Southwestern Egg Rolls

I’m back! Pardon my absence, but I am all moved into my new apartment (as long as having an obstacle course of unpacked boxes and bins scattered throughout the whole place still counts as being moved in)! Naturally, the only room that has been completely unpacked so far is the kitchen. I missed cooking and sharing with you!

I’ve wanted to make a Southwestern egg roll recipe for quite a while now, and it seemed like a great inaugural dish to break in my new kitchen. Whenever I’m scouring the web for recipe inspiration, I usually end up bookmarking like crazy, so I have a system of bookmark folders by category to try to stay somewhat organized. I knew I had several Southwestern egg roll recipes bookmarked, and when I went to check them out I realized that they were all basically the exact same recipe! That happens a lot in food blogging. Recipes get popular and catch fire (hopefully not literally). The funny part is that each of the recipes I had marked on different blogs were from different years (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012), so I guess it was a pretty slowly building fire.

After making these I can totally see why so many other bloggers have jumped on board. These could definitely rival a similar appetizer at any major restaurant chain, and since they are baked, not fried, they’re actually healthy! The blend of flavors and textures is delicious. Hearty spinach and black beans, sweet, juicy corn, gooey cheese, green chiles for a little heat, and a tasty blend of spices for a pop of Southwestern flavor, all wrapped up in a crispy on the outside, soft on the inside egg roll wrapper. Yum. I highly recommend serving these with a zippy salsa for dipping. If you wanted to add some meat to these you could certainly add the chopped, cooked chicken to the mix and I’m sure it would be delicious. These egg rolls are perfect for an appetizer, snack, or meatless main course. I listed the points and nutrition information per egg roll so that you can choose your own serving size, depending on how hungry you are!

Southwestern Egg Rolls

Source: I’ve seen this recipe on a lot of different blogs. I used the one from Annie’s Eats, but I also saw them on Cake and Allie, Ezra Pound Cake and Budget Savvy Diva.

Ingredients:
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups reduced fat shredded Mexican cheese blend (I used Weight Watchers brand)
1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
4 scallions (green onions), chopped
1 (4 oz) can of green chiles, drained
1 t ground cumin
½ t chili powder
1 t salt
½ t black pepper
¼ t cayenne pepper
24 egg roll wrappers (1 package)

Serving suggestion: I recommend serving these with salsa for dipping. My friends at Wholly Guacamole sent me some samples of their fun new salsa flavors and I ate these with their Roasted Tomato Salsa. It was delicious!

Directions:
1.    Preheat the oven to 425. Lightly mist two baking sheets with cooking spray and set aside.
2.    In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients except the egg roll wrappers and stir to thoroughly combine.
3.    Pour some water into a small dish and set aside. On a flat surface, place an egg roll wrapper, corner facing toward you (like a diamond) and put ¼ cup of the mixture from the bowl on the center of the wrapper. Spread the mixture in a horizontal line from the left corner to the right corner of the wonton wrapper, leaving ½ inch or so of space on each side. Fold the bottom corner closest to you up over the ingredients and give it a 90 degree roll. Fold the side corners in and tuck them as you give the filled section another 90 degree roll. Dip your finger in the dish or reserved water and lightly wet the edges of the remaining top corner of the wrapper. Finish rolling the filled egg roll over the wet corner so that it adheres. Place wrapped egg roll onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
4.    When all of the egg rolls are wrapped and on the baking sheets, lightly mist the tops with cooking spray. Bake for 14-15 minutes, flipping once halfway through, until the wrappers are golden brown. Serve with salsa for dipping.

Yields 24 egg rolls. WW P+:  2 per egg roll (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
Nutrition Information per egg roll from myfitnesspal.com: 108 calories, 18 g carbs, 2 g fat, 6 g protein, 2 g fiber