These Cantonese Spring Rolls are crispy, juicy, and easy to make. Each spring roll is filled with juicy minced pork and crunchy vegetables and wrapped in a thin, crispy spring roll wrapper.
Check out some of my other delicious Chinese appetizers, such as Salted Egg Chicken or Taiwanese Scallion Pancakes.
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🥢 What are Cantonese Spring Rolls?
They're one of many types of spring rolls in China. They're filled with various ingredients like cabbage, carrots, pork, and shrimp and then deep-fried until golden brown.
Cantonese Spring Rolls are commonly made with shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, cabbage, and pork.
⭐ Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Authentic & Flavorful: They taste just like the ones you'll find in restaurants in China and Hong Kong.
- Freezes Great: After rolling, you can freeze them in ziplock bags for up to three months (or up to a year using a vacuum sealer).
- The Dipping Sauce: The sweet and sour chili sauce puts these over the top!
🧂 Ingredients
- Ground pork: Use full-fat pork; thinly sliced pork loin or pork shoulder can also be substituted.
- Dried shiitake mushrooms: Rehydrate in boiling water for 20 minutes; discard tough stems.
- Napa cabbage: A sweeter, more tender option than regular cabbage.
- Bamboo shoots: Canned, fresh, or frozen options work.
- Scallions: We'll use both the white and green parts to give a subtle onion flavor.
- Soy sauce: Adds umami and saltiness.
- White pepper: Adds earthiness and slight spiciness.
- Salt: Enhances all the other flavors.
- Spring roll wrappers: Available in small or large sizes at Asian grocery stores. I prefer the small ones for this recipe.
- Egg: Used for an egg wash to seal the spring roll
- Oil: For frying the spring rolls.
🔪 Instructions
STEP 1: Heat a wok over high heat until smoking. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and swirl it around the wok. Add ground pork and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove to a plate.
STEP 2: Reheat the wok, add 1 tablespoon of oil, then stir-fry napa cabbage, bamboo shoots, and rehydrated shiitake mushrooms for 1 minute. Add cooked pork, salt, soy sauce, and white pepper, and stir-fry for another minute. Turn off the heat, add sliced scallions, transfer to a bowl, and cool for 10 minutes.
STEP 3: Place spring roll wrappers next to your work surface and loosely cover them with a damp towel to prevent them from drying out. In a small bowl, whisk an egg with 1 tablespoon of water.
STEP 4: Place a spring roll wrapper on your work surface with the corner facing away from you. Add 3 tablespoons of filling 2 inches from the corner and sides. Roll from the nearest corner and fold in the sides when the bottom corner covers the filling. Roll tightly, dampen the edge with egg wash, and seal before reaching the end. Transfer to a baking sheet or plate, seam-side down. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.
STEP 5: Heat 1 inch of oil in a Dutch oven, high-walled pot, or wok until the oil reaches 375°F. Fry 6-8 spring rolls at a time until golden brown, moving them back and forth and turning them for 4-5 minutes. Remove them with a metal spider and transfer them to a plate lined with paper towels.
STEP 6: Combine all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until thickened. Enjoy!
🥡 Storage & Leftovers
Storage: Refrigerate fried spring rolls in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Reheating: Reheat by baking at 375℉ for 5-7 minutes or refry in oil at 375F. Air fry at 350℉ for 2-3 minutes.
Freezing: You can freeze uncooked spring rolls for up to 3 months. After wrapping them, put them on a tray with parchment paper, leaving space between them. Freeze for about 2 hours until they're semi-firm, then transfer them to a ziplock bag for long-term storage.
📋 Recipe
Cantonese Spring Rolls
Equipment
- 1 deep fryer, dutch oven, wok, or high-walled pot
Ingredients
- 1 package spring roll wrappers
- neutral oil (for frying)
Spring Roll Filling
- 2 tablespoon neutral oil (divided in half)
- 500 g ground pork
- 10 dried shiitake mushrooms (rehydrated and thinly sliced. See notes)
- 2 cup napa cabbage (shredded finely)
- 1 ½ cup bamboo shoots (julienned, see notes for substitutions)
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (use half the amount if you're using table salt)
- 1 ½ teaspoon soy sauce
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 4 scallion (thinly sliced)
Sweet chili sauce
- 2 tablespoon water
- ¼ cup rice wine vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1.5 teaspoon sambal oelek
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Heat a wok over high heat until smoking. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and swirl it around the wok. Add ground pork and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove to a plate.
- Reheat the wok, add 1 tablespoon of oil, then stir-fry napa cabbage, bamboo shoots, and rehydrated shiitake mushrooms for 1 minute.
- Add cooked pork, salt, soy sauce, and white pepper, and stir-fry for another minute. Turn off the heat, add sliced scallions, transfer to a bowl, and cool for 10 minutes.
- Place spring roll wrappers next to your work surface and loosely cover them with a damp towel to prevent them from drying out. In a small bowl, whisk an egg with 1 tablespoon of water.
- Place a spring roll wrapper on your work surface with the corner facing away from you. Add 3 tablespoons of filling 2 inches from the corner and sides. Roll from the nearest corner and fold in the sides when the bottom corner covers the filling. Roll tightly, dampen the edge with egg wash, and seal before reaching the end. Transfer to a baking sheet or plate, seam-side down. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.
- Heat 1 inch of oil in a Dutch oven, high-walled pot, or wok until the oil reaches 375°F. Fry 6-8 spring rolls at a time until golden brown, moving them back and forth and turning them for 4-5 minutes. Remove them with a metal spider and transfer them to a plate lined with paper towels.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until thickened. Enjoy!
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