This Healthy Egg Roll in a Bowl (aka Crack Slaw) has all of the great flavor of Egg Rolls, but without the fuss and carbs of Egg Roll Wrappers. It's a sure to please Easy One Pan Meal that's easily adaptable and ready in under 30 minutes!
You're absolutely definitely going to want to add this kid-friendly dish to your rotation--it's that easy and that good!
Sooooo excited to share a recipe today that has become a fast favorite in our home.
"Egg Roll in a Bowl?" you say. "What's that?"
To which I respond, "One of the best easy meals you will ever have."
Seriously. You take all of the goodness of an egg roll and remove the outer wrapper and you've got a huge bowl of goodness.
Plus you can make it all in just one pan.
Easy meal clean up.
You're welcome.
I've always loved foods from other countries. You can see some evidence of this on my site in these recipes:
Pakistani Kima (a fave of family and everyone else too-- aka Ground Beef Curry)
Mild Curry Powder
Chaat Masala (a literally amazing Indian Spice you will want to put on EVERYTHING!)
Homemade Taco Seasoning (never go back to packets again!)
Thai Chicken Soup
Thai Curry Chicken Thighs (with a great technique to make them just right)
This Egg Roll in a Bowl is the perfect addition to the mix.
The Origin of This Dish
I found the inspiration for this recipe about a year or so ago. Someone had shared a recipe for Egg Roll in a Bowl in a Facebook group and I was super intrigued. What a concept!
I'd always loved egg rolls but hadn't had one in a long time due to our going gluten-free and even leaning grain-free.
Too many carbs in those egg roll wrappers, you know?
So I just had to make the recipe. It was pretty tasty, but it needed something.
So I worked on it, tweaking it with different seasonings and such, and made this recipe so many times that my family thought I was a little nutty, but we ended up with a recipe that's a real winner in our home.
This recipe is great not only because of its great taste and how easy it is to make it, but also because it works for so many special diets.
A Great One Pot Meal for Busy Families
If you're like me, you're busy. You often find yourself at 4:00 or 4:30 wondering "What's for Dinner?!"
I already have some recipes on my site that are perfect for getting dinner on the table in a flash including Super Fast Lentils, Homemade Hamburger Helper, Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets, Gluten-Free Chili Mac (and more easy recipes), and more.
But I could always use more easy meals as I'm sure you could too.
The leftovers of this dish are great! We even like eating it cold. Egg Roll insides for breakfast--YES!
The dish freezes well. I haven't frozen and reheated it myself yet, but many readers have tried it and told me it worked great!
I've also had readers tell me that this cooks well in a slow cooker or the Instant Pot!
You can even serve it as a side dish by omitting the meat completely. Any way you serve it up, it's a great way to get more veggies into everyone in the family.
Serving Options
This dish is great on its own, but we love serving it with cauliflower rice for a low-carb meal. It's great on regular rice as well.
You could also put the filling in wraps, temaki style, or gluten-free egg roll wrappers for fun without having to roll them up perfectly. These keto / low-carb wraps would be perfect as well.
Special Diet Options
This Healthy Eggroll in a Bowl is already a clean-eating recipe, but it's more than just that--it's easily adaptable for special diets.
- THM: If you are on the Trim Healthy Mama plan, this is an S, E, or FP. It's an S with beef or pork, and E or FP with lean chicken or turkey. Serve with rice, if you like for an E. In my opinion, it tastes best as an S. Use lean meat and reduce the fat to 2 tsp, and use fat-free broth to make it an E and of course you can add extra carrots if you like. You might want a bit more broth but I think it will be fine without doing that. This meal can be any type of fuel. With rice, it's a crossover. With cauliflower rice, or plain, and with beef or sausage, it's an S.
- Keto: sub in more cabbage or another low carb veggie for the carrots.
- For AIP (autoimmune protocol) or Paleo, substitute coconut aminos for the tamari. Use coconut sugar or maple syrup (read Choosing Maple Syrup) or honey for the sweetener.
