Baked Egg Rolls

I was scheming up ways to use up the other half of the Napa cabbage, when I thought of egg rolls. One my my favorite appetizers! I haven't the foggiest idea how to deep fat fry (nor the inclination to learn), so I hunted down a baked egg roll recipe to try.

Sorry about the blurry pictures!

Begin by pulsing celery and carrots in a food processor until finely chopped. Mix in shredded cabbage and throw into the microwave to steam. (The recipe suggested covering the mixture with plastic wrap, but the thought of microwaving plastic was a little worrisome to me, so I put an upside down bowl on top instead. It seemed to work just fine.) While the cabbage mixture is steaming, begin sautéing onions, ginger and garlic in a large skillet. I doubled the amount of ginger and garlic, because the original struck me as a little conservative on those flavors.


Add ground turkey (or pork) and continue cooking. When the meat is cooked through, add the cabbage mixture and stir in soy sauce and ground pepper. Chill briefly.


Time to roll! The original recipe gave tedious rolling instructions that involved cutting off the two side corners. Who has the patience for that sort of detail on an egg roll? I did a couple the recipe's way, but didn't see any advantage to it, so I switched to a different method: add filling to the bottom quadrant, fold bottom corner towards center, fold side corners toward center, roll up toward the top corner and seal with a brushing of egg white.


And you have one small egg roll.

Lay the rolls seam side down on a greased baking sheet, brush with oil and bake until golden brown.  Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauce.

I measured out the three tablespoons of filling per wrapper just as the recipe called for and ended up with eight rolls, a far cry from the fourteen it claimed to make. They were delicious, although they definitely tasted like egg rolls made with ground turkey instead of the more common chicken or pork--a touch of the healthy vibe, if you know what I mean.

I froze a set of uncooked egg rolls as an experiment. If they freeze well, this could be a great way to preserve cabbage--especially since baking in the summer isn't always the most attractive option. When I try baking them, I'll let you know how it goes!

Recipe below or printable version here.


BAKED EGG ROLLS

2/3 cup celery, chopped in large chunks
2/3 cup carrot, chopped in large chunks
2 cups shredded cabbage
½ tsp vegetable oil
2/3 cup minced onion
1 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ pound ground turkey breast
1 ½ Tbs low-sodium soy sauce
¼ teaspoon black pepper
8 to 14 egg roll wrappers
1 large egg white
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425°.

Combine celery and carrot in food processor, and pulse 10 times or until finely chopped.

Combine celery mixture and cabbage in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap; vent. Microwave at high 5 minutes; drain.

Heat vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, ginger, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add turkey; cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cabbage mixture, 1½ tablespoons soy sauce, and pepper. Cover and chill 15 minutes.

Place 1 egg roll wrapper at a time onto work surface with 1 corner pointing toward you (wrapper should look like a diamond). Spoon 3 tablespoons turkey filling into bottom corner of wrapper. Fold lower corner of egg roll wrapper over filling. Fold side corners in toward center. Moisten top corner of wrapper with egg white; roll up jelly-roll fashion. Repeat procedure with remaining wrappers, turkey filling, and egg white.

Lightly brush egg rolls with oil or coat with cooking spray, and place, seam side down, on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 18 minutes or until golden brown.

Slightly modified from version in Cooking Light, March 2001