oh lumpia...how i love you so.

This recipe is one of my favorites. Our neighbor across the street is from the Philippines and was nice enough to grace us with such amazing food. For those of you who don't know what a lumpia is, it's sort of like a mini egg-roll, but way better! It does take some time to prepare, but I assure you it's WELL worth the time spent. Once you try them you'll be hooked! This recipe makes 30-50 depending on how much you fill them so it's a great item to have for a party or get together...though I recommend making 2 or 3 batches. Everyone will be begging you for the recipe. :)

EDIT: I actually tried baking these a few nights ago, and OMG. They were almost as good and wayyyy less calories. Though you HAVE to try them fried atleast once, if you're looking for a healthy alternative, baking them is the way to go. 450 degrees for 20 min, flipping over once (no need to thaw).

1 lb. ground pork (I just use the whole package, around 1.5 lbs..can also sub ground turkey or ground beef if they don't have pork)

1 medium sized carrot, grated
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (Progresso garlic and herb)
1 egg
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper

lumpia wrappers

sweet chili sauce, for dipping

vegetable oil, for frying

In a large bowl, combine the first 7 ingredients. I use my hands to mix it all together.

Now the lumpia wrappers should be in the freezer section of your grocery store. Our grocery store has it's own section for lumpias, they might also be called spring/egg roll wrappers. Once your wrappers have thawed a little bit, take a pair of kitchen shears and cut them diagonally.  You don't have to cut/peel the entire package at once. Ooh I almost forgot...peel off the front and back layer...the package I get, the outside wrappers are shiny and almost plastic-like.

Carefully peel apart each wrapper, try not to rip them as they are fragile! These take a while to peel, so if you notice that your wrappers are starting to dry up, place inside of a wet paper towel. :)

For this next part, you'll want to make sure you have a tiny bowl of water and a plate for your lumpias. Once you have a good amount of wrappers peeled and ready to go, take a small spoonful of the pork mix and spread it along the bottom of the wrapper. Don't put too much on there, or else the pork won't cook all the way through! 

Now the folding begins. Take each of the sides, and fold them in, tucking them in with the meat.

Roll the meat up until you get to the tip of the wrapper. 

With one hand, take a few fingers, dip them in the water bowl, and wet the tip of the wrapper, then fold the rest up. The water acts as a glue to keep the wrapper from coming apart. You should now have one lumpia. Yay!

Continue to do this until you've used up all of your pork mix or until you're too tired to do anymore for the day! ;)

Now that you have your lumpias ready to fry, heat up your vegetable oil in a frying pan, with enough oil to submerge the lumpias. You don't have to fry them all up at once, whatever you don't want to fry up, just put in a bag and store in the freezer until you're ready for more!

Now that your oil is hot, throw a few of these bad boys in there and fry away, flipping once to make sure that both sides get nice and brown/crispy. I'll admit I burned my first few, if the oil is too hot, the outside will cook too fast and end up burnt by the time the pork is cooked. Burnt lumpias don't taste yummy.

Let them cool off for a bit before you dig in... and make sure you dip them in the sweet chili sauce! Below is a picture of what I use. I found the sauce in the "oriental food" section of our grocery store, next to the soy sauce. They don't taste the same without it :) Hope you love them just as much as I do!

Here's a photo of the baked ones I made the other night. They're still super yummy!!