Easy Vegetarian Egg Rolls

Let’s talk about new year’s resolutions.

Have you broken yours yet? Can I entice you to break any non-fried foods resolutions you may have made? I promise it’ll be worth your while. And it’ll all be okay because we are in this together. Come to think of it, I didn’t have fried food when I was in Tallahassee this past weekend (hooray, go me!), but I had a mac and cheese BBQ burger, countless pieces of scachatta (a Sicilian cold pizza), and some fun tacos.

I was off the clean eating wagon by this time and there were too many local restaurants in Tallahassee to enjoy. SO SUE ME.

Yesterday, on my day off, I didn’t have too much of an appetite – the carb-loading finally caught up to me, I guess – but then all of a sudden, the hunger hit me like a ton of bricks. (What kind of expression is that anyway, right? I mean, have you ever been hit by a ton of bricks? Nobody who has been hit with a ton of bricks probably lived to tell the tale.)

The other thing about being out of town is that you usually leave food in the refrigerator that really needs to be used up within a couple of days of coming back home. And I hate to waste food. About as much as I hate getting hit with a ton of bricks.

The food I had left in the fridge was all from the clean eating challenge ^[4] so it was almost on its last leg. So what can you throw a bunch of vegetables together for? EGG ROLLS!!! Oh, perfectly fried egg rolls.

Print Recipe ^[5]

Easy Vegetarian Egg Rolls

Yield: 6

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

When your vegetables are on their way out, just combine them for some crunchy and delicious egg rolls! These ones with bok toy really hit the spot.

Ingredients:

• Canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic paste (or 3 cloves garlic, minced)
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 2 radishes, julienned
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 baby bok choy, chopped
• 1 tablespoon tamari
• Pinch each of salt and pepper
• 12 egg roll wrappers

Directions:

1. Heat canola oil (enough to come up 2-inches on the sides) in a large pot over medium heat. Oil should come up to 360*F.
2. Meanwhile, whisk egg with 1 teaspoon of water in a small bowl; set aside.
3. Heat olive oil in a large deep skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic paste (or garlic), carrot, radish, mushrooms, chili powder, red pepper flakes, and ground ginger. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add bok choy and tamari, cooking for another 15 minutes, until bok choy is wilted down. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
5. Layer two egg roll wrappers for each egg roll. To assemble, lay egg roll wrappers on a flat surface. Brush egg wash around all edges. Scoop two tablespoons of the bok choy mixture diagonally across the egg roll wrappers. Take the bottom corner and fold up and over the mixture, tucking the corner under the mixture. Fold the two side corners into the middle. Roll the egg roll up and use egg wash to seal the edges.
6. Drop egg rolls, no more than two at a time, into the hot oil and fry, turning once, for 2-3 minutes. Remove from oil onto a paper towel-lined plate.

Tamari is a gluten-free soy sauce, but feel free to use a low sodium variety of regular soy sauce.