allow to cook until translucent and fragrant.
- Add soy sauce to this mixture. Add in cabbage and carrots. Allow to cook down completely.
- Add soy chorizo or crumbled tofu. If you are adding tofu, I suggest pressing and marinading it in a soy sauce, sriracha, vinegar, sesame oil combination for 1 hour prior to cooking.
- One soy chorizo is completely cooked, add scallions to pan and allow to cook until soft. Let this mixture cool.
- Heat coconut oil in a frying pan on medium heat until your oil is 350 degrees.
- Roll up the filling into the egg roll wrappers. To do this, place wrapper in the shape of a diamond. Put a large scoop of filling in a line across the center of the diamond. Fold up the bottom corner of the diamond, fold the 2 side corners, wet the top corner with water and roll. I will insert a graphic in the post above!
- Add eggrolls to frying oil, flipping until each side is golden brown. Allow to cool on a drying rack or paper towels. Enjoy!
