This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.
I’m always looking for creative ways to use my food scraps. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like wasting food because it’s a huge waste of money, and I’m genuinely surprised at how few recipes I could find online that are specifically developed for using up vegetable scraps. Maybe not that many people are searching for such recipes? Or maybe it’s not SEO friendly? Who knows, but I’m betting there are at least a few other people like me out there. These turkey egg rolls use two cups of vegetable scraps in their filling, so they’re the perfect recipe for eliminating unnecessary food waste.
Turkey Egg Rolls provide a blank canvas for using up leftovers
Egg rolls can basically be filled with anything, so they’re a great vehicle to creatively repurpose leftovers into something new. I remember my brother declaring long ago, when he was a teenager, that he wouldn’t eat leftovers when he was an adult. But I doubt he would refuse to eat leftovers that have been remade so dramatically.
The idea of using egg rolls as a way to use up vegetable scraps came up when I was brainstorming ideas with my husband. I can’t remember who said it first, but when I heard it, I knew this was something I had to try out. Good news! It works extremely well.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Leftover Vegetable Scraps and Stems
I created this recipe to specifically use up all my vegetable scraps. I mostly used a mix of kohlrabi stems, kale stems, and carrot peels, but this is extremely flexible to whatever scraps you happen to have. Other great options would include beet tops, radish tops, and chard stems.
If you have even more leftover vegetable scraps, use them in my Farmers Market Celebration Bread, which is perfect for either breakfast or dessert.
Ground Turkey
Ground turkey provides the base for these egg rolls, but don’t feel limited to only turkey. You can substitute with the ground meat of your choice. These egg rolls will work equally well with ground chicken, ground pork, or even ground beef; use whatever you’ve got hanging around. Alternatively, if you’ve got a huge batch of shredded pork in the freezer that you need to use up (guilty!), this is another great protein option for these egg rolls.
Egg Roll Wrappers
I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to make egg roll wrappers from scratch, so I buy these from the grocery store. Egg roll wrappers can usually be found in the refrigerated area of the produce section; look around where they stock the tofu. Seriously, buying the premade wrappers greatly simplifies this recipe.
Leftover egg roll wrappers store incredibly well in the freezer. I recommend buying the bigger package, as this is generally more economically priced per wrapper.
Tips and Tricks
These turkey egg rolls can be either pan fried or baked, depending on your preferences.
Surprisingly, pan frying (or shallow frying) doesn’t take that much oil. I used about a ¼ cup of oil to fry 10 egg rolls. But if you have leftover oil that you want to save, try this method from Serious Eats.
Serving Suggestions
These turkey egg rolls are the perfect vehicle for all sorts of dipping sauces!
Nuoc cham is a Vietnamese seasoning sauce consisting of chilis, lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar. The sweet and sour combination plays well with the savoriness of the turkey egg rolls and the vegetables inside, and the spice from the chilis will entice you to keep dipping. I Heart Umani has a great base recipe that uses honey instead of white sugar for sweetening the sauce.
Chinese Hot Mustard is another classic dipping sauce for egg rolls. The mustard adds a pungency that will balance out the fried flavors in the egg rolls.
What about the leftovers?
These egg rolls freeze beautifully. In fact, when I recently came home from vacation to a basically empty refrigerator, these leftover turkey egg rolls were a perfect lunch for me so that I wouldn’t have to go grocery shopping hungry. Simply wrap the fried egg rolls in aluminum foil and bake in a 400°F oven or toaster oven until heated through.
If you happen to have a countertop deep fryer at home, you can freeze the leftover egg rolls before they are pan fried. They can go straight into the countertop fryer from the frozen state.
Turkey Egg Rolls with Vegetable Scraps
These turkey egg rolls use two cups of vegetable scraps in their filling, so they're the perfect recipe for eliminating unnecessary food waste
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp avocado oil, plus more for frying (approximately ¼ cup for a 10in skillet)
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 2 cups shredded vegetable scraps, such as kohlrabi stems, kale stems, and carrot peels
- Salt, to taste
- ¾ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tsp grated ginger
- 1 ½ tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 10-12 premade egg roll wrappers
Instructions
- Heat avocado oil in a 10 inch skillet on medium high heat. Add ground turkey, and sauté until fully cooked.
- Add shredded vegetable scraps, salt, and red pepper flakes to the skillet and sauté until vegetables are soft and translucent.
- Add garlic and ginger to the mixture, and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.
- Stir fish sauce and rice wine vinegar into the mixture, and let simmer for 2 minutes to thicken.
- Remove filling from the skillet into a prep bowl.
- Lay out a wonton wrapper and add 3 tbsp of filling. Fold up egg rolls, using water to seal them together.
- In a clean high-walled skillet, add approximately ¼ cup of avocado oil, and heat on medium high.
- Fry egg rolls in batches of 3-4 egg rolls, frying each side until they are golden brown and bubbly.
- Serve while hot.
