Lumpia (Filipino Crunchy Lumpia Recipe)

If you've ever held an interest in cooking Filipino fare, chances are you've come across Panlasang Pinoy —a Filipino food-focused cooking blog owned by Chicago-based Filipino IT professional Vanjo Merano. Lumpia skins have since gained popularity in different parts of the word and often times apart from being a delightful street food it is also a part of the celebration in places like West Africa, Nigeria to be precise, it is usually filled with minced meat or chicken and vegetables.
The deep-fried savoury snack is made of thin crepe pastry skin called lumpia wrapper” encasing a mixture of fillings, which usually consists of chopped vegetables (carrots, cabbages, green beans, bamboo shoots and leeks) or sometimes also minced meat (chicken, shrimp, pork or beef).



This week, in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month , food stylist and recipe developer Amelia Rampe remembers her favorite Filipino dish, lumpia. To prevent the lumpia or wanton wrapper to break when wrapping the cooked vegetables, use two pieces of wrapper for each lumpia.
Filipinos usually make the vegetable lumpia filling with chayote or water chestnuts, carrots, onions, and garlic. She serves the long spring-rolls with a sweet and sour chile sauce, trying my best to mimic the sweet chile sauce that my aunts have made and taught me,” she says.

There are many types of lumpia, one of them being fresh lumpia which consists of a soft, not-fried wrapper, and a fresh vegetable filling and often times shrimp. Eggrolls are also wrapped, delicious dish but the wrapper is slightly different. Brush the exposed wrapper with the beaten egg 3 and roll up the rest of the way.
There are also online sellers that you can buy lumpia or spring roll wrapper from. I know a little bit about Filipino food from a time when I used to go there on business fairly often back in the early naughts. Lumpia are mostly vegetable filled, crispy rolls. I cooked my beef and pork before I added the veggies.

Lumpia Wrappers (or Spring Roll Wrappers): These can purchased frozen or refrigerated. But as amazing as the pressure cooker is (more recipes coming for you soon!) some things require a little more effort and attention…and for this lumpia recipe, it is well worth it.
Add tofu and cook until edges start to turn light brown. Both share the same origin but they taste and look different, with egg rolls being bigger and fatter” in shape. Fold the wrapper just over the edge of the meat, enough to cover it up. This will take approximately one full roll going upward.

I used egg roll wrappers as I had a hard time finding lumpia wrappers. Once oil is at the proper temperature, carefully place banana rolls seam side down into pot. Fry lumpia until golden brown and serve while hot with sweet and sour sauce. Unlike the other kinds of lumpia, lumpiang hubad is not rolled and locked in lumpia wrappers.