Melissa Makes Fresh Spring Rolls (Lumpiang Sariwa)

I flipped my lumpia wrapper on top of the other wrapper.

Don't be afraid,

'cause they're actually not gonna stick together.

[upbeat music]

Hi, my name is Melissa and I am so excited

to be sharing with you our lumpiang sariwa recipe.

It's a Filipino fresh spring roll

and today we're gonna be making the soft wrapper.

And it's way easier than making pancakes

'cause you don't even have to flip them.

You can find everything mostly in your kitchen.

Pantry ingredients like cornstarch, flour, and eggs,

and then we're going to be filling it

with a vegetarian filling which is gonna be so delicious.

[upbeat music]

We're gonna start by making the soft wrapper

because it tastes way better than a store-bought wrapper

and it's just five ingredients.

So we're gonna mix the flour, cornstarch,

and salt in the bowl

so that they can get nice and incorporated.

Because if I add the liquid now

you might have flour more on one side

or cornstarch more on one side.

So this way everything is even.

I'm gonna take my whisk

and just gently whisk everything together.

Now I'm gonna take some water

and I'm gonna drizzle it in slowly

while I'm gonna keep whisking.

And this batter is gonna be very liquidy. Don't be afraid.

You didn't make a mistake, I promise.

It's really similar to making crepes

and kind of that consistency, as well.

And then I'm gonna add in the eggs one at a time.

I'm gonna actually crack it into another container.

The reason I do this

is so that I don't get any eggshells in my mixture.

So one egg in, we'll just keep going with all five.

My last egg and then now I'm just going to make sure

and whisk till everything is nice and smooth.

I'm gonna cover this with plastic wrap

and I'm actually gonna let it rest in the fridge

for about 30 minutes.

It's gonna allow for time for all the flour

and the cornstarch to get absorbed.

It's gonna help you get a nice

and fluffy soft wrapper at the end.

Now we can make our filling.

[upbeat music]

This is one of my favorite dishes

to actually eat during the spring and the summer,

because it's so fresh, because it's not fried,

because traditionally lumpia

when you think about it in the Filipino culture,

it's like a deep fried lumpia in Shanghai,

which is a crispy egg roll.

This one is special because it's just fresh.

My dad would love to put pork in it but then my mom,

who's the healthier one of the two, would always put shrimp.

But today I'm gonna make her really happy

and just make it with veggies. [Melissa laughs]

I've got some carrots from the fridge

that I'm gonna be putting in.

Cut the carrots into cubes so that when you cut into it

with your knife or fork, it's really easy to eat.

I'm using heirloom carrots because I like to add color

to the dish and these ones are really beautiful.

And then the next vegetable we're gonna add

is going to be the sweet potato.

So I'm just gonna peel it

and then I'm gonna give it the same cut

as I did the carrots.

That's going to help with keeping everything bite-sized

and delicious for your lumpia.

Right now we just have veggies for the filling.

If you have beansprouts

that's actually a really great addition.

You can put ground pork, ground chicken, papaya.

And then next I've got my cabbage.

And I like to use purple cabbage

because I like to cook with colors.

I'm gonna quarter it,

and then I'm actually gonna take out the core,

and then I'm going to thinly shave the purple cabbage.

This adds nice body, nice color,

nice texture and flavor to the dish.

The next vegetable I have are green beans.

So I'm gonna cut up probably about half a cup of these.

This adds a nice color and nice texture.

So you can see these are all of our veggies.

They're so colorful. They're so beautiful.

Last thing that I'm gonna cut is our onion.

I'm probably just gonna use half an onion.

I'm doing a bigger dice on these

which is kind of the same size as the carrots

just to add more texture to the dish.

And then I'm gonna grab a couple of cloves of garlic

and I'm just gonna smash and mince them.

And then the final thing that I'm gonna cut

is actually our tofu.

I like to use extra firm tofu

just because it can maintain its structure.

When I start sautéing anything

and it doesn't crumble automatically.

It's been drained from the liquid.

We really want it to be

a little bit more dried out than regular tofu.

So yeah, make sure you strain this guy.

I'm gonna cut it into cubes as well.

And there you have it.

This is all the things

that you're gonna need for your filling.

We're gonna go ahead and start cooking.

I've got a pretty large size pan here.

I'm gonna get my heat on, turn it on to medium high.

I'm gonna add some oil to it.

I'm gonna always add the garlic first

because in Filipino cooking that's what we do.

Then I'm gonna add our onions.

I'm gonna cook the onions till they're nice and translucent.

Gonna add a little bit of salt

to help pull out the moisture

and the liquid that's in the onions.

And you can see that our garlic

is getting nice and golden brown.

Some of the really strong flavors

in Filipino cooking are that garlic taste,

so you really want that to come out.

I'm starting with the sweet potatoes

because they have a longer cooking time.

When you're cooking stir fry it's important to know

when the vegetables cook because you don't wanna have

under cooked sweet potatoes and over cooked carrots.

And at this point I'm gonna add a little bit

of our nutritional yeast.

Get ready to add this to your pantry.

[Melissa laughs]

It is an amazing cheese alternative

if you have dairy allergies.

It's also vegan.

Adds a really great umami taste to your dish.

And since we're not adding any fish sauce

or any soy sauce to this dish,

I think it'd be a really good of substitute.

And then show how flaky it is,

'cause it kind of looks like fish food.

Just kidding. That doesn't sound appealing at all.

[Melissa laughs]

I'm just gonna season it a little bit with this.

I'm gonna add a little bit of freshly cracked black pepper.

