To all my vegetarian and vegan readers – thank you for being so lovely.
You pop in to visit our omnivorous and occasionally very carnivorous blog, but you’re always so gracious – I’ve never had a single judgmental or proselytising comment. This recipe was developed just for you.
I couldn’t find a vegetarian dumpling recipe that wasn’t tofu-based, so I played around with one of my own. It uses the same seasoning mix as our original dumpling filling.
- 300g wombok (also known as Chinese cabbage or Napa cabbage)
- 6 – 8 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 walnut-sized knob of young ginger, peeled and finely diced
- a small bunch of garlic chives
- 3 fat spring onions
- 1 small bunch of baby bok choy
- 2 – 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons Shao Hsing rice wine
- 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce (see note below)
- ½ teaspoon white sugar
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 packet of dumpling skins (30 – 35 pieces)
Note: I know oyster sauce isn’t vegetarian, but it’s worth using if your personal ideology permits, as it adds a wonderful flavour to the dish. If not, try substituting vegetarian oyster sauce, or more soy sauce.
1. Chop the vegetables and ginger finely. Soak the shiitake mushrooms in cold water for at least half an hour, or until softened. Cut off the hard stems, and dice the softened flesh. Combine the rice wine, soy, oyster sauce (or vegetarian equivalent), sugar, salt and sesame oil in a small bowl.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok, and fry the mushrooms, ginger and vegetables for a few minutes until softened. Add the sauce mix and continue to fry until the mushrooms are cooked through and the greens have wilted.
3. Allow the filling to cool. As you can see from the photo below, the greens will cook down substantially.
4. Using either square or round skins, add a teaspoonful of filling and fold or pleat to enclose. Use either the wonton folding technique shown here, or the half-moon pleating one from our original post.
The vegetarian dumplings take a bit of practice, as the filling is less compact than its meat equivalent. It’s important to try and get as much air out of the finished dumpling as possible, or it could burst during the cooking process.
5. The dumplings can be cooked in a variety of ways – we boiled the ones in the top photo (they were our test batch) and deep-fried the ones in the photo below. I loved the deep-fried ones, but Pete preferred them boiled. We didn’t try pan-frying them (as we did with our original ones), but that should work as well.
I pleated the remainder of the filling into little parcels and sent them across the road to our neighbours Shaun and Michelle. They loved them!
PS. A funny story for you – my friend Moo walked into his local supermarket in Adelaide and asked for gourmet mushrooms. The young man working in the fruit and veg section called out..”Hey Joe! Do we have any more of those shit-take mushrooms?”
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Both boiled and fried versions look so delicious Celia – I haven’t stopped thinking about dumplings since your last post and this one is only going to make things worse. I am going to have to go to Chinatown to get some wrappers in the next couple of days!
Sorry Selma.. :) It’s like origami for me, but edible, and the fam and neighbours have all been obligingly eating them for me!
These look lovely! And yes vego readers are so nice about the meat heavy posts!
Just so nice! I’m always so touched.. xx
These look delicious!
Thanks Manuela! Pete loved them, but not the fried ones, tasted too much like a spring roll for him!
Ahaha shit-take mushrooms are my favourite! Your dumplings look so perfect Celia. I love making them but I get a bit over folding them all.
Too funny eh, Claire! :)
These look lovely. I love pan fried dumplings, first brown in a pan for 5 minutes, then add 1 cup of water and cover for 10 to steam and cook through. Uncover at the end and let the moisture dry out. Serve with my favourite, black vinegar.
Thank you! :) Are you cooking from frozen? We find our fresh dumplings don’t take nearly that long to pan fry – they’re done a minute or so after the water goes in.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I have raw meat in mine so I cook them for the same amount of time it takes to cook frozen dumplings.
I’m an omnivore, as well, but I’m pretty sure I could gobble these up and not miss the meat at all! Yum!
Pete said the same thing – he didn’t miss the meat in these either!
What a lovely recipe for you to create for those of us who are vegetarians Celia. There’s no need for nasty comments at any stage. I have asked you how to adapt some of your recipes and you have happily obliged. That’s one thing I really like about this blog. There is no nastiness from you or any of your readers:-)
Jody, you’re absolutely right, and there’s never any need for nastiness. But I never take that for granted, and I greatly appreciate how kind you all are! :)
Ok, so being one half of the neighbours ‘Shaun and Michelle’ I need to comment on this post. The vege dumplings are Ah-Mazing! My dear honest husband Shaun loudly proclaimed that it was the best meal he had ever eaten at home! When I gasped he did backtrack somewhat.
