Fried Vegan Dumplings with Bok Choy and Shiitake Mushrooms

I love dumplings, but I used to dread making dumplings because I always seemed to have trouble folding those sneaky little things. And now that I think about it, I have no idea why I thought it was so hard because it’s so easy!

I have to say these vegan dumplings are so delicious! I was blown away by how awesome it tasted!

Rather than fry them, you can steam them as well if you want. You just need to put them in a steamer with cheesecloth underneath and steam for about 15 minutes until the dumplings are nice and soft and edible.

Some of the ingredients are found easily in Asian grocery stores, such as the dried lily bulbs and sweet potato vermicelli (this clear looking noodle). If you can’t find it, you can always replace it with something similar (or omit the lily bulbs).

Seriously, the filling can have so many different varieties, that the possibilities are ENDLESS!

Potstickers: Fried Vegan Dumplings with Bok Choy and Shiitake Mushrooms
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 packet dumpling wrapper skins, round shaped
Filling
  • 8 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked 4-8 hours and finely diced
  • 1 medium carrot, finely diced
  • 1 cup green cabbage or nappa cabbage, finely diced
  • 1 large bok choy, finely diced
  • 2 white mushrooms, finely diced
  • 1 small bundle sweet potato vermicelli, soaked 1 hour in warm water or kelp noodles, finely diced
  • ¼ cup dried lily bulbs, soaked 1 hour (optional), finely diced
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • ¾ teaspoon Himalayan/sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon white cooking wine
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • A pinch of red pepper flakes
  • A few sprinkles ground pepper
  • 1 tablespoon extra light olive oil
Frying (per batch, 17 dumplings)
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 tablespoon extra light olive oil
Dipping Sauce
  • 1 tablespoon dark vinegar (aged vinegar, balsamic vinegar)
  • 1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
  1. Be sure to soak the shiitake mushrooms at least 4 hours beforehand. The best result is soaking them overnight. About 1 hour before you start preparing the ingredients, soak the lily bulbs and sweet potato vermicelli in warm water. If you’re using kelp noodles, you won’t need to soak it.
  2. Drain all the water from the soaked shiitake mushrooms and lily bulbs and rinse with fresh water a few times, then squeeze out as much water as you can.
  3. Dice the shiitake mushrooms, carrot, cabbage/nappa cabbage, bok choy, mushrooms, sweet potato vermicelli/kelp noodles and lily bulbs into very fine cubes. There shouldn’t be any large pieces lying around. Try and do them as small as you can. If it’s too much trouble, you can always throw them in a food processor to chop them. Peel and mince the garlic as well and combine all the vegetables in one large bowl.
  4. Add the soy sauce, cornstarch, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cooking wine, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and ground pepper. Stir until everything is evenly mixed.
  5. Heat a tablespoon of extra light olive oil in a frying pan and turn the heat to medium high (5-6). Throw in all the vegetables in that large bowl and saute for about 10 minutes, stirring continuously. Spoon it out into a large bowl.
  6. Get a tiny bowl and fill it with water.
  7. To wrap the dumpling: Grab one dumpling skin and put it on your hand. Add a spoonful of filling in the centre and dab a little water around the outer edge of the entire dumpling (kind of like running your fingers in a clockwise motion and dabbing water all around in a circular motion).
  8. Fold the bottom to the top and press the center, then grab a bit of skin on the left, then press it together to make a crease. Do another one on the left, then repeat on the right, making two creases. This gives the dumplings a total of four creases.
  9. Use up all the wrappers and/or filling until one of them is used up (you may end up with more filling or skin, you can always refrigerate it for next time or boil a few dumpling skins or eat the filling!
  10. To fry the dumpling: (I cooked this in batches of 17.) Add half a cup of water and one tablespoon of extra light olive oil in the frying pan and lay the dumplings out without overlapping and leaving a little space between each. Turn the heat to medium (4-5) and allow it to cook for about 15 minutes, then check how they’re doing. Use a small, thin spatula to move them a little so they’re not sticking to the bottom or to each other.
  11. After 30 minutes (the bottom should be golden brown, the water should be almost all evaporated and you should hear a sizzling sound), flip them over. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then start checking them every minute and flipping them over again to the side that’s not brown yet. Take them out of the pan once all three sides are nice and brown. This can take another 10 minutes or so (or longer/shorter), so be standing by the stove to check at all times.
  12. If you’d like to have it with dipping sauce, simply mix the vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil together.

Susanna

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 × 4 =

Back to top