The last time we ordered Chinese food, the taste tester was “not in the mood” for Chinese and opted to eat leftover pizza instead. While I could not understand this logic, I wasn’t going to force him to order Chinese, but I warned him that this was not going to be one of those things where he doesn’t order then “takes bites” of all my food. That’s fine he says, fine. Well when the Chinese food came, guess who was jealous? I mean, obviously. I am sitting here with warm delicious Almond Chicken with the thick and kind of jelly-ish brown gravy and a perfect deep fried egg roll and he has two slices of microwaved pizza. But, nice person that I am, I found a few extra pieces of Almond Chicken to share, BUT, HANDS OFF my egg roll. Not a bite, not a lick, don’t even look at my egg roll mister. I mean I love the taste tester, but egg rolls, I love you more.
So I had to tell you that amazingly entertaining story so I could really drive home the point: I love egg rolls. They are hands-down the best part of any Chinese food order. And I am not talking about those dinky spring rolls either, I mean real egg rolls.
So, last week when I made this, I knew I would be disappointed if I didn’t make a side of egg rolls.
I will be honest, I deep-fried most of our egg rolls (as you can see in the photos). BUT, these totally have major potential to be relatively healthy if you bake instead of fry. Replacing the traditional pork with turkey lessens the calories without compromising taste. If you want to make these even healthier, you can use even less meat and more veggies or go totally vegetarian if you are feeling wild.
For a tutorial on rolling the egg rolls, you can check out this post at Steamy Kitchen. She explains it way better than I ever could! But I will tell you that it was surprisingly simple. It obviously takes some time to roll all the egg rolls, but the good news is that these freeze really well. To store, simply separate each egg roll with parchment or wax paper so they don’t stick, then place in a freezer bag and freeze. To fry the frozen egg rolls, just heat oil and fry normally, it will just take a few minutes longer. Do not thaw the egg rolls first.
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 T. soy sauce
- 1 t. cornstarch
- ½ head cabbage (I used ¼ head read cabbage combined with half a bag of Asian coleslaw mix)
- 1 t. fresh ginger, grated
- 1 T. red wine vinegar
- 1½ T. soy sauce
- ½ t. honey
- 1 t. toasted sesame oil
- About 30 egg roll wraps (mine came in packages of 21, so get 2 packages)
- ¼ c. water
- 1 T. cornstarch
- Oil-for frying (I used peanut)
- Olive oil or cooking spray-for baking
- Combine the turkey, 1 T. soy sauce, and 1 t. cornstarch. Marinate for at least 10 minutes in fridge.
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Shred cabbage/desired vegetables in food processor. Even if you buy the coleslaw mix, go ahead and pulse a few times in food processor. You want it to be shredded very finely.
- Combine red wine vinegar, 1½ T. soy sauce, honey, and sesame oil in small bowl or measuring cup.
- Heat 1 T. oil in wok or skillet over medium heat.
- Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add vegetables.
- Increase heat to high, stir fry vegetables until soft, about 1 minute.
- Push vegetables to the side, to create a "hole" in the middle of the skillet. Add 1 t. oil.
- Add turkey to skillet.
- Cook turkey until it starts to brown, 3-4 minutes. Combine with veggies.
- Add reserved soy sauce mixture. Stir fry until turkey is cooked through.
- Remove stir fry to parchment-lined baking sheet to cool. Cool at least 15 minutes or overnight. You want the mixture to try out, so if it appears liquid-y, you can prop one end of the baking sheet up to allow excess moisture to drain. Mine did not have much liquid, so you may find this to be unnecessary.
- If baking, pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place about one tablespoon of filling in the bottom corner of each wrapper.
- Roll egg roll according to package directions or see tutorial linked above.
- Bake, fry, or freeze the egg rolls.
- To bake, spray outside of egg rolls with olive oil. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, turning once.
- To fry, place in about two inches of oil on stove and fry for 2-3 minutes, until just browned.
- To freeze, see note, above.