All the flavors of your favorite Chinese egg roll made lighter, faster, and in one skillet! This egg roll in a bowl is a quick, healthy dinner that’s ready in just 20 minutes.
The best part? It all comes together in one skillet with minimal prep. Thanks to coleslaw mix and pre-shredded carrots, there’s no chopping involved, and you can even snip green onions straight into the pan. Customize it with your favorite ground meat, adjust the seasonings, or toss in extra veggies to suit your family’s tastes.
Eggroll in a Bowl is a Perfect Weeknight Dinner
It’s like an egg roll without the deep fried wrapper!
This egg roll in a bowl recipe is a quick, healthy dinner that’s perfect for busy weeknights. It has all the savory flavor of a classic egg roll filling; no deep frying required! With lean ground meat, crisp veggies, and a simple stir-fry sauce, it’s a wholesome meal you can keep low carb or bulk up with rice or noodles.
Ingredient Notes and Tips for Success
- Use any ground meat that you like. We prefer ground pork, but ground turkey, ground beef, ground chicken, and ground sausage are all tasty here.
- Sesame oil is an essential ingredient for that true Asian flavor. Do not substitute with a different oil. The sesame oil has a unique nutty flavor that’s hard to replicate with other ingredients, and it truly makes the dish! You can find sesame oil in the Asian or International foods aisle at just about every grocery store these days, or order it online. Use any extra sesame oil in recipes like chicken and broccoli lo mein, chicken and bell pepper stir fry, sweet and sour meatballs, and ramen noodle coleslaw.
- Rice vinegar adds an acidic component that brightens up the sauce.
- I prefer low sodium soy sauce (or light soy sauce), but coconut aminos or gluten-free tamari will also work as gluten-free substitutes.
- Hoisin sauce is a thick, rich, sweet-and-salty Chinese bbq sauce that adds great flavor to the stir-fry. Find it in the Asian or International foods aisle at your grocery store, or order it online.
- A bag of pre-shredded coleslaw mix is a perfect shortcut so that you don’t have to shred your own cabbage. Adding some broccoli slaw would yield a different texture and flavor, but would also work.
- You might not need any extra salt (since the sauce has a good amount of sodium), so taste it first and then season.
SO good … fast, easy and SO SO GOOD! I made it, loved it and then made it the following week again. I live on my own so I had it a few times each week!
– Cindy
How to Make Egg Roll in a Bowl with Coleslaw Mix
Have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go, because this dish comes together very quickly!
- Brown the meat in a large skillet or wok on the stovetop. Don’t stir the meat too much while it’s browning. Let it sit for a few minutes before you break it up with a spoon. This helps the meat retain moisture and stay tender.
- Add the onion, oil, and vinegar; cook until the onion is tender.
- Stir in the slaw mix, carrots, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and hoisin sauce.
- Stir-fry until the veggies are tender. Add the scallions and serve in individual bowls!
Did you make this recipe?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment with a 5-star review at the bottom of the post. Thank you!
Watch How to Make It
Egg Roll in a Bowl
Equipment
- Large skillet (I own and love this Smithey Ironware Co. cast iron skillet)
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground meat (we love ground pork, but you can also use ground turkey, ground chicken, or ground beef)
- 1 small sweet onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- ¼ cup less sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce (or add extra 1 tablespoon or so for a sweeter, richer sauce)
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic (use pre-minced fresh garlic for an easy shortcut)
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger or 1 ½ tablespoons grated fresh ginger (use a bottle of pre-minced fresh ginger for an easy shortcut)
- 1 (16 ounce) bag coleslaw mix
- ½ cup grated or “matchstick” carrots
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- Optional garnish: sliced green onions, chives, fresh cilantro, toasted sesame seeds, chopped peanuts, crunchy chow mein noodles, and/or a squeeze of fresh lime juice
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground meat and cook, stirring, until no longer pink, about 5-7 minutes. Drain off excess grease; return meat to skillet.
- Add diced onion, sesame oil, and rice vinegar to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until the onion is tender, about 4-5 more minutes.
- Add soy sauce, hoisin sauce, garlic, ginger, coleslaw mix, and carrots to the skillet. Cook, stirring, for about 5-7 more minutes, or until the cabbage wilts.
- Remove the skillet from the heat. Stir in the green onions and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Notes
-
- Do not omit the toasted sesame oil. It’s what gives the dish that quintessential “Asian” egg roll taste!
-
- Use this recipe as a base and play around with the ingredients to suit your preferences. You might like to add diced celery, diced sweet bell peppers, snap peas, snow peas, or baby corn. An extra tablespoon or two of hoisin sauce also adds great flavor and richness to the sauce.