- For a vegan option, omit the meat (obviously!) and use a vegetable broth like this one. Here is my Vegetable Broth Mix for a make-your-own option. If you choose to use a broth that contains sodium, you may want to reduce the salt in the recipe.
- Meat: For the ground beef, you can substitute ground or finely-chopped chicken. Pork can be substituted as well. It can also be omitted for a vegan main dish or for a vegetable side. I HIGHLY recommend using quality meat--grass-fed if possible.
- Tamari: You can substitute either soy sauce or liquid aminos for the tamari.
- Stevia / Sweetener: 1/16 tsp is equivalent to 2 scoops stevia (see How to Use Stevia). Also, instead of stevia, you can use 4 Tbsp of almost any other sweetener.
Recipe Notes
- Sesame Oil: For sesame oil, you want to buy a raw version, since cooking with toasted sesame oil makes the oil bitter. You would only want to buy toasted sesame oil if you would like to drizzle it on top of the egg roll after cooking it.
- Homemade Garlic Powder: For a nifty idea, here's Homemade Garlic Powder if you would like to make your own garlic powder to use in the recipe.
- Homemade Broth: If you'd prefer to make your own broth, see Homemade Broth Tips.
- Cabbage Buying Tip: One medium head of cabbage yields about 8 - 8.5 cups so plan accordingly.
- Soy Sauce / Tamari Notes: Personally I like tamari more than soy sauce. Tamari is richer tasting and has less gluten than regular soy sauce. You can even buy gluten-free tamari, which is the best of both worlds! Since soy is almost always GMO, if you are going to use soy sauce, I recommend choosing an organic soy sauce.
Some readers have asked me what kind of a pan I use for this dish. This is the pan I use.
I use it for all sorts of healthy recipes, such as my Honey Bunches of Oats Coconut Chips, Healthy Chili Mac, and Caramelized Coconut Chips.
The pan is light and on the thinner side so it heats up fast. I love that it's wider than most pans, giving it a greater surface area for heating, but it also holds quite a bit more than most pans of this type, so you can fit a lot of whatever you are making into it and not have to dirty up multiple pans.
Less cleaning--happy mom!
OK--with that, let's get to the recipe!
Egg Roll in a Bowl - low carb, gluten free, AIP option
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs ground beef (turkey or chicken or game meat may also be used)
- 2 med onions (finely chopped / minced)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp unrefined sesame oil (use another oil for AIP)
- 1 1/2 tsp ginger (powdered)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper (omit for AIP)
- 1 tsp garlic granules (or 4 cloves garlic, minced)
- 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 1/16 tsp stevia extract (optional - See Recipe Notes)
- 1/2 Tbsp crushed red pepper (optional. Omit for AIP)
- 2 Tbsp white wine (omit or substitute more broth for AIP)
- 1/3 cup beef broth (see vegan option above)
- 9 cups shredded cabbage (see notes)
- 1 1/2 cups shredded carrot
- 4 tsp tamari (or to taste - see substitute options above)
- Green onion for garnish (optional)
- Cauliflower Rice (or rice)
Instructions
- Place meat in large pan and cook until browned.
- On medium high heat, add the onions, garlic, and sesame oil. Cook until lightly browned.
- Reduce heat to medium.
- Add spices, sweetener, red pepper, wine, and broth to the pan and stir well.
- Add the cabbage and stir to coat.
- Cook, stirring frequently until the cabbage slightly wilts.
- Add carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes until soft.
- Add tamari to taste and adjust flavorings as desired.
- Serve plain or over rice or cauliflower rice.
- Garnish with green onions if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
I'm sure this Healthy Egg Roll in a Bowl will be a dish that you will want to add to your family's menu often.
I'd love to hear what you think about this recipe!
Please share in the comments below!
This was so delicious! Working hard on weight loss and this was the perfect meal for a healthy dinner. I just wanted to clarify, the nutrition facts would be for one portion, correct. 37g protein seems like a lot but everything seems like a single serving amount. Thanks so much!
