Recipe – Healthy Pumpkin Dumplings

My aunt (gu ma) is a great cook. She does Hakka abacus seeds (suan pan zi) very well and every Chinese New Year, I will always load my bowl full of her signature dish and eat my heart out. This year, I made a small request to ask her to teach me how to cook. A week ago, she was having a dumpling party at home with her friends and asked me along. One of her table tennis friends is from Hainan Island and makes dumplings. So we gathered at my aunt’s house to make dumplings!

It’s awesome to make your own dumplings at home. You can add in your favourite fillings and it definitely taste better than the ready made ones. You can make a lot at one go, store it in the freezer and when you are hungry, just take it out to eat. You can make dumplings that are filled with everything from traditional pork and cabbage to things like shrimp and diced mushrooms. If the dough making is too tedious, just grab the original wrappers from supermarket. In this recipe, we make pumpkin and sweet potato dumplings, which is very healthy!

Pumpkin Dumplings

Author: Maureen

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Ingredients

Dough

• 3 cups top flour
• 100 g of pumpkin / sweet potato puree
• 3/4 cup cold water
• 2 eggs

Filling

• 1 cup ground pork belly
• 1 cup cabbage finely shredded and remove water
• 50 g Chinese chives chopped finely
• 50 g prawns minced
• 2 cloves garlic minced

Seasoning

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• Some salt
• Some pepper

For the dipping sauce

• 1/4 cup black vinegar
• 1 tablespoon ginger shredded

Instructions

1. Blend pumpkin with water till puree form. Combine flour, pumpkin and eggs together. Knead to form a smooth dough. Cover the dough with cloth and let it rest for at least 45 minutes.
2. To prepare the fillings, add all seasonings to the ingredients, stirring in only one direction.
3. To make the dumpling dough, dust worktop with flour, divide dough into small pieces, use rolling pin to roll dough into round and thin. Roll each piece out into a circle about 3-inches in diameter.
4. Place a small spoonful (about 1 mountain teaspoon) of filings into the middle of dumpling skin, fold it accordingly.
5. Fold the dough over the filling into a half moon shape and pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the remainder of the dumplings.
6. To cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add half the dumplings, giving them a gentle stir so they don’t stick together. Bring the water to a boil. Drain and remove.
7. To pan-fry, add little cooking oil in a non-stick frying pan, fry dumplings over medium heat. Once dumplings bottom turned golden brown, remove and serve with dipping sauce.

I also tried my hands on making the dumplings. Because it is just for home consumption, pleating doesn’t really have to be professional. It just takes a few tries to get it right. Be patient, you need to spend a few hours making the dumplings. This is a great time to catch up on your favorite TV show or do it with your friends.

Everyone had fun!