Nutrition
Serving Suggestions
This easy egg roll in a bowl recipe is delicious on its own, or equally tasty when paired with sides like rice or cauliflower rice; ramen noodles, rice noodles, lo mein noodles, or spaghetti; frozen egg rolls; and steamed broccoli. The eggroll filling is also tasty wrapped in mandarin pancakes or flour tortillas and garnished with extra hoisin sauce or plum sauce (like mu shu pork).
Preparation and Storage Tips
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It gets soggy as the vegetables sit and absorb the sauce, but the flavor is still great! Some folks love to double or triple the batch to have extras in the fridge for quick meal prep.
- Reheat individual servings in the microwave for about 1 minute, or reheat a larger quantity in a skillet over low heat just until warmed through.
- I do not recommend freezing the leftovers. The cabbage and other vegetables will have a mushy texture when thawed, and will release extra water that thins the sauce.
Recipe Variations
- Use any ground meat that you prefer. We love ground pork in this dish, but ground beef, ground chicken, ground sausage, and ground turkey are also good options.
- Add egg to the filling. Just before serving, make a well in the center of the pan. Crack an egg into the pan, scramble, and cook until done. Mix the egg into the rest of the ingredients.
- For a vegetarian egg roll in a bowl, omit the ground meat and bulk up the stir-fry with mushrooms, diced tofu, or other veggies of choice (like bean sprouts).
- If you choose to shred your own green cabbage instead of using a bag of coleslaw mix, you will need a total of about 6 ¾ cups of finely-shredded cabbage.
- Make it spicy by garnishing individual servings with sriracha sauce or crushed red pepper flakes.
- Cooking just for two? Cut the ingredients in half. The instructions remain the same.
- If you’re looking for even more quick stir-fry recipes, be sure to try this ground beef stir fry with cabbage, a pan of chicken and broccoli stir fry, this 15-minute honey garlic shrimp, this pepper steak with onion, and this teriyaki ground beef, too!
Awesome! My husband was skeptical at first but finished all and wants it again.
– Connie
More Asian-Inspired Recipes to Try
Dump-and-Bake Healthy General Tso Chicken
40 minutes mins
Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
40 minutes mins
Dump-and-Bake Egg Roll Casserole
1 hour hr 5 minutes mins
Originally published in May, 2018, this post was updated in August, 2025.
Super easy for a week night meal! Thanks for sharing!
Exactly!!! Thanks, Karly!
Absolutely delicious!
Thank you for a wonderful meal, this recipe is a winner! Made it with ground beef . Added water chestnuts sprinkled peanuts and green onion on top. I’m sharing this recipe with my friends and family!
Thank you for your feedback and sharing the recipe, Jackie! We’re so glad you enjoyed it!
Easy, flavourful and crowd pleasing recipe. Filed in my recipe book!! I used ground turkey, added bean sprouts and sprinkled cilantro and green onions on our servings. Thank you for sharing !
Thank you, Trish! We’re so glad you enjoyed it.
Made this tonight. OMGOODNESS! Flavor was amazing. To bulk up the veggies I added bean sprouts and water chestnuts. Served with Chinese rice. Delicious. Definitely becoming a staple in our menu.
Thank you, Ashley! Your additions sound delish!
The recipe of fine.
TWENTY-SIX PAGES OF SEO SLOP before the recipe is not fine.
Hi Adam,
We do our best to provide helpful information and hope you understand it’s how our recipes show up on Google for readers to enjoy for free. You can always click the “Jump to recipe” button at the top of any page to skip straight to the recipe card!
For the following night with leftovers I put the mixture in a flour tortilla wrap with avocado and a squeeze of lime!!
Sounds amazing, Linda!
Love this recipe! Have made it many times. Once everything is cooked, we move everything to the side then crack an egg or two in the middle, delicious!
YUM! That sounds perfect. Thanks, Bailey!
So good! I actually used a pre made Asian – style chopped salad mix. It has cabbage, green onion, thin carrots and wonton strips included. I used this, and add the wonton strips at the end. Really good
Great tip about the salad mix, Kate. I bet it was tasty! Thanks for your note. 🙂
I would love to ask Kate what brand of Asian salad mix she used.
Very good.
Easy and delicious. I also added a can of small shrimp chopped up. Everyone love this recipie. Thank yoi
Sounds great, Cyndi! We’re so glad you enjoyed it.
This looks delicious, I’m going to make it this evening (hopefully) I know you said not to omit the sesame oil but my daughter is allergic to sesame, what would be a good substitute?
Hi! In that case, definitely omit the sesame oil! 🙂 Unfortunately, there’s not really an adequate substitute that will give you that same unique, toasty flavor. Instead, I would just use any other oil that you like — vegetable, canola, or olive, for instance. Enjoy!
