I love to make my own homemade dumplings. You can fill them with anything you like and you can keep it as simple as you want. I find that most dumplings at restaurants can be too oily so homemade ones are a healthier option too.
They're delicious and really cheap to make too. At first I looked up some YouTube videos on how to fold dumplings and once I started it was surprisingly easy so I encourage you to give a go too. They don't need to look stunning, as long as they're sealed to keep the filling in.
For my filling I used some Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) which is a vegan mince substitute, mushrooms, carrot, spinach, onion and garlic. If you don't want to use TVP, you can add more mushrooms and have that as your base.
Recipe:
1/2 cup Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) 2 cups of vegetable stock (or enough to cover the TVP)
1 cup mushroom cups, diced
1 small carrot, shredded
1 cup spinach , diced
1 small onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp tamari or soy sauce Salt & pepper to taste
1 packet of wonton wrappers
1. Add the TVP to a large bowl and cover with hot vegetable stock. Let it sit for 10 mins so the dry TVP will re-hydrate and get soft & fluffy. 2. Add the olive oil to a large pan and heat on medium heat. Add the chopped onion and stir for up to 5 mins until it's soft and fragrant. Add the garlic and stir, letting it cook for a few minutes. 3. Add the mushroom and carrot and cook for 5 mins or until the mushrooms turn brown and the carrot softens. Drain the TVP and add to the pan. Add the tamari and season with salt & pepper. Mix until everything is well combined. Add the spinach last so it doesn't overcook. Mix and remove from heat.
4. Let's get folding! Have a small bowl of water ready as you will need to wet the edges of the wrappers to seal them. Spoon a small amount of mixture into the centre of each wrapper. Wet the edges with water, then fold in half and pinch the ends together to seal. Repeat until you've used up all your wrappers.
5. Once you've finished with folding, they're ready to steam or fry. I did a little of both, I added them to a large pan with 1 tbsp olive oil and cooked to brown both sides, then added 1/2 cup of water and covered to steam. You can cook for a further few mins so the water evaporates. Now they're ready for eating! Serve with soy sauce or sweet chili sauce.
Tag @veganbyeden on instagram if you try my homemade dumpling recipe. I'd love to see your creations.