Lumpia or fried spring rolls are another of those filipinized chinese dishes that has evolved over the years. Like adobo (meat stew with vinegar) or sinigang (sour soup), each household seems to have their version of what goes into the filling of their lumpia. Several years ago I did a post on lumpia and asked what readers liked to add to their version, and their answers were pretty interesting, see original post here, and I have taken some of those suggestions and applied them to our own lumpia filling on occasion. Once you make the filling and let it cool a bit, if is most often wrapped in a thin wrapper and deep fried. But increasingly, I have seen the filling simply served as is, a tasty and nutritious vegetable side dish with less fat and carbohydrates. I kind of like it naked every once in a while…
Start by preparing all of your ingredients and having them in place beside your wok. Notice the nice patina that is developing in the wok… :)
Saute some garlic and onions then ad some chopped pork (or chicken). Toss this around and season the meat with a little soy and fish sauce.
Add shredded or julienned carrots and kamote or sweet potatoes, and toss over high heat for several minutes.
Add some thinly sliced baguio beans or sliced snow peas…
…stirring it all up nicely and vigorously to prevent sticking. Moisture will start to come out of the veggies and you want a lot of that to evaporate.
Add LOTS of bean sprouts and toss. Season with fish sauce and soy sauce to taste.
Cook for a couple more minutes over high heat. You want the veggies to be cooked, but still a little crisp.
Add thinly sliced napa cabbage or chinese petchay and toss for a minute or two longer and it’s done! I like to eat this with some steamed rice. But if you wrap them up and fry them, they also make terrific spring rolls! Enjoy!
All photos in this post taken by AT, since I was cooking.
40 Responses
I prefer mine naked! This is a yummy-healthy post!
…or instead or wrapping them in lumpia wrapper, get a nice head of iceberg lettuce or radicchio …under cold running water to separate the leaves in nice pieces,…then sotanghon (deep fry till puffy), nori strips, crushed peanuts (in almires), with a touch of sugar or Splenda (for Silly Lolo!)…top with lumpia up above wrapped in the iceberg lettuce…oh, I forgot the hoisin!….this is soooooooomasarap!
This is a perfect healthy meal!
Marisse, try this!… instead or wrapping them in lumpia wrapper, get a nice head of iceberg lettuce or radicchio …under cold running water to separate the leaves in nice pieces,…then sotanghon (deep fry till puffy), nori strips, crushed peanuts (in almires), with a touch of sugar or Splenda (for Silly Lolo!)…top with lumpia up above wrapped in the iceberg lettuce…oh, I forgot the hoisin!….this is soooooooomasarap!
I can eat 3 of those!
I like all kinds of lumpia–fried, fresh,pork, shrimp, chicken or vegetables!MM, your wok is really getting a nice patina from all the cooking you’re doing!
I would like to add, I don’t do this with pork though and I use this as a main dish and just eat it with a little rice. This is my perfect diet food because it tastes so good and the pounds just keep on dropping real fast (coupled with lots of exercise, of course). This is also a balanced diet because you already have protein in the bean sprouts. Thank you for this post MM.
Last night, my youngest son treated us to a Mondo Burrito. I think, MM using your filling and the rice would make a good hearty baon…a flour tortilla or spinach or tomato tortilla, heated in a panini press or even kawali…then smeared with the Bacolod lumpia sauce of Manang, rice and topped with your lumpia mixture. Roll into a FAT LUMPIA and wrap in foil sealing ends tightly. Omit the rice or only half rice if you are watching your carb intake!
I will make this for my sons’ baon tom.
If it’s lumpiang togue, I like it better fried; if lumpiang ubod, I like it better naked. =)
Betty, I love your idea of using the iceberg lettuce, sotanghon, . . .gotta try that for tomorrow night’s dinner.
bags of coleslaw vegetables are perfect for lumpiang gulay. saves me time from chopping all those veggies. i get to add bean sprouts when i go to the Asian store. i also use either ground pork or ground chicken for meat, and hoisin or oyster sauce for seasoning. mabilisan lang.
Hi Mr. MM. Do you have a recipe of the peanut sauce? Can you send me a copy? Please… Thanks! :)
just made this 2 weeks ago, we used shredded ready to eat carrots, green beans, cabbage, bean sprouts and julienned jicama…sarap, also made the egg crepe wrapper and brown sauce with peanuts…yum
I dress up mine by serving the lumpia over leaf lettuce then topped with the usual sauce and chopped peanuts, or just stir into the sauce a spoonful or two of coarse peanut butter . And don’t forget the fresh crushed garlic.
I also like chick peas in addition to julienned camote or singkamas to make a real vegetable garden dish that is healthy and not so “calorific”. For those allergic to pork or shrimps, substitute shredded chicken breast or minced tofu or even better, no meat at all.
