Is Panda Express Spring Roll vegan? (recipe included)
In this article, we will find out whether Panda Express Spring Roll is vegan or not. We will briefly talk about the Panda Express menu and finally will give you a delicious recipe for vegan spring rolls.
Is Panda Express Spring Roll vegan?
Yes, Panda Express Spring Rolls are vegan, except they are called Vegetable Spring rolls. Since February 2019, Panda Express has released vegan versions of some of the most popular dishes, such as vegetable spring rolls, eggplant tofu, super greens, brown and white rice, and Chow Mein dishes.
The vegetable spring rolls from Panda Express are with cabbage, celery, carrots, green onions, and Chinese noodles in a crispy wonton wrapper. A serving size (3.4 oz) has 190 calories and can be found in almost every Panda Express restaurant.
What started as a single restaurant, Panda Express has grown into the largest Asian restaurant in America. Run by Chinese immigrants Andrew and Peggy Cherng, the restaurant continues to be inspired by a vision centered on people’s interests and family values. The company was founded, including its promise to encourage and support members of the Panda family.
Panda Express, America’s favorite Chinese restaurant, is known for its wide variety of original recipes, including its Original Orange Chicken ™, SweetFire Chicken Breast®, award-winning Honey Walnut Shrimp ™, and Shanghai Angus Steak ™.
Vegan Spring rolls recipe
Making vegan spring rolls is easier than you might think. The truth is that they are delicious, and you can freeze them to fry them at any other time.
One of the best-known Chinese gastronomy recipes is spring rolls. Today we will make vegan spring rolls, although they traditionally have meat. But now you can find them in many varieties, and this one, in particular, is very good.
The truth is that these spring rolls are easy to prepare, but if you do not like cabbage, it is almost better not to try them because they have half a cabbage! Usually, these roles are fried, but you can also bake them to save calories. You can also make a few at once and freeze them always to have them on hand.
I have made them without bean sprouts, but if you like them, you can add them, so the protein lacking from the meat to the rolls is found in the sprouts.
Ingredients:
- Eight sheets of rice paper or phyllo dough
- Half white cabbage or Chinese cabbage
- One green pepper
- One onion
- One carrot
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- Salt
- Black pepper
- One handful of bean sprouts (optional)
- One beaten egg
Preparation:
- First, we cut all the vegetables into strips (julienne style).
- Ideally, cook them in a wok but add a splash of oil if not in a frying pan. When it is hot, add the onion, salt it, and cook for 1 minute. Add the pepper, stir and let them cook for another minute. Add the carrot and cabbage, season to taste, and let all the vegetables cook until they are cooked to the point we want (some people prefer them more al dente, others more cooked … that depends on taste).
- When we have the vegetables at the desired point, we add the soy sauce and the bean sprouts (optional). We let it do another minute and remove from the heat.
- We remove the vegetables to a plate, draining them previously to eliminate any excess oil or water that they may have. We let them warm up a bit.
- We stretch a sheet of rice paper or filo pastry on the clean counter. On one edge of the sheet (in one of the smallest if they are rectangular), we place, centered, two tablespoons of vegetables. We roll the sheet once and then fold the ends towards the center, sticking them with beaten egg; we continue rolling until the end, sealing it with a little more egg (see the process well, see the video).
- In a frying pan or fryer, we heat plenty of oil. We fry the rolls until they are golden brown on both sides and remove to a plate with absorbent paper to eliminate excess oil. We can also bake them with the oven preheated to 180º, with heat up and down at the same temperature until the dough is golden.
- We serve them with a little soy sauce for dipping.
If you prefer vegan spring rolls, the chosen vegetables will suffice, to which you can add a touch of protein with a few pieces of tofu and wheat gluten at the last minute.
Other FAQs about Spring Rolls which you may be interested in.
Do spring rolls have egg in them?
Are Chinese spring rolls gluten-free?
Are spring rolls always vegetarian?
Final thoughts
Spring rolls can be made in two ways: rice flour-based pasta –Vietnamese or Thai style- or with a wheat flour pasta –China-. It should be noted that the latter is the best known in the West thanks to the enormous spread of Chinese food that Chinese restaurants have made in the main capitals of the world.
You can make vegan spring rolls and take advantage of the remains of vegetables in the fridge. The filling can be improvised, depending on the vegetables that are in the refrigerator, or be premeditated, with a sauté of chives, leeks, mushrooms, or peppers, to suit everyone.
If you want them to have a Chinese flavor, among the sauteed vegetables, you should not omit Chinese cabbage, drained and sautéed with the rest of the ingredients, a few thin strips of canned bamboo and drained before sautéing and, at the last minute, almost out from the fire, some bean sprouts.
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