Hi there! So glad you liked it! The nutrition information is a tough one. We used information from 2 databases and according to them, it's correct. The only problem we found is that they seem to be conflicting on whether the beef is cooked or raw---if you are concerned, please use a calculator that you are comfortable with. Thanks again!
Just made this for the first time. It’s delicious!! Just one question...What is the serving size!
I'm so glad you liked it! I have never measured the whole dish--I just say that it's 4 servings since it uses a pound of meat. Hope that helps!
My husband and I both loved this recipe. Very tasty.
So glad to hear it! This is another one from the site that we love - hopefully this will be a winner for you as well! Pakistani Kima / Ground Beef Curry.
I made this last night with a few substitutions and it was delicious! I left out the tamari (didn’t have any) wine and sweetener. I cut down on the carrots, I am diabetic. I will definitely be making this again, but with Tamari. I still don’t know what AIP is, I never got an answer.
Hi there -so glad you liked it! Just responded to your other question. Sorry I'm buried here and was out almost all day yesterday :). You might be interested in joining our Healthy Living Community. We'd love to have you!
What is AIP?
Hi there. Sorry for the delay. I just added that to the post - it's autoimmune paleo or autoimmune protocol. Hope to get a post written about it.
Chinese Five spice powder
Are you saying you would want to put that on the dish?
How can you make this with less carbs?
Doing all cabbage and no carrots will cut it a lot. Does that work for you?
That’s great! Thank you!
Of course! So hope you like it! You could add in onions instead or just more cabbage!
I love this recipe! It is delicious and easy to make. It's one of my go-to's for busy weeknight dinners. Thank you!
Sooo glad to hear it! I've been making it a LOT recently since I got a ton of organic cabbage just before this virus thing hit!
I love, love, love this recipe! Served it on rice. I used fresh ground pork and bagged coleslaw which had the carrots, etc included. Easy peasy! I love ginger and garlic so doubled up on those and I have an "Asian seasoning" I picked up at Costco that I used in place of the stevia, I dislike sugar substitutes. This is so yummy, I'll make it again and again!
Ooooh...what is the Asian seasoning? Soooo glad to hear it. We are making it all the time right now b/c we have a lot of organic cabbage that I bought just before this virus broke out. Thanks again!
Its called "Simply Asia" Sweet ginger garlic seasoning. Ingred: ginger, toasted sesame seeds and black sesame seeds, sea salt, unrefined sugar, garlic, dry red bell peppers, toasted coconut, soy sauce (dry?), onion and natural flavor(?).
I'm going to look for this! Thank you!! Maybe I can reverse engineer it ;).
Does the nutritional value include rice? Doesn’t seem so. I made this tonight but excluded stevia, wine, crushed red pepper and tamari. Used coconut aminos and jalapeños instead. I skipped rice/cauliflower rice and it was DELICIOUS! I used fresh ginger instead of powder. I didn’t make enough lol. But, I’m wondering how to figure out the true nutritional value for the exact ingredients that I used. Is there an app that anyone uses ?
It does not include rice :). People use all kinds of different apps and they all have their pros and cons. We might be making this again tonight! I have a LOAD of cabbage that I bought just before this all happened (virus stuff).
I use crono meter which allows for custom recipes.
Love it!! Easy to put together! Fresh ingredients and easy clean up.
Made it without modification.
Sooo glad to hear! We love it too!
Thanks for all of the suggestions for modifications. I omitted the sweetener and it was amazing with the pepper flakes.
You are so welcome! I'm SOOO glad you liked it and that the suggestions were helpful. I'm trying to do that more and more so that almost everyone can try all of my recipes. That means so much that it helped you! Feel free to ask for help w/ a recipe anytime!
Great Recipe! I will make it again.
So glad to hear it!! We had it 3 times this past week :).
This is a great recipe! I make it often.
So glad to hear it--thanks for taking the time to tell me!