Just had that for lunch!
Thanks for sharing Mr. MM!
try these with crepes…sarrrrap!
I was planning to have lumpia tonight for dinner. You just gave me an idea how to prep it hassle-free. Thanks….
Yummy! I love fresh lumpia. There have been a proliferation of Chinese Lumpia stalls in Manila. I dunno the difference though with the pinoy fresh lumpia, only thing I’ve noticed is that the chinese lumpia contains seaweeds and some tofu. Thanks for the recipe though, it seems a fairly easy thing to do. Will try it one of these days :)
chel, please refer to the archives under lumpiang ubod a la marketman, and there is the sweet sauce there. It contains no peanuts, you sprinkle choppped nuts over the sauce. Unless you are referring to a Malay or Thai peanut sauce.
Funny, we had lumpiang hubad too last week (wanted to make crepes for wrappers but decided to cut some calories as well!)- no bean sprouts in my 1st version, only shrimp,pork, carrots, green beans, kamote , singkamas and cabbage– but bean sprouts are then added into leftovers, rolled in lumpia wrappers and fried- served with vinegar- part 2 is equally yummy!
And I’m sure Silly Lolo will like them too….afterall, they’re naked!!! hehehehe
Never tried bean sprouts on my fresh lumpia though I use them for fried lumpia. However, I add chopped tokwa on both. Anyways, I have not cooked lumpia lately since it entails a lot of chopping and slicing. I just buy fro Lei’s. Their Mandarin Lumpia is sooo good!
nice to see you enjoying your wok MarketMan! would like to have one of my own someday . for the meantime im just using the regular “kalaha” hehehe
i like making lumpia wrapped in lettuce. i serve everything on the table
and everyone makes their own. it’s fun. hey, artisan chocolatier,
you really made me laugh with your comment. i bet that’s how
silly lolo will want his lumpia!!
My wife makes so simple but delicious! only a long slice of carrot, capsicum and a cheddar cheese…it works….
This is my Nanays comfort food…It wasn’t my favorite growing up but now I always cook this one with a nice sweet sauce on the side. A shrimp water plus some slice tokwa will elevate this dish to new level.
By the way MM who is AT? Normally it’s either you or the teen taking the shots. You got a professional photographer now :)
Marketman, I’m going to veer off-topic here. But did you hear that Gourmet magazine will cease publication after its November issue? Here’s an article about it: https://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/gourmet-68-to-die/?src=twt&twt=nytimesdining
I am beside myself with this news! A truly intelligent and inspiring magazine on food will be lost.
My lumpiang gulay has got to have minced kinchay, parang may kulang sa panlasa ko kapag walang kinchay.
my amah used to make lumpia and it was a huge endeavor (she refused to use a food processor). she would saute each vegetable separately in onions, garlic, pork and shrimp, add salt and pepper. she would add tokwa sliced thinly. when she had togue, no singkamas was added since both would produce too much moisture. then we would wrap it in lumpia wrapper on top of romaine lettuce. top this mixture with cilantro sprigs, chili sauce, garlic and peanuts. since it took so much time, she would only make it 2-3 times a year.
@Vanessa: I read about Gourmet closing its pages, too.
Hi MM, have been on lurk mode the past few weeks, glad your wok chronicles are coming along nicely. And the scallop recipe on the previous post is killer =) .
Btw, I have another tokayo (?) Oh well, I do realize that Chris is a very common name and so is my surname so it’s not far off that there will be another chrisb out there… So I’ll use here the handle I use over at Lori’s, Chip. (Lori asked why Chip, I replied that I’ve been called that countless times in the kitchen, haha)
oooh…this is what i had for dinner…3 lumpiang sariwa…my aunt used some leftover ginisang toge with tofu and added some chorizo… the wrappers we use are commercially-made and exported from malaysia
MM,
My all time favorite is “lumpiang hubad”.
JR
Check out this video on how to make lumpia wrapper by Andrea Nguyen author of the book Asian Dumplings
https://www.asiandumplingtips.com/2009/04/how-to-make-shanghai-spring-roll-wrappers-video.html#
Looks easy but I bet if I do this, bits of dough will splatter all over the kitchen and not to mention burnt fingers! :)
You can also use the vietnamese rice paper to wrap this. It is also good.
Thanks Mr. MM :)
Our canteen here makes my favorite lumpiang hubad! They crispy fry the camote and then mix it with the other ingredients after cooking. It adds a unique texture and taste to this dish.
wwwaaaahhhh galaway na sad ko!!!
love the 2nd to last pic–talk about some mixing action! nagmistulang ipo-ipo yung gulay. :-)
such a timely post, have been looking for a recipe of this dish for my hubby and son’s birthday next year. i want this on our menu, and we’ll do all cooking at home. thanks, MM. will check the lumpiang ubod post as well.