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
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- Do not omit the toasted sesame oil. It’s what gives the dish that quintessential “Asian” egg roll taste!
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- 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.
The recipe you share is very detailed and easy to understand. I will stay and learn to make this dish. Thanks very much.
In one word….DELICIOUS!!! Absolutely will make this again. Thank you for posting!
Just stumbled upon your recipe on Pinterest, which led me to your blog. So glad I did! Recipe is wonderful, I made it last night,per your instructions with ground turkey. I have bookmarked your blog and look forward to following you!
Hi, Elaine! Welcome! I’m so glad that you found the blog, too. Enjoy the recipes! 🙂
This is delicious and I love that I can eat a lot of it for few calories. I gained so much weight this past winter.
This is now on our weekly meal rotation! It is super easy to make once you get the hang of it. I use our food processor for the cabbage, carrots and fresh ginger! I triple the recipe so we have a full meal of leftovers (there are 5 of us)
Awesome! I’m so happy to hear that, Ashley!
This was awesome! I used ground chicken and also added in diced mushrooms to bulk it up a little more. Definitely one of my new go-to meals.
That’s great, Kim. Thank you!!
I am making this week with a small pork roast I am going to grind up and add some red peppers and pea pods for extra crunch!!
Yum! Sounds delicious! 🙂
This is outstanding! I love this kind of stuff, but my picky husband had two bowls of it! He never eats my kind of meal. Thanks for the recipe, it’s definitely going in my rotation!
Awesome!!!
Totally yum! This recipe is a keeper.
Hi there, I have just recently found your great website . I have made so many of your lovely recipes ( the egg roll in a bowl, your chicken , broccoli , rice dump and bake , your shortcut apple pecan date bars which my husband claims was the best thing I EVER baked lol ). I just wanted to say , great job, I love your website, I literally check it out Sunday morning and plan my dinners and grocery list accordingly. Thanks for all your hard work…..heather from Ottawa Canada
That makes me SO happy to hear, Heather! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a kind note. Enjoy the recipes! 🙂
Made this tonight and oh my goodness! Do delicious. The only thing I would change is doubling the coleslaw. Tomorrow it’s lunch. Thanks so much for sharing!
I don’t cook a lot of Asian food so wasn’t familiar with some of the ingredients (although not hard to find!). At first I thought it was going to be dry so I added more sauce, vinegar, etc and probably overdid it a bit, but overall I thought was pretty good for my first try! Four stars for operator error on my part…there will be lots of leftovers because I have one who’s picky—hopefully will heat up well for lunch tomorrow! Thanks for the recipe—needing something different and this fit the bill! Ps: I added sliced almonds on top.
Thanks, Amy! I’m glad that it worked for you! 🙂 The leftovers are great the next day.
I just made this & smells awesome in my house!! As I’m single, does this freeze well? Thank you for the awesome recipe!!
Hey, Lora! I haven’t tried freezing it, but I 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 I would suggest enjoying as much of it as you can as leftovers this week. 🙂
Hi Lora
This dish is in my regular rotation but I’ve never frozen it. I have had it in the fridge for up to a week and it’s still delicious. I usually make two dishes and alternative them between my work lunch and my dinner. Enjoy!
This is one of my favorite meals! I cook for only myself and still make a double and eat it all week at work. I also make baked wonton chips and use them as scoops. So delicious! Sometimes i just want to use up some left over mushrooms, bok choy, celery and will add that. I think you could add almost anything. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Thanks, Wendy!! I totally agree — throw in any veggies that you want to use up! 🙂
This is a fabulous recipe! Thank you!! Made it exactly as your recipe intended and loved it! Will have fun adding things that I might need to use up in the fridge. Great to have another ground turkey recipe!
Thank you, Heather!
Holy Moly this dish was incredible! My husband and I both couldn’t get enough!
I would really like to know how you diced the sweet onion without a knife or cutting board. Haha. Did you buy it pre-diced?
Hey, Chelsea! Yep — frozen pre-diced onion is one of my favorite shortcuts! 🙂
Is sesame oil the same as toasted sesame oil
Yes, you can use either toasted or regular sesame oil. The toasted has a bit of a richer flavor (which I love), but both work well in this recipe!
Great Recipe!! Just needs a drizzle of duck sauce over the top
Yes, that sounds like a perfect addition! Thanks, Kathy! 🙂
How could you make this without the meat? Would it lose the flavor? Or is there a spice I could add? Thanks so much!!
Hi, RuthAnn! It will obviously have a different flavor if you go the vegetarian route, but it will still be good! I would just bulk it up with a few more cups of extra veggies (shredded cabbage, carrots, or whatever else you love). Enjoy!
Thank you!!!
I’d add some fresh sautéed crimini mushrooms or baby Bella’s to kinda give it a meaty flavor without the meat.
So delicious! It’s honestly better than Chinese takeout and healthier. Faster than ordering takeout too! I used ground pork like you suggested as a sub for ground turkey and served over some jasmine rice. Was a huge hit and will be adding it to the rotation instead of takeout!
Perfect! Thanks, Erin!