Vegetarian Dumplings
These Vegetarian Dumplings or Potstickers are packed with lots of flavors and so perfect to make. They are filled with cabbage, carrots, tofu or paneer, scallions and five spice seasoning. With store bought dumpling wrappers these are a breeze to make.
I make veggie potstickers at home a lot. I love buying the readymade wrappers and the filling comes together in no time. Wrapping each of one of them individually is so therapeutic to me. The first time when I made these, I was so intimidated. But they came out so good. The wrapping is also very easy to do once you get hang of it. It’s such a form of art. What I love about making these is that you use the same technique for pleating, but they all come out looking slightly different. It’s such fun activity to do with friends or family members.
What are potstickers?
Chinese potstickers are a type of dumplings similar to Gyoza from Japan, Momos from India and Mandu from Korea. The name potstickers is because they stick to the pan while cooking.
The article is very useful to understand the difference –
https://onthegas.org/food/gyoza-vs-dumpling/
There are few steps in making dumplings :
- Making the filling – So delicious
- Filling wrappers and pleating them – taking a short cut and used store-bought
- Steaming or Pan frying them – the best and quickest part of the recipe
Dumplings can be vegetarian, vegan, or filled with meat. These dumplings are filled with veggies like cabbage, carrots, bell peppers, edamame, etc. and aromatics like ginger, garlic, scallions, chives. Other things you can add mushrooms, bamboo shoots, chestnuts etc. endless options. I had a tiny piece of zucchini lying around, I tossed that in too.
Two things I make sure to do is
- Process vegetables as fine as possible.
- Cook them down a little bit to remove the water content and give them some flavor, so they don’t taste raw.
Then comes the pleating part, I am sharing what works for me. Check out stories on instagram to learn the pleating.
I like to spread out the dumpling wrappers few at a time on baking sheet or chopping board.
Place the filling on each of one of them. And, then start pleating them one by one. The only one thing that you need to be mindful of is that you must work fast and only lay out wrappers as many you can wrap quickly as they dry out. So, if I can wrap 6 to 10 at a time. I will only attempt to do so. Rest of the dumpling wrappers need to be covered. Even once I fill them and pleat them, I cover them. A tray with cover is useful in this case or kitchen towel.
Serving style – Pan Fried or Steamed : There are two ways you can prepare and enjoy these as per your preference. You can either pan fry them, the method I am sharing today. Or just steam them using a parchment paper or cabbage leaves in a double boiler. I love the pan-fried version because of the crispy bottoms. For pan fried version, they are added to the pan with some oil to crisp up the bottoms, as the bottom get toasty, water is added to steam them. The pan is covered and once the water evaporates, the potstickers are cooked and looks translucent, they are ready. So, good.
The steamed ones also taste delicious and make for a great soup recipe. A miso, soya sauce or hot sauce broth can alleviate these dumplings.
The best part is once they are cooked dunking them in the delicious dipping sauce. Dumpling sauce is so delicious by itself. I make mine with whisking together soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, some hot sauce or red pepper, scallions, etc.
I will share a dipping sauce recipe with you too. I also love dumpling sauce by a local company called Fly by Jing. It’s easily available at lot of stores or their website. Highly recommend it.
Tips and Tricks to making homemade potstickers
Always cover the wrappers. They dry out quickly. It’s difficult to fold them and, they taste okay when they dried out. I cover them after filling too.
Storage or leftovers
Anytime I make these dumplings, I always make the whole batch and use all the 50 wrappers that come in one packet. We eat some and then others I freeze for future snack or dinner.
If you like to freeze, place each filled pleated dumpling on a sheet tray. Put it in the freezer for until they are frozen. Then, take them out and transfer them to freezer safe bag or container. This way they do not stick to each other. Whenever, you want to eat them. Just remove the bag, remove the dumplings when they are slightly cold and leave them to thaw in a tray or cook them immediately just increase the time to 2-3 minutes extra for cooking.
Vegetarian Dumplings
Ingredients
Filling
- 2 cups cabbage roughly chopped purple, green or napa works
- 2 medium carrots roughly chopped
- 1 bell pepper roughly chopped
- ½ cup scallions white and green parts
- ½ cup frozen edamame beans or peas
- ½ cup tofu or paneer
- 1 tsp ginger grated
- 2 cloves garlic grated
- 1 tsp red chili paste Asian style
- 2 tbsp soya sauce low sodium
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- Salt to taste
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ – ½ tsp Five spice powder optional if you can’t find it
Dumplings
- 1 tbsp sesame or neutral oil plus more for pan frying
- Dumpling wrappers
Dipping Sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- ½ tsp honey
- 1 tsp hot sauce
- Some ginger and garlic grated
- Sesame seeds and some chopped scallions
Instructions
Filling
- Take all the ingredients for the filling in a food processor and pulse them until they look minced, finely chopped. Add the seasonings and pulse once more.
- Transfer this filling into a preheated pan with oil on medium heat and cook it for 5-7 minutes or until it looks dry, and lot of water has evaporated. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Take one wrapper or few at a time as seen in the pictures and add one tablespoon of filling. Spread water with your fingers around the edges. Bring the edges in the middle forming half-moon shape. Starting from either left or right, start forming pleats. Dust the tray with some flour and place wrapped dumplings on the tray and keep it covered. Repeat for remaining wrappers (makes about 50).
Dumpling Sauce – Just whisk all the ingredients in a bowl and adjust the taste according to your preference.
To Cook – Pan Fried
- Heat oil over medium in a pan. Once heated, turn down the heat to low and line up 8-10 dumplings, depending on the pan size. Turn heat back up to medium and cook until lightly golden brown. In the meantime, ¼ cup of water. Once golden brown, pour the water to the pan (pouring over the dumplings). Immediately, cover the pan, cover and cook for 5-6 minutes, or until water is mostly evaporated and dumplings looks translucent.
- Serve immediately with dipping sauce and enjoy!
Happy Lunar Year !