Philippine Cuisine: Deep-Fried Vegetable Roll

Crunchy roll stuffed with spiced vegetable bits and other meaty ingredients. This is a special Philippine native cuisine, fried vegetable roll, or “Lumpia,” which is good as a native dish for dinner or an afternoon snack, or”merienda.”

To cook this native cuisine, we need the following ingredients: ordinary 15-piece “lumpia” wrapper, one pack sprouted “monggo” beans, one fourth kilo finely chopped string beans or Baguio beans or “bitswelas,” one fourth finely chopped cabbage, one fourth kilo beef, three bundles chopped “kinchay” leaves, four pieces chopped onions, 5 pieces mined garlic pieces, 5 pieces diced tofu, one fourth peeled and sliced shrimp, half cup of water, and lots of no-cholesterol cooking oil. With these ingredients, we’re ready to cook this native dish.

The first thing to do to cook this native cuisine is to sauté garlic and onions in about 4 to 5 tablespoons of cooking oil till light brown. Then add in the beef and shrimp, also till light brown. Then put in all the vegetables and diced tofu and stir cook on medium fire. After cooking, put everything in a clean container. We’re done with part one of this native dish.

Now, we prepare the roll wrappers of “lumpia” wrappers of this native cuisine. Careful separate the wrapper pieces from each other and place them on a clean, dry plate. Cut them in half. Get a half-piece of roll wrapper, spread it on another dry, clean plate. Take two spoons of the vegetables and place on the roll wrapper (at the edge where it was cut). Carefully cover it by rolling the wrapper over the concoction until it reaches the round tip end. Wet the tip end with water from the half cup. This sticking effect will seal the wrapped roll. Place the completed roll on a separate plate. Do the same with the rest. Thirty vegetable rolls—this completes the preparation of this native dish.

Now we go to the third part of cooking this native cuisine: deep frying. Get a deep pan where enough cooking oil can be poured. Make sure the rolls can be soaked in them. Heat the oil on high fire. Cut the rolls in half before deep-frying them in the pan till brown. A perfect dip for this native dish is a sauce of vinegar with minced garlic, powder pepper and a pinch of salt.

Philippine native cuisine, deep-fried vegetable rolls, is a special and healthy native dish variation with veggies and meats.