We know it’s been some time since we last posted, and we hope you missed us! We’ve got a ton of great recipes to show you, plus a bunch of restaurant recommendations – so for today, we’re going to show you a fun, meat-free finger food. As you might recall, for the Super Bowl this year we made some buffalo potato egg rolls, which we really loved. But it turns out we bought more egg roll wrappers than we needed, so we had to figure out what to do with the extra package we had left. We put our heads together and came up with these – they’re stuffed with mozzarella, onions and peppers, just like a veggie pizza, and then pan fried so they’re crispy on the outside but still nice and cheesy inside. If you’re intrigued by these non-traditional egg rolls, read on to see how you can make them at home!
You’ll need:
- A 16-ounce package of egg roll wrappers
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 green bell peppers
- A small onion
- Olive oil
- Basil
- 8 ounces of mozzarella cheese
- Vegetable oil
- Marinara sauce
To start, cut your peppers into slices and also finely slice your onion. Place these veggies in a large pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, sprinkle everything with salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat for 12-15 minutes, stirring every so often, until all the vegetables are softened and tender.
Place the veggies in a bowl to cool slightly, then mix with 1/4 cup of marinara sauce. Cut your mozzarella into pieces about half the size of a stick of string cheese. Then take out your egg roll wrappers, and in the center of each one place a spoonful of vegetables, a few basil leaves, and one piece of mozzarella, like so:
Place each egg roll wrapper on your work surface in the shape of a diamond, begin rolling it up from the bottom about halfway , then fold in the sides like this:
Dab the remaining outer edges of the wrapper with water and roll each egg roll the rest of the way up, gently pushing on the edges to seal it closed. Now warm 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in a large cast iron pan over medium-high heat and place six egg rolls in, seam side down. Cook for 4-5 minutes on one side, until the outside is nicely browned but doesn’t start burning, then flip over and cook on the other side until each egg roll is evenly browned all over.
Use tongs to take the egg rolls out of the pan and place on a plate lined with paper towels. Repeat this process until all the egg rolls are cooked. Then you can pour out some more marinara as a dipping sauce, and when the egg rolls are cool you can bite into them and enjoy!
These were a pretty tasty way to use up our remaining egg rolls: by stuffing them with some vegetables and melted cheese. It was kind of like eating a veggie pizza that was folded in on itself and made into snackable pieces. We wanted to make these as simple as possible, so we decided to pan-fry the egg rolls rather than deep frying them, and they turned out pretty great. This was our dinner one night, but pizza egg rolls can also be an appetizer or a quick bite – they’re perfect as a meatless way to get veggies and cheese all rolled together in a nicely fried shell.