[food sizzling]

It's like cheesy. [Melissa laughs]

You can smell that there is something in there

that has umami to it.

And you can see that it's kind of melting

into the dish like cheese.

At this point I'm gonna add our carrots.

Carrots cooked quite fast and it's just timing everything.

And also don't be afraid to try the vegetables

to see if they're cooked or not.

This is a dish that I specifically remember making

with my mom.

She just was showing me how simple it actually was

and also how, oh my gosh, I'm brain farting.

[spoon tapping]

I gotta dance it out. [Melissa laughs]

My mom was just showing me how easy it was

to, A, eat vegetables and also just have this moment

where like, hey, you can take some time in your day

and slow down and make something

that's really delicious to share with your family.

You can see our carrots

and our sweet potatoes are ready to go.

I'm gonna add the green beans right now

and our purple cabbage.

At this point I'm gonna add a little bit more

of the nutritional yeast.

Just so that I can flavor everything that's in here.

And then I'm actually going to use some liquid aminos

which is a soy sauce alternative.

It's lighter in flavor

and has still that really great umami that soy gives.

A little bit of cracked black pepper. Smells so, so good.

This is probably gonna be like a minute,

a minute and a half max because when you turn this off

the fire it's actually gonna keep cooking and wilt as well.

Add our tofu- You just have

a little bit there. [Melissa laughs]

[indistinct speaking]

I'm gonna add the tofu now. Oh, is it still there?

Is it gone, Brad? I don't know.

I think it's still there. Oh, you got it.

Okay. [Melissa laughs]

Make sure you don't have any [indistinct] on your face.

Or you can, it's fine.

I'm gonna add the tofu now into here.

It doesn't take that long to cook, honestly.

I'm gonna just stir it around so that tofu

can get that flavor of the liquid aminos

and the nutritional yeast.

And so you can see how beautifully coated the tofu is.

It's got the black pepper in there, cabbages as wilted,

the green beans look cooked, but yet crispy.

So I'm actually going to turn the filling off right now

and we're going to set that aside.

So once your filling is off the fire,

I'm just going to add a little bit of cilantro to this.

And then we're actually going to add cilantro

at the very end too.

Now let's get saucy.

[upbeat music]

The thing hat also makes this lumpia so special

is traditionally it's served with a caramel sauce.

In Filipino cooking there's also this balance

of always sweet, savory, and acidity.

But today I'm actually gonna be making

a coconut caramel sauce.

You just wanna get a small sauce pot going.

And then I'm gonna add my coconut milk, a cup of coconut.

And then I'm gonna add my brown sugar.

I think growing up this was my favorite part of the dish

because it was really sweet. [Melissa laughs]

I'm gonna add a tiny bit of water,

and then I'm gonna season it with some liquid aminos.

and just add about a teaspoon.

Mm, this is a great balance

to that umami flavor bomb that we have.

I'm just gonna let that come to a boil

and then I'm gonna make my cornstarch slurry right now.

And I'm just gonna whisk it up.

If I was to add the cornstarch right now

you'd just get big clumps and globs of everything.

Mixing it separately with water

will actually allow it to melt all the way down.

And I'm gonna add this to our sweet sauce.

And you're gonna cook this down just to make sure

the corn starch gets cooked in this.

This is getting really thick. [Melissa laughs]

I'm gonna add more liquid. [Melissa laughs]

I'm looking for a caramel sauce consistency.

I'm gonna add a little bit more liquid aminos

just to add a little bit more savoriness to it,

but this is amazing.

You could probably just have this with ice cream.

[upbeat music]

I'm ready for this crepe rolling, lumpia making time.

[Melissa giggles]

Our batter has been resting.

The non-stick size that I recommend using

is an eight inch non-stick pan.

And to have nonstick spray.

The trick here is not to have too hot of a pan

and not too low of a pan heat.

That did not come out right. [Melissa laughs]

Make sure that your pan is not too hot and it's not too low.

We're probably gonna have to do a practice round

to make sure we can get the heat just right for the pan.

And you can see right now that this isn't hot enough.

We're not getting that kind of nice lumpia texture to it,

which is great 'cause now you get to see

how it doesn't look.

Nonstick spray, I'm gonna start in the middle

and then I'm gonna start swirling my pan around.

And you can see that it cooks pretty fast

and you can test it by checking the sides.

You can see that the edges are starting to peel off the pan.

So I can flip it over

and you'll see that it'll pop right out.

Now I'm ready to roll! Are you ready to roll?

[upbeat musiC]

It's super easy to make.

You just take your wrapper,

you place it on the middle of a plate,

you take your lettuce and you place it right here,

and then you've got your filling.

Make sure that you get a little bit of everything.

The sweet potato, carrots, green beans, cabbage,

and then you just gently roll it.

And then you're gonna put your sauce on top.

[sensual music]

I usually top it with actually freshly minced garlic,

some cilantro, and then crushed peanuts.

And that's how we roll. [drum snare playing]

[Melissa laughs]

This is our finished lumpiang sariwa.

So as you can see, we have our fresh lumpia wrapper.

It's not fried. And it is kind of like a salad.

My mom would be so impressed with my lumpiang sariwa.

[vegetable crunching]

Mm, I can taste the nutritional yeast

and that distinct umami flavor.

The sweetness of the sauce pairs perfectly with the veggies.

You can taste the minced garlic.

There's an incredible crunch from the peanuts.

The lumpia wrapper might take a couple of times to master,

but once you've got it, you'll nail it,

and you'll make everyone really happy with your lumpia.

Nailed it! [Melissa laughs]

[upbeat music]

That's a wrap. No pun intended.

[Melissa laughs]