Sooo, I'm in love with this great food that my friend's mother used to make for use years ago, and I found it recently in an Asian store. It's called Lumpia, and is like a spring roll. According to the packaging, it's only 160 calories for six of them, but I'm a little confused, because you fry them...so it didn't seem to add up. I haven't been able to find any kind of nutrition information for them online, and was wondering if anyone happened to know about them? Or, by chance, about how many calories frying something with olive oil adds, on average???

My guess would be that the calorie count is without the frying, although I have no idea how to calculate what that would add. Could you try baking them? Since I don't know what they are like this may not work, but perhaps it's worth a try.

I guess that calorie count is before it is prepared. I dont know how many calories frying them would add, but i dont think you can deep fry in olive oil, it has too low of a smoke point. to fry something properly you have to get it up to the 350 or so degree mark and olive oil with smoke before that. Canola or peanut is better for deep frying. Olive oil will blacken your kitchen....just a little chef info.

I've seen lumpia before ... they're normally deep fried and fatty. I did a quick search and this lumpia recipe - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Filipin...ia/Detail.aspx - estimates 366 calories for 6 after frying. The recipe said they assumed that 10% of the oil was retained in the food, but that can vary so it's just an estimate.

If you could experiment with it and find some way to bake them instead of frying in oil, you could save a ton of calories.

I love lumpia! Yummy. I would agree with others, that is the cals before frying. I would try baking them, turning them every once in a while during the baking...deep frying would add tons of cals...just look at what deep frying does for a perfectly innocent vegetable like a potato! I don't know if the baking would work, but it is worth a shot. Good luck...let us know how it turns out.

Lumpia are good! If you try baking them, I'd spritz them with some cooking spray (or brush with oil) before baking so they crisp up. 1 teaspoon or so of oil (per serving) won't add too many calories either.

Baking definitely sounds like the way to go...Thanks so much for your input, everyone

I love Lumpia and I made it once and tried baking it. Naturally it isn't as good as frying, but they came out ok. What I did was before putting them into the oven, I sprayed them with butter-flavored Pam.

They did just fine

Zenor's idea of brushing them with oil would be good, too. Brush them with some olive oil before sticking them in the oven. I'll try that next time. I'm sure the oil would give them more of a "deep-fried" taste than cooking spray.

I'm so glad to hear that it came out tasting okay baked! I just looked up a good recipe for making it at home, and I have to say, I'm really excited about having it for lunch on the rare occasion .`

I used to make my own low calorie egg rolls using phyllo dough, the were so good!

If you want a crisp outside, get the oven preheated well before putting in the Pam-sprayed lumpia. I usually bake at about 400 when I want to imitation fry. It gives better results, but you have to watch the food more closely.

Hi Clarinator!

I love Lumpia. I have 2 friends at work who are Filipina and make thise. Aren't they delish?

Lots of calories so this is what I suggest for you...

go to www.kitchenlink.com

I believe the search is baked egg rolls. They will tell you how to bake egg rolls using Pam spray. That's the ticket! The best part is they teach you how to make them from scratch.

awesome! Thank you guys for all the information--I'm definitely going to have to try to bake them with your advice!

I had to turn away from the picture cuz I LOVE those things!! I worked with a lady that would get up at 2 in the morning-fry'em up and bring them to work. They we're still hot when she'd bring the dozen in my office. Needless to say-that dozen didn't even last until NOON.
pitiful, just pitiful......

My family is Guamanian, and lumpia is a staple at home. It can be such a pain to make them, but it's guaranteed that there will be no leftovers. When we make them, we have to hide a bag of them in the freezer in order for us to actually have some.

If baking them doesn't taste as good, then I'd cook just three of them in oil and eat them with a side of veggies or fruit. Some things just can't be baked and have a decent taste to it, so the only other option to enjoy things like this once in a while is to just cut down the portion size to stay within the calorie range.