Vegan Tofu, vegetable and Woodear mushroom dumplings
Ingredients for the filling:
1 x Carrot
1 x Stem of celery
4 x Rehydrated Wood Ear mushroom sliced thinly
100g Tofu (I used Cauldron original firm Tofu)
30 g ginger
3x Stems of Spring onion
3 x Garlic cloves
1 1/2 tbsp favourite chilli oil
1 tbsp Sesame oil
1 tsp Ground pepper
1 tsp Sugar
1 tbsp Soy
Chopped coriander (optional)
In food processor/ chopper, you want to slice the carrot, spring onions, celery, ginger and garlic by pulsing into small pieces. Cook out the pulsed vegetables with a little veg oil in a pan. Transfer the mixture into a pan. Using your food processor again, pulse your tofu into small pieces.
Mix your sautéed veg, sliced wood ear mushrooms and tofu into a bowl. Add the coriander, sugar, soy, sesame, chilli oil and pepper to the tofu veg mix and refrigerate.
Okay so dumplings are definitely one of my favourite things to eat and as much as I love the variety of amazing frozen dumplings you can buy, it really is special when you make them yourself and enjoy them! so rewarding and you can literally fill these bad boys with anything.
I made these Vegan dumplings with bits and bobs lying around. It was a great way to use up some random bits of celery and a lone carrot, whilst using some pantry items.
Woodear mushrooms are absolutely delicious and can be bought in most Asian supermarkets. They are popular in Vietnamese cooking and a great filler to create texture and flavour in many meat free dishes. I eat meat but absolutely love the texture of these mushrooms. They are found dried in packs and you simple rehydrate them in some hot water before using.
If you cannot find Woodear mushrooms, use Shitake or omit the mushrooms altogether. If you have any other ideas of what to add in then feel free to experiment, after all, that is the beauty of dumplings- you can fill them with whatever your heart desires.
I used a food chopper to chop up all my ingredients so if you don’t have any, no fear, just make sure you slice everything evenly for mouthfeel and texture.
This recipe makes approx 16 dumplings.
For the dough:
Ingredients:
160g Dumpling flour or High wheat flour (this is the brand I use but feel free to use others)
100g Cold Water
Pinch of salt
You will need a bowl and either a fork or chop sticks, a damp tea towel, rolling pin and knife.
Method:
1. In a bowl, get your flour and salt in and add a tiny bit of water to mix and to create what I call “scraggly” bits( see picture above) using your chopsticks or fork. Once these bits appear, with clean hands start forming the dough and bring these bits together. If you find the dough a little dry, add some more water but not too much as you don’t want the dough to be too wet.
2. Put some flour on your surface. Start kneading your dough for about 10 mins or so till the dough is smooth. Put your ball of dough into your bowl you initially mixed it in, cover with a damp towel so it doesn’t go dry.
Rolling and making your dumplings:
Okay so I can admit I am not the best at pleating dumplings but the way I learnt is through practice and I get frustrated because the first half are great but then the second half aren’t. Let’s be real though, if it’s aesthetics you want, practice and take your time, but ultimately you just need to make sure your dumplings are sealed tight so they don’t burst when they cook. So don’t fret if they aren’t all as pretty, rustic is okay and it’s what inside that counts!
1.Get your dumpling filling out the fridge.
2. Divide your dough ball in half and keep one half of the dough covered in the bowl with the tea towel.
3. Roll your dough you just halved into a long sausage. Using a knife or pasta cutter, cut even pieces out the sausage.
4. Roll those cut pieces into little balls and using a rolling pin, roll into flat circles for your dumplings. You want to try and get it as even as possible or use a cutter if you wish for a perfect circle but you don’t really have to. In the middle of your circles using a teaspoon, fill with a tiny bit of the delicious filling.
5. Here is a tutorial on how to pleat your dumplings or a video for you to watch how to fold your dumplings. Make sure they are sealed tight. Take your time!
6. Once you have repeated the process and rolled all your dumplings, pop them in the freezer and cook them once ready to do so.
Cooking your dumplings:
You have a few options to cook your dumplings. You can either just boil them or do the pan fry method for a crispy bottom like I did. Here’s a video in case you aren’t sure (fast forward to 7 mins)
Method: :Using a large non stick frying pan or a wok, add some veg oil to the pan and add your dumplings. Cook the bottoms of the dumplings for a couple of minutes and get a pan lid ready and about cup of water ready.
This may be a bit tricky but half cover the dumplings and pour the water and cover. Turn down the heat to a medium heat and be careful of spitting.
After about 5 minutes check the water level in the pan. If more than half the water has disappeared, take the lid off. You are then going to flip the dumplings over to evenly get them crispy. Do this till you’re happy and serve up!
I love my dumplings with my fav chilli oil on top and a dipping sauce of soy sauce and Chinkiang black vinegar. Feel free to pimp yours up how you want! Some garnish ideas are fresh spring onion, coriander, toasted sesame seeds to fresh chilli- have it your way! Enjoy x