Egg roll in a bowl
Egg roll in a bowl: ground pork and coleslaw mix with ginger, garlic and soy, done in 20 minutes in one pan. Keto at 9 g of carbs a serving, with a leaner turkey version.
- 385
- kcal
- 23g
- protein
- 29g
- fat
- 9g
- carbs
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Serves
- 4
Photograph by Kai-Chieh Chan on Pexels
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 lb (450 g) ground pork
- 4 green onions, whites and greens sliced separately
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
- 1 bag (14 oz) coleslaw mix
- 3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
- 1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sriracha, or to taste
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Method
-
1
Brown the pork
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork, which renders enough fat of its own, and cook, breaking it up, until browned and any liquid has cooked off, 6 to 8 minutes. Let it sit undisturbed for a minute at a time so it browns rather than steams.
-
2
Add the aromatics
Add the white parts of the green onions, the garlic and the ginger and cook 1 minute.
-
3
Wilt the cabbage
Add the coleslaw mix and the tamari and toss over high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until the cabbage wilts but still has some crunch.
-
4
Season and serve
Off the heat, stir in the sesame oil, rice vinegar and sriracha, taste for salt, and serve topped with the green onion tops and sesame seeds.
What egg roll in a bowl is
It is the filling of a Chinese-American egg roll, cooked in a skillet and eaten without the wrapper. Leaving out the fried wrapper takes away most of the carbohydrate and a lot of the fat, which is why the dish became a keto and low-carb staple. You may also see it called "crack slaw".
Getting it to taste like an egg roll
- Brown the pork properly. Spread it out, let it sit before stirring, and cook off any liquid. Gray, steamed pork makes the dish taste flat.
- Do not overcook the cabbage. It should wilt but keep some crunch, like the filling of a good egg roll. A few minutes over high heat is enough. Longer and it turns soft and watery.
- Salt at the end. Tamari and soy sauce vary a lot in saltiness. Add the vinegar and sriracha last, taste, and only then add salt.
- Toasted sesame oil is the flavor most people recognize as "egg roll". It goes in at the end, off the heat: high heat burns its flavor away.
Keeping it keto
A serving has about 9 g of total carbohydrate and 3 g of fiber, so about 6 g of net carbs. To keep it there:
- Use tamari or soy sauce. Coconut aminos works but has more sugar, adding about 2 g of carbohydrate a serving. Check the label of any sweet chili or hoisin sauce, which can add 7 to 8 g of sugar a tablespoon.
- Check that the coleslaw mix is plain shredded cabbage and carrot, not a kit with dressing.
- For a sauce on top, stir 1 teaspoon of sriracha into 1/4 cup of mayonnaise. A tablespoon of it per serving adds about 90 kcal and no carbohydrate.
A leaner version with turkey
Use 93% lean ground turkey instead of pork. Each serving drops to about 255 kcal, with 25 g of protein and 14 g of fat. Turkey is milder, so add an extra clove of garlic and a little more ginger.
Other variations
- Shrimp: in place of the pork, cook the cabbage first, then add 1 lb of peeled shrimp for the last 3 minutes.
- Vegetarian: crumble 14 oz of extra-firm tofu into the hot oil and brown it well before the aromatics.
- With rice: not keto, but good. Serve over 1/2 cup of cooked rice per person, which adds about 100 kcal.
- With an egg: push everything to the side, scramble 2 eggs in the empty part of the pan, then stir them through. For another low-carb lunch built on eggs, the keto burrito uses a thin egg crepe as the wrapper.
Keeping it
It keeps 4 days in the fridge and makes a good packed lunch, although the cabbage softens. Reheat in a skillet over high heat rather than in the microwave, which steams it.
What it is worth nutritionally
A serving has about 385 kcal, with 23 g of protein, 29 g of fat and 9 g of carbohydrate. Most of the fat comes from the pork. Cabbage is high in vitamin C and vitamin K and very low in calories, so the dish is a large plate of vegetables for its calories. With turkey and no extra sauce, it is also a good fit for a calorie deficit, not just for keto.
