Vegetable Abundance Dumplings
Vegetable Abundance Dumplings baby!
News of the day: making dumplings is easier than expected! This recipe should convince you to give the stuffing-and-folding-a-tiny-sheet-of-dough a go because boy is the result satisfactory.
Use the ingredients and quantities as a guideline, but don’t fret while measuring. Go with the dumpling flow, the result will be flawless no matter what. It is time to get creative!
A bit about the ingredients: you’ll be able to find these wrappers fresh or frozen in your local Asian grocery store. If frozen, defrost them in your fridge the day before.
You can use all types of veggies for this, just make sure to use enough crunchy types like cabbage, carrots or bean sprouts. Fry them before stuffing to soften them up and evaporate excess water.
Tip: you can make this dumplings in advance: keep in the fridge with a damp kitchen towel to prevent them drying out. Alternatively fry them and then store in the freezer for your next snack attack.
Ingredients
DUMPLINGS
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 shallot, chopped
2 carrots, grated or finely chopped
4 leaves of pointes cabbage / Chinese cabbage / red cabbage / any type of cabbage really, chopped
150g of mushrooms of choice, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 scallions or spring onions, chopped
1/2 block (150g) of firm tofu, pressed
1 cup (20g) of coriander, chopped
1,5 tbsp soy sauce
1 pack of fresh of frozen wonton / gyoza wrappers
DIPPING SAUCE
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp water
1/4 red chilli, finely chopped
1 cm (1/2 inch) of ginger, grated
1-2 spring onions, green part only, chopped
toasted sesame seeds (toast for a few minutes in a dry pan)
How to
1.
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce first to make sure the flavours have time to do their little flavour dance together. Put in the fridge while you prepare the rest.
2.
Add some olive oil to a pan and quickly fry the onion, veggies and garlic for 2-3 minutes until softer.
3.
Add the veggies together with the crumbled tofu and coriander to a food processor and pulse a few times to reach a crumble. If you don’t have a food processor, just chop al the vegetables finely before frying them.
4.
Add the soy sauce and sesame oil and stir through. Let the mixture cool for easier handling.
5.
Next take your wonton wrapper, wet one half with some water and fill with about 1 tbsp of the stuffing, not too much. Press the stuffing to form a tight package.
6.
One of the several possible folding techniques (video below) is the pinch-and-crease method (not an official name), folding over the second side of the wrapper and pinching the dough together in little creases. Fold until there’s no more wrappers or stuffing left.
7.
Once you’re done stuffing and folding (that was meditative wasn’t it?!), add 1 tbsp of olive oil to a large pan and fry the dumplings until the bottoms are crispy.
8.
Next add 2 tbsp of water and put a lid on the pan to steam about 1-2 min.
9.
Serve with the dipping sauce, eat with chopsticks or with your fingers.