I just discovered pistachio oil and while it’s not the same as sesame, it does have a ‘toasty’ flavor !
That’s amazing! I’ve never tried that oil (or even seen it in our local stores), but that’s a great tip. 🙂
I’ve made this several times, I started adding a dash of fish sauce along with the soy sauce. I top with wonton strips from the salad section and a drizzle of the hoisen sauce and a bit of Chinese hot mustard
That sounds amazing, Jenn! Thank you for sharing. We will have to try your version as well!
Very tasty and easy weeknight meal. We loved it and will definitely make it again.
Awesome! Thanks, Emily!
Great recipe! I added chopped water chestnuts for crunch and used the Kroger brand Asian salad kit that has the cabbage, carrot, green onion, cilantro in it already. I also used apple cider vinegar and tripled the hoisin. Super tasty over rice!
Thanks, Charyl!
Sorry Charyl but it it seems you change the recipe so much, you didn’t actually make it.
Thank you. I love the recipe as is but will try it with the Asian mix next time!
Oh my wow so good! This will be a frequent addition to our meal rotations!!!!! Thank you for a great recipe!
Thank you, Marquetta!
This is my very favorite version of this dish. The Hoisen sauce does seem to add well to the flavor. Thank you, Blair! My husband also thanks you.
Thank you for trying it out! We’re so glad you and your husband enjoyed it.
Looks so healthy! I like that it’s a one skillet meal. It means simple cleaning especially if it’s a non stick skillet. Great photos also. Thanks for sharing, going into my Pinterest board.
So easy, right?! Thanks so much for sharing on Pinterest!
It’s equaly easy and cheaper and fresher to buy a head of green cabbage and shred it yourself instead of “coleslaw mix” and it takes 5 minutes by hand !
I have arthritis and shredding a head of cabbage on a box greater would hurt my hand so I’d buy coleslaw mix. I make my cauliflower rice in my Vitamix, but it wouldn’t work with cabbage. I also work nine hours a day and then I go pick up my children so it’s worth an extra dollar or two to buy slaw mix and not have to clean up as much mess.
Easy to do cabbage in your vitamix. Place chunks of cabbage in water in the container and pulse. Then pour into a colander. All done!!!
Great tip!!! 🙂
When I made this, it was really watery the next day. Then next time I made it, I made it as usual but left out the cabbage. Instead I put down a bed of fresh cabbage and put everything else on top. This way when it was reheated, it would be the first time the cabbage was cooked.
Gigi is correct. Cabbage does not shred in the Vitamix. It turns into tiny pieces like KFC’s coleslaw. It could be done with the slice blade in a food processor. However, it is a lot less mess to purchase a bag. To each her own!
I put chunks of cabbage in my blender. Cover with water. Pulsate a couple times. Drain all water. I have added my carrots and onions along with cabbage. I have made this recipe since Trim Healthy Mama posted it 6 or 7 years ago. I serve with garlic bread. One dish meal.
You sarted the blog by suggesting a stir fry sauce instead of ithe individual ingredients – but you never say how much of the stir fry sauce and when to add it inn. Would appreciate it. Thanks
Hey, Barbara! I wasn’t suggesting a separate stir-fry sauce. I was saying that you stir-fry the vegetables in a savory sauce that you make with the ingredients listed (soy sauce, rice vinegar, etc.). Hope that helps clarify. 🙂
I made this as written the 1st time. 2nd time I added zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli slaw, cabbage, carrots, onion, garlic, I use liquid aminos (Bragg’s) chicken stock, sesame oil, fresh ginger, chicken stock and five spice powder. It was wonderful I have made it with chicken beef pork if you want more flavor marinade the meat for a little bit makes a big difference.
Thanks, Teresa! I’m so glad that you’ve used the original as a base to create your own variations. Sounds delicious!
I used Chinese Five Spice in my dish too! It really adds to it as you stated. This recipe can be as simple or complex as you’d like. It’s awesome because my husband enjoys this too. It was one of my go-to dinners when I was on Weight Watchers.
How much 5 spice did you use?
Will definitely be making this in the near future ! Sounds delicious…and easy…bonus !!
Yay! I hope that you enjoy it, Cindy! I’m hooked. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe ! I made it tonight for supper following the recipe as written , using all ingredients . I used ground turkey and served with basmatic rice and roasted garlic naan bread . It was a big hit and l’ll definitely be making it again ! 🙂
Yum!!! Sounds like the perfect meal, Cindy! So glad that you love it as much as I do!????
I love the egg roll in a bowl! Delicious! Can leftovers be frozen?
