Vegetarian Pot Stickers

Sure, these are time consuming, but the recipe makes quite a bit, and now I have thirty pot stickers in the freezer for future use. There's no point making only a few, besides, I always end up with too much filling. If you're really determined to do a small batch, the recipe for the dough will work in half-but really, if you're going to roll out dough, you might as well make it worth the effort.

For The Filling:

1 cup frozen soybeans, boiled and drained
1 package pot noodles cooked, drained and tossed lightly with oil (save the seasoning packet for later)
1 carrot, finely diced
3 stalks celery, trimmed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup kale, finely sliced in shreds
1/2 cup baked tofu cut into very tiny dice
1/2 seasoning packet from noodles
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2-3 tablespoons cooking oil

Cook everything except noodles and spice packet in a large pan in oil until quite soft. Toss in noodles, adding more oil if needed to prevent sticking and toss with the seasoning packet. Remove to a bowl to cool.

Prepare Dough:

2 cups warm water (you may need more)
4 cups AP flour

Place flour in a large bowl and add water slowly, mixing with your hand as you go. The dough should be pliable without being sticky. Knead lightly, then cover with a damp dishtowel and let rest twenty minutes.


Divide dough into 8 parts. Roll each part into a long strand and then cut into balls (about ten per part, but that's going to vary depending how big you want the dumplings). Roll out as thin as possible, leaving the centre of the dumpling slightly thicker.

Place a teaspoon of filling in the centre, bring up the sides and pinch closed. Then, crimp together and set on a tray that has been lined with waxed paper and a generous coating of oil. I mean, generous. Spray isn't going to cut it here.

When you are finished, grease another piece of paper and lay it over the top. Chill the tray until you are ready to cook. If freezing, do a few at a time on a greased paper lined plate in the freezer. Transfer to freezer bags when firm, using the waxed paper as a divider between layers. Repeat until bag is filled. Lay flat in freezer.

To Cook:

Steaming:

line your steamer with cabbage leaves (Napa, regular old cabbage, even lettuce will do in a pinch) and oil it (they call 'em "potstickers" 'ya know?) well. Place the potstickers into the steamer over boiling water and cover. Cook until the dumplings are translucent-about five minutes. Remove and let drain/dry while you heat the oil.

Heat a small amount of oil in a wok/pan and stir fry the dumplings until they are slightly browned, but still chewy textured (you don't want to deep fry them-well, perhaps you do, but I don't). Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

For dipping sauce you can use plum sauce if you have it (we finally finished the last of my homemade plum sauce-boo hoo. I made two very nice sauces tonight with the following:

Brown sauce:

4 tablespoons hoisan sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon dried shallots
Splash water
Splash soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon Five Spice powder

Mix well and let onions re-hydrate before serving

Red Sauce:

Juice of a lime
4 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons garlic chili sauce
]1 clove minced garlic
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup water

Mix well