Still making turon with strips of langka (jackfruit)? Too boring… try strips of cheese. Turon will never be the same again.
Turon is a spring roll filled with saba banana. As street food, they are sold along sidewalks by ambulant vendors who cook them on gas stoves set on rolling carts. Sold that way, turon is laced with plenty of brown sugar and filled with lots of langka (jackfruit) strips. Which makes it too sweet. Sickeningly sweet for my taste.
Substituting strips of cheese for the langka gives turon a totally new flavor. The salty cheese melts inside the wrapper and blends wonderfully with the natural sweetness of the saba bananas. That’s why it’s so important to use very ripe bananas. Semi-ripe bananas are too firm and lack the right amount of sweetness.
Use soft or semi-soft cheese, the kind that melts well. For best contrast in taste, choose salty rather than mildly salty cheese. And seal the wrappers very well to prevent the cheese from leaking out when it melts during frying.
Cheesy turon (banana spring rolls)
Note that this is an updated version of a recipe I originally posted in May 11, 2003. The recipe is the same except for the addition of powdered sugar. That's Alex's idea. It gives the wrapper a shiny appearance and adds a layer of crispiness. Unlike brown sugar which is traditionally added to the turon filling, powdered sugar does not make the turon too sweet and cloying.
Ingredients
- 6 saba bananas cut in half lengthwise
- 125 grams cheese
- 12 large spring roll wrappers
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar optional
- cooking oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Separate the spring roll wrappers.
- Slice the cheese into 12 equal pieces.
- Lay 1/2 banana on a spring roll wrapper. Place a slice of cheese on top.
Wrap the filling. Take the side nearest you and start rolling away from you. Halfway through, fold side flaps inward and continue rolling. Moisten the edges of the wrapper with water to seal. Repeat the process until all wrappers are filled (see visual guide).
In a frying pan, heat enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least two inches.
Sprinkle the spring rolls with powdered sugar.
- Over medium-high heat, deep fry the banana spring rolls until golden brown.
Drain on a rack.
- Serve the cheesy turon at once.
Deodorize Your Refrigerator With A Bowl of Baking Soda
connie,
i love turon, and i love cheese but i never really thought of combining both!
wow sassy! genius ka nga talaga!
naku, try cheesy turon. super sarap. especially while it’s still hot and the cheese is soft and gooey. :)
Hi Connie. I’ve been following your web for a week now and I’m really enjoying your articles and recipes. So surprised and happy that we have the same recipe for cheesy turon except that I use quick melt cheese. One morning, my plan was to boil the saba for our breakfast. But when I opened the fridge, I saw the quickmelt cheese and the lumpia wrapper, and there we have turon for breakfast! lol But my husband loves cheesy turon so much!
Really, sometimes opening the fridge is like opening a lot of great food possibilities. :)
Btw, I’ve done doing the yema balls and polvoron! They’re so yummy! Thank you so much!
hi aunt connie im a be ur number 1 fan…i like chees turon…:)
I would like to know how you keep the turon wrapper crunchy after cooking. It seems that the sugar makes the wrapper soggy after a while? If i want to give it away – how do i pack it to make sure it’s still crunchy? appreciate any suggestions- thanks!
ms ksp:
no problem for the crunchiness of the cheesy
turon indeed I tried it this option. USE
PHYLLO WRAPPER, IT WILL STAY CRUNCHY FOR A
WEEK…GOOD LUCK.
I don’t add sugar, ksp. That’s why in the list of ingredients, it’s listed as optional.
Hi Connie-
Great! I will try that this weekend with my kids and i’ll let you know! thanks , thanks!
You’re welcome, ksp. :)
Dear Connie-
Over the weekend, i tried several variants of the turon. The cheese was a big hit but even better with caramel sauce- made the old way – as in ,condensed milk and panutsa.
I also tried making it with quezo de bola – something the kids didn’t appreciate- hahaha! but the flavor and consistency was very “old style” like a hizon’s ensaymada.
Yep- getting rid of the sugar did wonders in making it stay crunchy -long after everyone has had dessert- and still good enough for seconds during merienda!
happy eating!
ksp
condensed milk and panutsa. sounds sinfully wonderful. :lol:
I just made turon with the brown sugar. After they cooled down and when we had leftovers we even refrigerated them. The following day they were still crunchy straight out of the refrigerator.
I’m assuming it’s because we made them fresh and fried them the same day unlike some people that will make them then place them in the freezer to be fried another day. The one’s that were frozen prior to frying always ended up soggy after some time.
I don’t think leaving out the brown sugar will guarantee crisp turons.
