Your Party Needs Our Best Filipino Lumpia Recipes

lumpia with dipping sauce
Photo: bd.weld

Tell someone you're bringing lumpia to a party and watch their eyes light up. (Unless they're not in-the-know yet, in which case you have the opportunity to introduce them to Filipino-style spring rolls and get on their most-favored-friend list forever.) Served crispy and fried or uncooked and fresh, lumpia are made by rolling savory or sweet ingredients in special lumpia wrappers. (You can find them fresh or frozen at an Asian specialty grocery; they fry up thinner, flakier, and crisper than egg roll wrappers.) Lumpia make excellent party appetizers and finger-food snacks, and can be rolled and frozen ahead of time. In fact, rolling lumpia together is a fun activity to share with family and friends — just put out bowls of ingredients and stacks of lumpia wrappers, and get rolling. Here are six of our favorite Filipino lumpia recipes to try, including a sweet banana-stuffed lumpia for dessert.

01 of 07

Blue's Lumpia

close up on a stack of Blue's lumpia with one cut in half
Anonymous

Unlike with other recipes, you don't have to cook the filling ahead of time for these beef and pork lumpia — but just be sure to keep the rolls thin enough so the filling will cook thoroughly when you fry them. This recipe makes about 100 lumpia.

02 of 07

Lumpia

close up on a plate of stacked lumpia
Anonymous

This meat-free lumpia recipe is packed full of vegetables: carrots, French-cut green beans, celery, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, jicama, and bean sprouts. You can easily add strips of fried tofu if you want to add plant-based protein. The recipe says you can use egg roll wrappers, but for best results, you really should use lumpia wrappers.

03 of 07

Traditional Filipino Lumpia

lumpia with dipping sauce
Kim's Cooking Now

This popular lumpia recipe is stuffed with ground pork, onion, garlic, carrots, green onions, and thinly sliced cabbage. When fried in hot oil, the lumpia wrapper turns crispy and flaky, and will shatter when you bite into it. You're going to want to make plenty because they'll disappear quickly. Reviewer ALILI says, "This is very close to the recipe my mom used as I was growing up. She would make 50-100 at a time and freeze whatever wasn't used. You don't need to defrost them when you're ready to cook. Remember when frying the lumpia, put the seam down first — it helps to seal it better. The dipping sauce we used was a mix of vinegar, pepper, crushed garlic and tiny chilies (and/or some soy sauce.)"

04 of 07

Lumpia Mollica

looking at a few lumpia mollica on a plate and cut in half
bdweld

Ground pork and vegetables get seasoned with red pepper flakes, garlic, turmeric, ginger, cumin, coriander, and celery seeds for a spicier take on fried lumpia.

05 of 07

Lumpia in the Air Fryer

looking at a plate of air-fried lumpia with a dipping sauce
Yoly

"Air-fried lumpia? Your taste buds will never know the difference, but your waistline will!" says recipe creator Yoly. "The same crispiness and tastiness is in this lumpia recipe without having to deep fry." You can use this method to air-fry other lumpia recipes, too.

06 of 07

Banana Lumpia

close up on a few banana lumpia
Baking Nana

As promised, here's a sweet lumpia recipe that's just right for dessert. Stuffed with ripe bananas rolled in brown sugar, the lumpia are fried until golden brown and crispy. You can sift a little powdered sugar over the top for a pretty presentation, and serve with purple ube ice cream for Instagram love.

07 of 07

State of Home Cooking

State of Home Cooking

We're serving up and celebrating the biggest home-cooking trends from the most enthusiastic cooks we know: our community. We crunched the data from 1.2 billion annual Allrecipes.com visits and 2.5 billion annual page views. Then we dug even further, surveying Allrecipes cooks about what's in their carts and fridges, on their stovetops and tables, and on their minds. Filipino food is just one of the topics they're most curious about. See more of the "State of Home Cooking" special report.

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