Made this twice so far. First time it was amazing and my 4 year old said it was his favorite and asked if I would make it again. I'm pretty sure that's the first time he has ever said that. I did add Chili Garlic sauce though. Now I am on AIP so couldn't add the Chili Garlic sauce and felt it was just missing that spice. Either way it is really good, great for AIP and great to add leftover chicken to make a super quick meal. I also added some cut up broccoli which was great.
No way--that makes me so happy!!! Give him a hug for me! Wish I could sit down for a meal of this with you all!! Chili Garlic Sauce sounds amazing.
Thanks again! More recipes in the works! I haven't been writing in awhile due to loads of life issues, but I'm at it again thankfully.
One of my go-to recipes!! I love it, hubby loves it and we have tons of leftovers.
So glad to hear it--this made my day!! Thanks for reading and taking the time to share your experience :).
Fixed it for my grandkids... everyone loved it... did not serve it with rice...I may have added more garlic and sesame oil... since I love those.
I think adding more garlic and sesame sounds perfect...in fact one of our boys always adds extra sesame. Thanks for coming back to tell me! I hope to have some more recipes up soon!
Absolutely Delicious & easy !! Makes a lot ! A real crowd pleaser !!
So glad to hear it! Thanks for this--it always means a lot when people like your recipes! We worked hard on this one!
This was delicious ! Omitted the wine and stevia and I loved it ! Will definitely make it again!
So glad to hear it! Thanks for taking time to come back and tell me!
It was delicious but it was definitely missing something. I had a ton of cabbage from my CSA. All of my other veggies were fresh from CSA as well, it was a great way to use cabbage that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have used. However, it just didn’t hit the spot. My husband ate it on a tortilla with siracha and crispy hatch peppers. Said it was delicious. I ate it on brown rice...just was missing something. Overall, delicious, and though we enjoyed it and will enjoy the leftovers, I probably won’t make it again.
Hi Megan! Thanks for the (mostly high) compliment! I wonder if your disappointment might be due to your eating it on rice--did you maybe eat it w/ a lot of rice? I'm thinking that of course since rice is bland and a tortilla, while bland, is typically less grain plus your husband had more flavor on it that that might be the case? Otherwise I'm a little surprised since almost every review is a 5 star. Of course not every recipe is for everyone, but perhaps that is it? Thanks again!
We tried it and felt like it needed more which is why we added rice and had it on a tortilla. Like I said, very delicious just didn’t feel like a full meal.
Hi there. Got it--so it wasn't that it wasn't tasty--you just wanted more food. You could always have another serving :). Thanks for reading!
Hi! I have to agree with Megan that I found something to be missing with this recipe..... to be fair though I’m on AIP (so I ate it just as is - not on rice or anything) so I probably eliminated most of the things that contain flavour lol! Also I ran out of ginger during this recipe so I probably also had less ginger than I should have. So therefore I can’t fault the recipe at all as I’m sure it’s 5* with all of the ingredients included haha! However I wanted to reply and comment that during my second bowl I added about 1tbsp of apple cider vinegar and that seemed to be the thing that was missing (for me anyways!) Just a suggestion for something to try!
Hi there - well, to be fair, I don't think I approved her 2nd comment yet, but it sounds like it was just that she wanted more food and not that the recipe wasn't good. I'll check to see if that's the case. I am swamped here and behind on some things :). I'm actually making it right now. Make it the right way and tell me what you think :). What things did you omit? Thanks for reading!
Hi Adrienne - thanks for your reply! I had to omit the pepper, red pepper flakes, wine, and stevia (though I added maple syrup instead!) I can’t have those on AIP. Also I used coconut aminos instead of tamiri which also changed the taste, and ran out of ginger so I only had half the amount! I mean I’m saying it was delicious (I had three bowls last night, and am having one for breakfast this morning lol) but it was missing some zing without all the spices and the apple cider vinegar gave that to me cause I can’t have the rest!
You are so welcome! I am eating more today as well! I actually don't have wine right now, but I do use stevia as it doesn't seem to bother me, but any sweetener should be fine. I'm so glad you liked it and ACV is a great idea! How much did you use?