Thank you, Diane! We haven’t tried freezing it, but we would think that the cabbage (and other veggies) will get watery and kind of mushy after freezing and thawing. The texture definitely won’t be the same, so we would suggest enjoying as much of it as you can as leftovers this week.
I made this for dinner tonight. So easy & delicious. Thank you Blair for this yummy recipe, I will be making this one often. I have found so many good recipes on your site. Thanks again.
Thanks, Mary! It’s definitely one of my favorites, too! 🙂
Do I need additional carrots if there’s carrots in the coleslaw mix?
Hi, Rachel! I often use a coleslaw mix that includes carrots, but I also add the extra carrots. Totally up to you, but I suggest including them. 🙂
Awesome! Thank you! I’m so excited to make this for my family over the weekend! I am totally craving egg rolls (????????) and this will be perfect !
Yay! Enjoy, Rachel!
I’m obsessed with this. It seems too simple to be satisfying but it truly is. Very flavorful. I did add a can of diced water chestnuts for some crunch! Thank you so much for the recipe it’s truly the perfect low carb weeknight meal
Awesome! Thanks, Melissa!
Loved this recipe! I’ll be making it often.
Wonderful! Thanks for letting us know, Deb!
This is almost exactly how I make the filling for my egg rolls…. only I add a bit of dill weed and roasted garlic to it… OMG out of this world!!! Thank you for putting it in print.Now I don’t have to rack my brain trying to remember how I made it.. LOL… I also make a dipping sauce of roasted garlic and cream cheese and sour cream all heated thru. You could drizzle this over this meal instead of dipping..
Awesome! I love the idea of the dipping sauce. Sounds delicious!
How about the recipe for the dipping sauce? Sounds yummy!!!
Delicious recipe! Thank you for sharing! The second time I made it I added about 3/4 cup of frozen peas. My husband loves peas 🙂
Peas sound like a great addition! We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Kim.
OMG, what a hit with the guys in my family! They just loved it!!! The flavors were delicious and it was so easy…
Thank you
Yay! I’m so glad that they approved, Anne! 🙂
Made this tonight for dinner (used ground chicken). Was delicious, easy and a hit! Will definitely put it into my rotation. Thank you!
Wonderful! So glad that you enjoyed it, Lynne! Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
Hello Blair,
It looks so yummy and healthy to try at home now 😛 Going to try it tonight 🙂
Great! Thanks, Ellen!
I added a bit of cayenne pepper, for a slight kick, and scrambled and added 2 eggs like you do with fried rice. (Needed the extra fat for the keto diet.) Delicious!
Sounds perfect! Thanks, Lizzie!
Love the idea of adding egg! Protein plus! Thanks!
Thanks for the idea of using eggs. Now I add them and my fam loves this dish even more than before!
Wonderful! Thanks, Kat!
make this all time! however i add that ah-so sauce with the ground pork then add the rest comes out sooooo yummy!
Awesome, Tina! So glad that you love it! 🙂
Thank you Blair for the recipe.
Served it over rice…deliciousness! Next time, I will try this as a lettuce wrap. My husband ranted and raved over this meal.
Quick. Easy. Yummy ????
Wonderful! I love when we can get our husbands on board with healthy meals, too! 🙂
I made this tonite and it was awesome! I added cilantro and I used the hoisen sauce too. It was fantastic. What a great, healthy dinner option! Thanks for sharing!!
That’s great, April! Thank you for letting me know! It’s one of my personal favorites, too!
I used a bag of Kale Slaw mix, ground pork and a splash of oyster sauce. This is definitely a recipe to be made again. A can of drained bean sprouts would also be good added in.
Super easy and quick. Great taste. Added a little sriracha for some kick and used fresh ginger instead of ground. Will definitely add this to the weekly rotation.
Thanks, Shelley!
My new favorite meal!!! So easy and so delicious and now all my family and friends are making it. THANKS
Aweesome! So glad to hear that, Tina! 🙂
If there are leftovers, do you think they will stand up to be eaten the next day?
Yes! I love the leftovers! I often enjoy them cold — straight from the fridge. 🙂
Seriously??? I make a double batch to ensure I’ll have leftovers. I’m addicted to the stuff….
Is there a major difference in regular sesame oil and toasted sesame oil?
Hi, Haley! The toasted sesame oil just has a bit of a richer flavor (kind of like when you roast nuts versus eat them raw). Personally, I use both of the oils interchangeably in recipes and I think they both work equally well! 🙂
Absolutely delicious! My husband wants me to make a double batch next time. Thank you for posting!
Wonderful! I’m a big fan of leftovers, so a double-batch is always a good idea. 🙂