Chef and recipe creator Jenn de la Vega started with her mom’s classic Filipino lumpia recipe and then pretended she was 5 years old again getting into the make-up drawer. She swapped out the onion for mellow shallot and took down the intensity of the usual black pepper a notch by going with perfumy pink peppercorn. (But if you only have black pepper on hand, feel free to go with that.) They join a colorful confetti of carrot, snap peas, jicama, and cabbage. If you can’t find jicama, opt for canned hearts of palm or water chestnuts. For the lumpia wrappers, look for paper-thin spring roll crepe wrappers in the freezer section of an Asian market, made with flour, water, and salt but no egg. If you’d like to make the recipe vegan, omit the beef and fish sauce, then add the same volume of julienned hearty vegetables or bean sprouts. Don’t forget the dipping sauces!
Satisfy your sweet tooth with this easy-to-make recipe for Beef and Vegetable Lumpia.
1. Info for Beef and Vegetable Lumpia
- Cook Time: 3 Hr 0 Min
- Total Time: 3 Hr 0 Min
- Servings: 25
- Calories: 72.9 kcal
2. Ingredients for Beef and Vegetable Lumpia
- lumpia wrappers
- shallot
- vegetable oil
- garlic cloves
- ground beef
- carrot
- sugar snap pea
- jicama
- green cabbage
- soy sauce
- fish sauce
- kosher salt
- pink peppercorns
- large egg
- palm vinegar
- garlic clove
- Thai chilies
- cracked black pepper
- sweet chili sauce
3. Directions:
- Wet 2 paper towels or a dish towel and wring them out. Take lumpia wrappers out of the package, set on a plate, and cover with damp towels to defrost at room temperature, about 30 minutes. (Or leave wrappers in package and defrost overnight in the refrigerator.)
- In a large frying pan or wok, saute shallot on medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of oil until softened, about 2 minutes.
- Add minced garlic and continue to cook for 1 additional minute. Add ground beef, breaking it up into smaller pieces, and stir often until it’s cooked through and no longer pink, 3-4 minutes.
- Put in carrot and snap peas and stir-fry until slightly softened, 2 minutes. Add jicama, cabbage, soy sauce, fish sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pink peppercorns and stir-fry until the cabbage has wilted, 5 minutes more.
- Transfer filling to a colander nested in a mixing bowl to drain and cool completely. Save any drippings to mix into your dipping sauce, enjoy over rice, or add to soup. To speed up cooling, spread out filling on a sheet pan and refrigerate 10-15 minutes. Taste filling and season with more salt if you like.
- To assemble, place a single lumpia wrapper on a clean work surface with a corner of the wrapper facing you. Keep the rest of the wrappers covered until ready to use or they will dry out and crack.
- Arrange a scant 2 tablespoons of filling in a band 1 to 1 ½ inches from the bottom corner of the wrapper and about 1/2 inch from the sides. Lift the bottom corner over the filling, packing the filling lightly. Roll it forward until you reach the center, then fold the sides toward the center. The left and right corners should overlap to make an envelope shape.
- Brush the top corner of the wrapper with beaten egg and finish rolling upward to seal the lumpia, tucking in excess a bit as you finish rolling.
- Arrange lumpia in a single layer on a sheet pan, flap-side down. At this point you can cook the lumpia (see next step), or freeze them for 30 minutes, then transfer to zip-top bags and freeze up to 6 months.
- To finish, heat 2 quarts vegetable oil in a deep pan or Dutch oven to 350°F on a deep-frying thermometer. Fry up to 4 lumpia at a time, adding them carefully to the oil with tongs. (Do not defrost frozen lumpia.) Flip lumpia after 3 minutes. Continue to fry until lumpia are golden brown all over, 3-5 minutes more, adjusting temperature as needed to keep oil at 350°F.
- Transfer cooked lumpia to plates lined with several layers of paper towels. Return oil to 350°F between batches.
- Let lumpia cool for 5 minutes. Combine palm vinegar, sliced garlic, chili, and black pepper in a small bowl. Serve lumpipa with vinegar and sweet chili sauce for dunking.
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