Vegan Tex Mex Eggrolls

Here is a great appetizer that I admittedly never think of unless I am at restaurant. But at the time of this recipe development, the world was sheltering in place through the pandemic.. so with restaurant visits no longer being on the table, it was time to bring the restaurant to home. This dish is bursting with flavor and extremely customizable. If you don’t like spice, minimize or even exclude the chipotle sauce. I even use the left over filings in a salad the next day – yum. I used vegan chick’n fillets for this, but mushrooms, tofu or seitan are all great alternatives.

To start, heat a medium sized pan to medium-high heat and pour out that flavorful can of chipotle sauce into the pan. Add in a space or two of water to help the sauce cover the pand completely. add in your vegan chick’n fillets (or whatever you are using as an alternative) and coat the sauce on all sides. At this point you can bring the heat down to medium-low and cover the pan. We want our “chicken” to simmer and soak up all that flavor! Simmer for about 3 or so minutes on each size.

After the “meat” is cooked through and the sauce has had the time to absorb, if you are feeling extra fancy you can transfer the fillets to a grill pan on high heat and char your “meat” which will give it more of that char taste, texture and delicious look. After this is (or if you skip this step), slice up your vegan chick’n into bite sized pieces and set aside.

In a separate large pan (or rinse out your pan and reuse!), heat to medium-high and since we are not using extra oil in this recipe, we will pour about 1/8 cup of water in pan to water stir fry. Once pan is hot, add diced onions, sweet potato (diced very very finely so they will cook at the same speed. you can also cook the sweet potato ahead of time and add in at the end), red and green bell peppers and saute until the onion and bell peppers are translucent, this will take about 3-4 minutes to complete. Once that is done, throw in your black beans, corn and green onions. Feel free to customize this and add in more greens, mushrooms or whatever you have in the fridge.

Now that we have all the stuffing complete, lets assemble this roll. Take out one vegan wonton wrapper and set it on a flat surface or plate. You want it to be turned to a diamond shape- not a square. Scoop a spoonful of your filling (not too much you want the wrap to easily fold and not be too packed with filling) and place your filling down horizontally. Take the bottom point of your wrap and fold it over the filling, tucking the point under the filling. Fold the two side corners and fold them in – it will resemble an open envelope. Fold the filling portion over again so there is only the small top point of the wrap left that has not been folded or wrapped. Dip your fingers (or a brush) in some water and wet the top point of the wrap. Fold the wrap one final time over the wet top corner piece and let it rest on top of the wet corner to dry so it will seal.

That is your uncooked roll! Repeat that process with your remaining filling/wrappers.

For these next instructions, I am going to be using an air fryer. You can also bake these in an oven at 350F, which will take about 10 minutes (turn half way), or until browned on each side. Continue to keep an eye on it because ovens can vary.

For the air fryer, preheat air fryer to 350 F. Place about 6 rolls (how many you can put in your air fryer will depend on how large your air fryer basket is. You will likely have to do this in batches. You do not want to overlap/over crowd the rolls in the air fryer). Bake in air fryer for 5 minutes. Open air fryer and flip over every roll. Bake for another 5-8 minutes checking on it every 2 minutes to make sure it does not burn (every air fryer is different so timing may vary basked on air fryer size). Continue this process with remaining batches.

These are ready to enjoy immediately! Enjoy with your favorite vegan dipping sauce, or on its own.