Few things are as gratifying as biting into a crispy roll of lumpia—the shattering of its golden-brown exterior; the audible crackle as your teeth sink down and reach its juicy interior.
Assigned lumpia duties for your next gathering? Frying them up is fairly straightforward, but you can run into the problem of your cooked rolls getting soggy as they sit, especially if you’re making multiple batches in one go.
Thankfully, keeping them crispy is as simple as finding the right ways to cool and store your cooked lumpia as you fry more batches of the dish, or attend to other duties.
Place It on a Wire Rack
One of the factors behind soggy fried foods is excess moisture, usually from trapped steam that condense into water droplets as they cool. Cooling racks prevent moisture from building by elevating the food from the surface and having open spaces at the bottom, allowing air to flow in. The open ridges also allow any excess oil on the rolls to drip down.
Store Your Lumpia Standing
Avoid stacking the cooked rolls in a closed container. Instead, you’ll want to cool your lumpia with the rolls standing upright in a wire mesh colander. Though less ideal, a shallow bowl lined with paper towels works, too.
Storing lumpia upright allows any excess oil to drop down, and for a greater amount of surface area to be exposed to more circulating air than if the lumpia were left to lie on top of each other horizontally. Try not to crowd the container. If you don’t have too many pieces to fill it up, you can let the rolls rest diagonally against the colander or bowl’s inner edges.
Keep Them in a Warm Oven
The dry heat of the oven can help dry out excess moisture that could make the lumpia soggy. The trick is to keep the oven at a low temperature—around 75 to 90°C or roughly 170 to 200°F, which is just enough to keep the environment warm inside without further cooking or burning your food. Choose the lower end of the temperature range if you’re working with a smaller oven.
From there, you’ll want to place your cooked lumpia (standing upright if your oven allows for it) on a baking sheet. Make sure there’s some space in between each roll, and keep them in the heated oven until you’re done frying all your batches.
Try not to leave the lumpia in there for more than an hour or so, though—you want to keep it warm and crisp, not render it burnt and dry and lifeless.
To Cover or Not to Cover?
Your best bet to keeping lumpia crisper for longer is to keep it uncovered for as long as you can, again to keep moisture from building from the trapped steam. If you must use a covered container though—say, if you’re traveling—there are still easy hacks you can utilize.
Line your container with paper towels to absorb excess grease, and let the lumpia cool completely before placing them inside the container. If you can help it, cover the container just loosely, or poke holes in the lid if you’re using an aluminum tray or cardboard box.
Frequently Asked Questions
Lumpia usually turns soggy because trapped steam condenses as it cools. Improper draining, stacking, or covering hot lumpia also traps moisture and softens the wrapper.
Cool fried lumpia on a wire rack, store them upright, avoid covering them while hot, and keep them in a warm oven if serving later.
Yes. Place fried lumpia in a warm oven set between 75–90°C (170–200°F). This keeps them warm while allowing moisture to evaporate.
Paper towels can absorb excess oil, but a wire rack is the better option because it allows air to circulate underneath the lumpia, helping preserve its crispiness.
It’s best not to. Stacking traps heat and steam between the rolls, making the wrapper soft instead of crispy.
