Recipe of the Week: Vegetarian Egg Rolls

After my Vegetarian month, I've been more conscious of what we're buying at the grocery store. Fat content, calorie content, and even the ingredients in pre-made food have all been brought more to my attention than any other time in my life. To make my grocery shopping experiences even more complicated, we're still trying to eat vegetarian when we cook at home. So, this past week we had vegetarian pot pies (these were even Vegan) and veggie fried rice.

On our second night of fried rice I decided we needed Egg Rolls. What kind of Chinese dish is complete without Egg Rolls, right? So, I stopped by the grocery store and walked to the frozen food section.

Pork. Chicken. Shrimp. Chicken and Shrimp.

There were no vegetarian Egg Rolls to be found. So, I looked at the Pot Stickers/Dumplings.

Pork. Chicken. Shrimp. Chicken and Shrimp.

Still nothing vegetarian.

So I did what any good 21st Century girl would do: I pulled out my smart phone, typed "vegetarian egg rolls" into the search engine and found a perfect recipe from the blog For the Love of Cooking. It was simple, it was fresh (versus eating the frozen, preserved stuff I was trying to buy), and it'd be a fun adventure in the kitchen. AND BONUS: they were baked. No frying. So, even healthier!

They were really great, and I had to share it with you guys. Here you go:

Vegetarian Egg Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 cups of savoy cabbage, chopped
• 2 cups of shredded carrots
• 2 cups of bean sprouts
• 1 can of water chestnuts, chopped
• 2 tbsp green onions, sliced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 1/4 cup water
• 14 egg roll wraps
• Sweet chili dipping sauce or sweet and sour sauce (for dipping)

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot add the cabbage, sprouts, carrots, chestnuts and ginger to the pan and cook, stirring frequently for 4-5 minutes, until the vegetables just begin to wilt but still remain a little bit crisp. Mix the corn starch with the water and mix thoroughly. Add the corn starch mixture and soy sauce to the pan along with the green onions. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and let cool.

Place two tablespoons of the cooled mixture on the center of the egg roll wrap. Fold the bottom up over the filling. Next, fold the two sides over, making it look like an envelope, then roll it up like a burrito.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place the rolled up egg rolls on a baking sheet. Once you have rolled them all, spray the top of each egg roll with cooking spray.

Place in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes then turn them over. Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. Serve with sweet chili sauce or sweet and sour sauce. Enjoy.

* all images and recipe text from For the Love of Cooking