I hope ksp cathes your comment, antonio. :smile:
hi connie, i was searching about turon and came across this site, i will try the ones with cheese. Mmmm, i cant wait to please my mom-in-law…hehehe:razz: and will post comment after , thanks.
ogz, hehehe if you turn out to be a better cook than her, she will be your fan forever. :grin:
:grin: hi connie….
this site is going to send me back to the kitchen… :lol:
i’m so very excited to try this cheesy turon – i hope hubby and son would like it.
thanks for putting this site up!
How do you keep the wrappers from puffing up while frying them? This happens to me every time! I’ve taken to piercing each roll with a fork prior to frying and pressing down lightly on the top with the tongs I use to cook, but it’s cumbersome and I can’t help but think that there must be a better way.
You wrap the filling tightly and seal the edges of the wrapper either with water or egg wash.
I’ll wrap tighter next time then! :)
hi connie! cheesy turon is a real delight to our taste! thanks for that…anyway i wonder how does ksp do that old way of doing the sauce i wanted to try that condensed milk and panutsa sauce i think it would be sumptuous! thanks! and keep it up!
wow! another cool idea! i am planning a simple party on saturday – lunch and meryenda. and couldn’t think of anything for meryenda. now this will be a knockout for sure. thanks connie.
Hi Connie,Can I use quickmelt cheese?
Yes, Luz. :)
We don’t have saging na saba here (oh, how I miss them), so I use the very ripe plantains. I sometimes make turon a slight bigger than lumpiang shanghai, and serve them as finger food at parties. They go fast, of course, so I make sure I have at least a couple of hundreds ready. The regular size turon is something I always have in my freezer, and I find they stay crispy long after frying, even with added sugar. Connie, your cheese variation sounds good to me. I’ll give it a try this weekend. I think I can freeze those as well. Thanks, Connie. Ang galing mo talaga.
it’s delicious, kids and adults loved it. :)
Hi Ma’am, iniisip ko ngang gawin yan nung nakaraan na nagluto ako kaya lang nagdalawang isip ako. Kaya ginawa ko na lang eh i-seperate yung saba and cheese. So we have turon and cheese sticks (with carrot stick). Hehe! Thanks po sa idea. From now on I’ll be braver in experimenting. More power po!
Nga po pala when I fry my turon, I add pandan leaf sa mantika para mabango din sya. Share lang po… : )
Place a slice of cheese on top. Sprinkle with brown sugar, is using. – is there somthing missing here? thanks
No, nothing missing, just a typo. It’s been corrected. :)
made this for merienda today but i used cream cheese mixed with a little bit of vanilla extract and sugar. after wards, i sprinkled it with sesame seeds and powdered sugar.
big hit with the hubby!
pwede kayang lagyan ko pa rin ng langka?
The point in using cheese is to stay away from the common inclusion of langka. :)
try banana with chocnut ;p really good too ;p
Hi Ms. Connie,
I’ll try this recipe this weekend..
I’ve been browsing over this site and I’m learning a lot of new ideas and recipes..
I love cooking, I just don’t have time to cook.. Thanks to your easy recipes..
Hi Connie,
I enjoy eating the banana and jackfruit roll. Do you have that recipe anyway? Is it pretty simple?
I’ve never heard of it.
IN this portion you said ” Turon is a spring roll filled with saba banana. As street food, they are sold along sidewalks by ambulant vendors who cook them on gas stoves set on rolling carts. Sold that way, turon is laced with plenty of brown sugar and filled with lots of langka (jackfruit) strips. Which makes it too sweet. Sickeningly sweet for my taste.”
I went to my friends baby shower and I had this dessert, it was so yummy.
Do you know how to make turon with saba banana and jackfruit?
What is saba banana?
Karen
Ah, I see…
“Do you know how to make turon with saba banana and jackfruit?”
Yes, but I don’t like it so I don’t make it.
“What is saba banana?”
There are lots of very good (some, rather scientific) articles about saba banana on the web.
Saba banana is also called burro bananas .. Plantain banana is a good substitute.
What kind of cheese would you recommend ?
“Burro” bananas… Mexican?
Any soft cheese, really. What I wouldn’t recommend are hard cheeses like Parmesa, Edam and the like. :)
Thanks for the reply . I made turon with cheese last weekend and used mozzarella on some and Colby jack on the others. With the first batch, the cheese oozed out and the wrapper popped holes. So, I decided to freeze them before frying them. It was very successful and my husband and 7 yr old loved them. Thank you for sharing your innovative ideas .
An addition of Nutella to the bananas would result to not so sweet and chocolatey taste. Everyone would love it.