Deconstructed Egg Rolls

Welcome to the wonderful world of deconstructed egg rolls.

This delicious and easy bowl recipe uses ground pork, cabbage, carrots and an sesame soy sauce piled on top of rice for a fun take on traditional egg rolls.

Top your bowls with crispy wonton strips and green onion and dig in!

How to make deconstructed egg rolls

Featured Ingredients

For the wonton strips:

• Wonton wrappers: Grab a package of wonton wrappers.
  • You'll thinly slice them before you fry them.
  • If you have extra wonton wrappers (you will), you can put them in a sealed plastic bag and freeze them.
• Oil: I use a neutral, heart-healthy oil like avocado to fry the wonton strips.
  • Any neutral-flavored oil will work.
• Salt: Sprinkle the fried wonton strips with a little bit of salt for ultimate flavor!

To make the sauce:

• Soy sauce: This is the base of the sauce and gives that classic umami flavor.
• Rice vinegar: Add a bit of acidity and of course more flavor.
• Honey: The sweetness will balance out the acidity and zip of the soy sauce and rice vinegar.
• Toasted sesame oil: Adds that classic sesame flavor.
  • Be sure to get toasted sesame oil!
• Sriracha: For spice and garlicy flavor.
• Fish sauce: Just a splash, if you wish, for more depth of flavor.
• Garlic and ginger: Obviously necessary for the most delicious egg roll bowls!

To make the egg roll bowls:

• Ground pork: Pork is classic in egg rolls, plus it has the most flavor of all of the ground meats.
• Cabbage: If you don't want to have to do any chopping, grab a bag of coleslaw mix, which has both green cabbage and carrots.
• Rice: I use brown rice, but you can also use white rice.
• Green onion: The ultimate egg roll bowl topping (plus the wonton strips, obviously)!

Step-by-Step Instructions

To make the wonton strips:

1. Line a plate with paper towel and set next to the stove. Heat oil to medium-high heat.
2. Working in batches, add wonton strips to the hot oil.
3. Use a slotted spoon to stir wonton strips to separate them, and once they're browned, remove with the slotted spoon and transfer to the paper towel-lined plate.
4. Sprinkle with salt. Set aside.

To make the sauce:

1. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, Sriracha, fish sauce, garlic and ginger.

To make the egg roll bowls:

1. In a large skillet, heat oil to medium.
2. Add pork and cook about 2-3 minutes, breaking up into pieces with a wooden spoon.
3. Add coleslaw mix and cook 7-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until coleslaw is soft and pork is browned. Stir in salt and pepper.
4. Stir the sauce mixture into the skillet and bring to a simmer, stirring regularly, until slightly thickened.
5. Distribute the cooked rice then the pork and cabbage mixture into 4 bowls.
6. Top with crispy wonton strips, green onion and sesame seeds. 

Recipe Substitutions and Alterations

• For the wonton strips: If you don't want to make your own, purchase a bag of crispy wonton strips (yes, they sell such a thing!).
• For the ground pork: You can sub with ground chicken, turkey, beef or firm tofu.
• For the cabbage: You can use a bag of coleslaw mix or shred your own cabbage.
• For the rice: Use brown or white.
• For green onion: You could add or sub in cilantro.
• For the soy sauce: Use tamari instead.
• For the honey: Use a smidge of granulated sugar instead.

Nutrition Considerations

• To make it gluten free: Use tamari instead of soy sauce and skip the wonton strips (or see if you can find gluten free wonton wrappers or rice paper).
  • Be sure all other packaged ingredients (like the Sriracha, for example) are gluten free.
• To make it dairy free: This recipe is naturally dairy free.
• To make it vegetarian: Use tofu instead of ground meat.
• To make it vegan: Use tofu instead of ground meat.
  • Use granulated sugar instead of honey.
• To make it nut free: This recipe is nut free, but it does contain sesame.

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• Spicy Sesame Noodles
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