He is right and they are divine. Happy eating to all!
Pete and I are still laughing at the look on Shaun’s face as he was eating them! I love that you facetimed us to show us! :D I will make a stack more and stock your freezer for you, darling xxx
Oh happy day. A vego version. Lucky Shaun and Michelle to live across the road from you!
Francesca, I thought about trying a prawn version for you too, but I didn’t get a chance! This vego one is seriously nice! :)
Thanks Celia, I am more of a vego than a pescatarian. This recipe fits the bill perfectly. And at last I found a bottle of good old Jimmy’s Sate Sauce. A long wait to do the quick sate sauce which will be great at the beach.
Very generous of you to put in that effort. Lovely outcome too!
Thanks Ardys! I was pretty happy with how they turned out! :)
Whatever you call them, those mushrooms are tasty little buggers! Another great filling sweetie- yummo xox
Becca, I’ve now made these for three vego friends, and they’ve all loved them! I think that makes them a keeper! :)
I’m not sure that filling would last long enough to get into the dumplings – it looks delicious.
And, yes, we’re all class here in Adelaide. ;-)
Ha! It wasn’t a geographical slur, I promise! I’m pretty sure it could have happened in almost any city. :)
I have a child who is vegetarian and one who plays with it now and again, so this recipe will be quite handy. Ironic, though, that I had a hard time getting them to like their spinach when they were living with me. (perhaps it was my cooking rather than the veggies.)
No kids like spinach really, I guess. I’m sure they appreciate your cooking now! :)
All I can say is WOW and thank you for the veggi version. BTW do u do mail order? ;) Peri
Only deliver to immediate neighbours, I’m afraid! :) Hope you enjoy these!
How delightful Celia, they’re beautiful to look at too. The ‘shit-take’ mushrooms is such a hoot – I’m such a kid, that’ll keep me giggling for hours!
I’ve been laughing too, Jan! That’s what we call them here now.. :D
It is great to see a recipe for veg dumplings as I was admiring your carnivorous ones – these look beautiful – I love the way you wrap your dumplings – so neat and pretty. I was surprised that you didn’t want to use tofu – I love tofu though I know there seem to be a lot of people don’t eat it – do you avoid it?
Johanna, I quite like tofu, but I don’t eat it much for a variety of reasons. Soy milk upsets my stomach badly, soybean plantations are huge environmental concerns (lots of info on that via google), soy products are often very highly processed, and I think they’re also often genetically modified. Having said all that, we love endamame!
Definitely a carnivore, I do try to have 2-3 vegetarian mains a week. This is a lovely mixture I’ll definitely try perhaps using fresh shiitakes I so love. And in the smaller numbers I usually make I must say I liked steamed ones best: have a number of the little bamboo steamer baskets one can stack on top of the other . . . works well for me! Thanks!!
Eha, I quite like steamed dumplings well, but boiling them is just so easy! :)
A vegetarian take on a classic joke ;)
Kid: The school excursion went to the zoo today Mum, but the only animal there was a single dog.
It was a shit zoo.
Ha! That’s a dad joke, Tommy Dean! :D
Woo hoo! Thank you sooooooo much Celia for thinking of us vegos! Dumplings that I can try! Can’t wait!
I will use my black bean ‘oyster’ sauce with these I think! :-)
Sandy, I think they’ll be delicious with black bean sauce, actually! Great idea!
Yummy! I will pop this onto my Bizzy Lizzy FB page… the pork ones were very popular with my readers!
Thanks Lizzy! xx
Shit-take mushrooms are the best – as are WordPress bloggers. I get my news from online and every time I read a story, no matter what even one about a sweet elderly lady. Doing something nice, you read down to the comments and sure enough, someone will have something negative and nasty to say. I love the support and friendship of WP bloggers.
That said, these dumplings look great and that looks like some very fancy pleating you’ve done.
