Air-Fryer Filipino Lumpia

Lumpia is the Filipino spring roll — thinner, smaller, and faster than its Chinese cousin, traditionally deep-fried until the spring-roll wrapper goes glass-crisp around a fragrant pork-and-vegetable filling. Every Filipino household has its own version. They appear at every party. They get eaten faster than they can be cooked.

The air fryer version is the practical home adaptation. The wrappers go nearly as crisp — slightly different texture, but with the same audible shatter. You skip the wok and quart of oil, and you can keep cooking while guests eat what's already done.

The filling is ground pork, finely chopped vegetables (cabbage, carrot, water chestnuts if you have them), garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and a splash of fish sauce. Mix raw, roll tight in lumpia wrappers (found in Asian supermarkets — these are thinner than spring-roll wrappers and that thinness is the point), seal with a flour-water paste.

The photo shows a stack of golden-brown lumpia on a white cloth: pale beige wrappers gone translucent and crisp around visible orange carrot and pale filling, one bitten through to show the cross-section. A small bowl of bright pink sweet-and-sour sauce on the side.