Meat Egg Rolls from Scratch

I have been on a very low-sodium diet for the past 9 or so years, the last 3+ being since my heart transplant and one of my favourite types of food is Chinese!

It's fairly easy to do my own version of a stir fry at home [replace the beef in the photo with chicken and you'll see what today's looked like], but it's been really difficult to find frozen egg rolls that aren't so loaded with sodium and/or MSG that they'd kill me :o(

In the grocery store last week I purchased a small box containing a stack of about 26 small egg roll wrappers of some sort of frozen dough containing extremely tiny amounts of sodium and carbohydrates!! YEAH!

And, this afternoon I decided to try my hand at homemade egg rolls, although mine were actually meat-vegetable rolls and they were deeee-licious, if I don't say so myself :o)

Store-bought versions have anywhere from 350mg-1000mg of sodium PER egg roll. With mine, you'd have to eat 2 because they are smaller, but they only contained 15mg sodium for each egg roll wrapper and I was very careful with what I added in the way of spices and such, so I would be very surprised if 2 of them contained more than 100mg sodium!!! YEAH!

Even though the cholesterol levels were also low, they are still technically UNhealthy because they were deep-fried .... but they were yummy!

This mosaic shows most of the steps.

--I used about 1/2 of one of those store-bought packags of cole slaw, but it would be even fresher if you used your own shredded veggies [whatever YOU want in them!]

--I cooked this on the stove top in a bit of water, simply because we like our cabbage and carrots soft inside our meat rolls ~ after all, there really isn't any egg to recognize in them so I've often wondered WHY they're referred to as *egg rolls*?!

--Put aside in a bowl while browning the meat.

--I used about 1 pound of LEAN ground beef which I browned along with diced onions, fresh garlic, a couple of squirts of low-sodium soy sauce, and dashes of sugar, pepper and salt [if you can have it], in quantities that suit you and your family.

--Mix the 2 mixtures together and cook for a bit longer to suit your preference. Make sure you DRAIN / STRAIN any oil that is there!!

--The little wrapper squares separate really easily once thawed. Take 1 and lay it down so that it looks like a diamond ... put 1 heaping TABLEspoonful of the meat-veggie mixture on it, toward the bottom corner of the diamond.

--Lift the point of the corner over, then fold over the left and right corners to meet exactly where the bottom corner point went and roll the rest of it away from you until you have just a tip left.

--This is where you use the beaten egg ~ dip your finger in it and run the egg mixture over the point so that when you roll it that last step, it sticks together!

VOILA! You're done -- with that one, that is! Only 25 more to go :o)

Once they are all done, set them aside if the meal is later or else drop them into your deep fryer which has been preheated to HIGH in groups of 7-9 [depending on your deep fryer size] and they take about 10 minutes per batch.

They are crispy and tasty either alone or with plum sauce or your own family's favourite!

Picture of Deep Fried Egg Rolls [I forgot to take a picture of mine!]

Bon Appetit,