Vegan Tofu Dumplings

I rarely make dumplings, but when I do, it always brings me back my childhood memories when I made them with my grandmother. When my mother was busy working, I enjoyed helping my grandmother make dinner for us. If you are looking for some fun projects with your kids, partners, or friends, this is for you!

You can also make dumpling wrappers from scratch if you are an artisan, but it's easy to find them in Asian grocery stores or Asian foods section in regular grocery stores if you don't have time for all that mess. Look for a cooler section next to fresh noodles. 

In this recipe, I'm going to introduce how you can pan-fry dumplings very crispy because that's how I like it. However, if you want healthier options, you can also boil them as well. Shall we begin?

Ingredients

72 sheets Dumpling wrappers 

Filling

1/2 cup Edamame thawed

2 cups Shiitake sliced

400 g Firm Tofu drained and cubed 

2 cups Red cabbage chopped 

1/2 Leek sliced

2 Tbsp Shio Koji 

2 Tbsp Leek Miso

1 tsp Garlic powder 

1 Tbsp Sesame seeds

Black pepper

Olive oil 

To fry

50 ml Water

1 tsp Flour 

Sesame oil 

Sauce

1 Tbsp Ginger Miso 

1 Tbsp Shoyu Koji 

1 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar 

1 tsp Chili oil  

Instructions: 

Make the filling

1. Prepare the vegetables for the filling accordingly.
2. Heat a pan with oil over medium heat. Sauté the leeks until fragrant. Add the tofu and cook until brown. Add the cabbage, shiitake, and edamame and stir fry until the cabbage is slightly soft. Add the sesame seeds.
3. Season with the leek miso, shio Koji, garlic powder, and black pepper.
4. Leave the mixture until slightly cooled and transfer it to a food processor. Pulse a few times to break down the ingredients until they can hold together.

Assemble and fry

1. Wet the edge of the wrapper with water with your finger.
2. Place a spoonful of filling in the middle and seal it. Pleating the edge is a common shape for dumplings. Repeat until you’ve used all the wrappers.
3. Heat a pan with oil over high heat. While heating, mix the water and flour. Place the dumplings in a circle on the pan and cook for 1 minute until a brown crust forms.
4. Add the water mixture into the pan, cover with a lid, and cook them for 4 minutes over medium heat.
5. Uncover the lid and cook them over high heat until the liquid is mostly evaporated.
6. Add the sesame oil and pan fry them until crispy.

Sauce

Serve with your choice of sauce. This time, we prepared 2 kinds - Ginger Miso and Shoyu Koji sauce. For Shoyu Koji sauce, simply mix all the ingredients together until combined.

* Instead of pan frying, you can also boil them until the dumplings float to the top.

* You can freeze uncooked / cooked extra dumplings.

* We recommend draining water from Tofu with paper towel and a weight (a water-filled jar on a plate works well) in the fridge overnight to remove excess liquid so that the filling doesn't become too mushy.

We reused shiitake mushrooms that we used to make broth for our sauces. Let's practice upcycling and zero waste whenever possible!