How to Make a healthy Filipino Lumpia Recipe

Lumpia is an easy and popular Filipino recipe which can be made healthier using tuna and vegetable fillings. It's a very tasty dish which can be served with rice or eaten as a snack. 

In all honesty, I did not know it's English word equivalent of Lumpia until recently. Haha! Okay, so our favorite Lumpia is called spring roll in English. (Gosh.) 

I thought the term 'spring roll' is some kind of fresh and sweet pastry or something. But anyhow, what makes Filipino Lumpia different from spring rolls of other countries is its fillings and fresh Lumpia wrapper.

Today, I will share my secret in cooking the perfect and healthy Lumpia for all the Filipino food lovers out there.

The Lumpia Wrapper

  As mentioned, what makes Lumpia a true Filipino delicacy is its wrapper -- which you can buy FRESH from the market. The yellow color in the wrapper makes Filipino Lumpia look golden brown in color when deep fried. 

Yesterday, I was easily able to buy Lumpia wrapper in the wet market. I knew it was still fresh because the wrappers were still warm and the aroma was so rich when I bought them. It costs only 18 pesos to buy 50 Lumpia wrappers. Now that's insanely cheap for a delicious Filipino cuisine! 

The Lumpia Filling

The filing for fried Lumpia is the key to a successful dish. In my healthy version of Lumpia, I chose four ingredients for the filling: 

1.) Fresh carrots - rich in Vitamin A & beta-carotene

2.) Fried potatoes - rich in dietary fiber & protein 

3.) Tuna - rich in omega 3

4.) Fresh onion - rich in phytochemicals

The manner by which I prepared all these four ingredients made the difference in the texture of the dish's filling. It was uber perfect for the palate.

Filling ingredient #1 - Fresh carrots

Because I had two sticks of medium sized carrots, what I did with them was to chop them in different forms. First, I diced one carrot finely in small squares so that one can munch and feel its crunchiness.

The other piece of carrot I shredded using the grater. This is done to blend the aroma and distinct taste of carrots into the filling. Now I left the carrots UNCOOKED because fresh carrots will give out a pure and strong taste to our filling. 

Filling ingredient #2 - Diced Potatoes

For this recipe, I bought 1/4 kilo of potatoes. What I did was to peel and soak them in water with salt to prevent the discoloration of the potatoes. 

After that, I diced them in small pieces and again, placed them in the salt water that I made earlier. 

Now I cooked the potatoes separately because I wanted its taste to stand out also. As you can see in the photo above, half of the diced potato I fried and the other half  I didn't. 

I fried half of the potatoes to provide that meaty aroma and that crunchiness you get when eating French fries. I wanted that exact same taste in my filling. 

On the other hand, I like the chewy flavor of regularly cooked potatoes. It's actually the counterpart of the diced carrots we chopped earlier that'll provide that munchy texture to the filling. 

After cooking the potatoes, I immediately placed them on a paper towel to drain all the excess oil.

Filling ingredient #3 - Cooked Tuna

What you can see above is the diced tuna I used for the Filipino Lumpia recipe. Tuna is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids which is good for the heart.

I used one kilo of tuna for this recipe because I wanted its meatiness to dominate the dish. Now it is important that you cut the tuna in the same size as your diced carrot and potato. 

The moment I was done cutting the tuna into diced pieces, I seasoned it with salt and pepper. I also used just a little bit of Ajinomoto seasoning in the fresh tuna to enhance the flavor more. 

The way I cooked the tuna was really simple. I put just a little bit of oil into the pan and let it cook for 8 minutes. What I liked about tuna is that it produces its own juice and this makes the fish meat really tender.

After tuna was cooked, I immediately drained the excess juice off the tuna meat. You would not want your filling to be gooey because of extra liquid inside the filling. 

Filling ingredient #4 - Fresh Onions

Now this is the ultimate secret of my Filipino Lumpia recipe. I chopped the onion into fine pieces and set is aside. The secret is to mix the RAW chopped onion with the rest of the ingredients.

I tell you, if you do this technique, the entire filling will smell amazing. Raw onions, when combined with cooked tuna, fresh carrots, and fried potato will give out great aroma for the lumpia dish.

I prefer to use the small native onions than the white big ones. It has more flavor and it makes the dish authentically Filipino. The more fresh onions you put in the dish, the more that it gives out unique aroma into the Lumpia filling.

This is how the entire filling should look. As you can see it's filled with diced cooked tuna, fresh carrots, fresh onions, and fried potato. It is important that you taste the filling first before wrapping it. 

Wrapping the Lumpia

Okay first, you need to know that the native Lumpia wrapper is hard to peel off individually because it's very delicate. I'd advice you to peel them off the night before you start cooking the Lumpia because it might take a long time to separate individual wrappers. 

Wrapping the Lumpia is never tricky, just take a small amount of the filling on the side of the wrapper, then brush some beaten eggs on the side of the wrapper and roll it. The beaten eggs should seal the wrapper and keep the fillings inside.

 Above is the sample on how you should wrap your Lumpia. You can wrap it in any way actually, as long as it's sealed well using the beaten egg.

Once this is done, you only have to deep fry the Lumpia in medium to high heat. In this way, the Lumpia will be more crispy. You can deep fry in 1-2 minutes and the Lumpia wrapper will turn into rich, golden brown color.

Filipino Lumpia Recipe 

This is how the deep friend Lumpia should look. It should be golden brown in color and, most importantly, it should be crispy. 

Make sure that you were able to place the fried Lumpia in a paper tower to remove the excess oil. You know you've made the perfect Filipino Lumpia when:

1.) you break the Lumpia into two and you'll hear the crispiness of the wrapper;

2.) you will instantly smell its great aroma of the filling;

3.) you'll taste its great flavor from all ingredients  --  tuna, fresh carrots, potato, and fresh onion.

That's it! Our authentic Filipino Lumpia recipe is done. Trust me, this is so easy to make and it's very tasty too. Okay now, it's your turn to cook and share the delights of Filipino Lumpia recipe.

Good luck!