Thanks Diane! We’re very fortunate to have such a great blogging community! (But I’ll let you in on a secret, I’m a heavy-handed moderator :))
Ah, but that’s the beauty of WordPress where you can have control over the content.
Wow! These look scrumptious. Your lucky neighbours!! You really are such a talented cook, Celia! :-)
Jaqi, that’s very kind of you! I love a project, and my neighbours are all kind enough to be willing eaters! :)
Well mine won’t be as pretty as yours but I’ll be making these Celia. Thank you so much.
Rose, bet you they will! It’s like origami, only nothing gets thrown out afterwards!
Hahahahahahaha,…on that last sentence! 😊 tasty vegetarian dumplings, Celia! They look just stunning! 😊
Thanks Sophie! :D
That’s very funny about the shit-take mushrooms. And I agree with you – the vegetarian and vegan readers of our blogs are so kind and non-judgemental when it comes to commenting on our carnivore dishes – very good of them xx
Charlie, they’re just so gracious, aren’t they?
Divine vegetarian fillings. When I was a vegetarian living in Sydney I use to buy a mushroom sauce to replace oyster sauce from an Asian grocer. Too funny, the fruit and veg guy.
Zena, for my second batch (for diehard vegos), I went and bought some vegetarian oyster sauce, and it was still very nice!
Dear Celia thank you for creating a special dumpling filling for us Vegetarians. I love receiving your posts via email, you are a great inspiration and this 63 year old Vegetarian is learning a lot from you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with all of us who are open minded and adventurous when it comes to food.
Thank you again and best wishes
Jasminka Vukov
Thank you for such a kind comment! I hope you get a chance to try these dumplings! :)
Love the vegetarian dumplings, and the shit-take mushrooms ;)
Too funny, eh Tandy.. :)
These look faboo! I love dumplings though I usually do the frozen kind. Now I need to make a batch for me and one for the mencats. Hugs, Maz. <3
Maz, I’m going to put a batch into the freezer for Shaun and Michelle – the mix is cooling in the fridge now! :)
These look so good! I love that you have shown them fried and steamed. I have never made dumplings from scratch, I am tempted to try now… mostly so I can make a huge batch instead of only get 6 in a frozen packet at the supermarket :)
Jules, you have a lot of mouths to feed, and I think these are nicer than the ones we’ve bought ready made! xx
Oh and yeah, love the shit take mushroom :0!
Steamed dumplings remain one of my all time favourites and I dare say you do have a way with them, don’t you. And that makes you my next best pal!
Shakti
Ha! I’ve made so many new friends since I’ve started making dumplings.. :D
I was a vegetarian for 8 years until it gave me health problems that I couldn’t ignore. DH has been vego for 35+ years so I still cook vegetarian meals at home. Always love new recipes and these sound delicious – we’d all be happy to eat them!
I had to comment though about the shitake mushrooms – clearly the young man was quoting from the Catherine Tate show… not ignorant, just a legend in the great city of Adelaide using an in-joke :)
I’ve even linked a youtube clip so you can see it
Hahaha….great clip! :)
Those fried dumplings are calling my name – for sure.
Maureen, you probably won’t know what these are, but I reckon the fried versions taste like a Chicko Roll. :) (Ask John :))
YES! Love the sound of these, thanks for sharing Celia
My pleasure! Hope you enjoy them!
Thank you Celia, you are so lovely and thoughtful. I love the idea of these, but I’m generally too impatient to do anything to fiddly. Can I just come over and eat some of yours? They sound so delicious?
I’d love nothing more, Choc! :) Come soon, ok? :)
I am a big fan of all types of dumplings and this one looks tasty.
Hi Celia,
I was just thinking of you and your blog whilst starting to prepare the filling for the dumplings I’m cooking for dinner tonight and thought there was no time like the present to say ‘Hi!’ and ‘thank you!!’ for your lovely blog. I’ve been reading it for about 3yrs now and have made lots of your delicious recipes such as the dumplings, Nutella scrolls and lemon curd. Thank you for your generosity in opening up your life and allowing us to share in your passions and adventures. Your time, energy, honesty and sense of fun are real gifts to all your readers. Hope you have a great day!!
Mikala, what a kind comment, thank you for taking the time to stop by and say hello! So glad you’re enjoying the blog – thanks for reading! I made a big batch of dumplings last night as well! :)