Chinese food (or the Americanized version we eat in this country, anyway) is often an easy vegetarian choice, since most restaurants offer a tofu dish or vegetable stir-fry.

Most however don’t have egg rolls that are meat-free.

Making the deep-fried classic is easy, once you gather the right ingredients.

To make it really easy, I use a frozen veggie assortment that are made for stir-fry and usually are an appropriate assortment. You can also just use fresh veggies, but the effort and cost put in seems pointless since you’re going to shred everything and then deep fry it in a wrapper. So I go for the easiest route, frozen.

Start by defrosting the veggie assortment or chopping fresh veggies very small.

Next shred the carrot and cabbage with a food processor, do just chopping very fine with a knife.

Mix together all of the vegetables.

Heat a frying pan with the sesame oil, then fry the vegetable mixture, stirring frequently.

As the cabbage shreds become limp, add the soy sauce, sriracha and spices. Stir well, then set aside.

Either heat up your deep fryer to 350 or put about 3 inches of oil in a pot and heat to about 350 on the stove.

Lay the egg roll wrappers on a plate positioned like a diamond. Brush a little water around the edges to that they will stick once wrapped.

Put about two tablespoons (more or less depending on the size of the wrapper) of the filling in a line at the middle of the wrapper.

Fold the bottom corner up and over the filling. Fold in the two sides, then roll up the top corner. Place with the seam side down on a plate so until you’re ready to fry.

Once you have a few ready, drop them into the oil for 2-3 minutes, then flip them over and cook for a couple more minutes.

After they are nice and brown on all sides, place them on some paper towels to drain excess oil.

Ingredients:

1 package or egg roll wrappers

1/2 head of cabbage

1 carrot

1 bag (8 oz) of frozen mixed veggies, stir fry assortment

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. sriracha or other hot sauce (optional)

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. garlic powder

2 tbsps. sesame oil

Oil for frying