Pumpkin Cabbage Dumplings

M..eat..less

Believe it or not, my lazy self was going to make a salad for this post. Yes a SALAD. Lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, carrots some raisins and a home-made dressing. After careful consideration, I felt that I would be cheating you guys out of a recipe if I had indeed done this. So with no preparation at all I went into the kitchen with no idea what I would be making for this post. What I saw on the counter was a very large pumpkin my Grand Uncle had given to us. Hence this dumpling was born.

 This blog situation has really impacted the way I think while shopping. I’m always buying different gadgets and utensils in the hopes that I may need it for a recipe. I have a little cupboard in the kitchen that is the “greedy girl” cupboard where I store my knives, plates, pans etc. 90 percent of the things I use in my recipes are stored there, away from everyone else.  Last year I added a bamboo steaming basket to that cupboard and this recipe gave me a great opportunity to use it. 

Let’s get one thing straight, if I had indeed planned the recipe ahead of time, I would have NEVER made my own dough, I would have used my trusted wonton wrappers. Using the store bought wrappers would shave 50 minutes off the time spent in the kitchen. With that said, the home made dough is super delicious. There is a technique in rolling the wrappers. You want to make the edges thinner than the middle since its bundled up and pinched you don’t want to too thick. But that was not easy one bit; I tried it, most of my dumplings ended up being relatively the same thickness, but it was my first time making dumpling dough so I was not too hard on myself one bit.

I’m a girl that believes in using what you have, Pumpkin and cabbage were the only two veggies I had so that’s what I used, and they work really well together as a filling. Feel free to go crazy with fillings, potatoes, carrots, bac choy, cauliflower, sweet peppers, the possibilities are not endless but you get the point. There are a whole lot of veggie combos to fill dumplings.  You can have your dumplings purely steamed or you can fry them after steaming to add the crispy bottoms, which I prefer. 

 I was actually surprised that everyone loved it. I made it on a Sunday with some barbe-jerk chicken and everyone used the jerk bbq sauce as the dipping sauce; however the spicy soy dipping sauce I always use with my scallion pancake recipe works just as well. And to think, I almost made a salad!

Makes about 25 dumplings

Ingredients (Printable recipe)

2 cups Pumpkin

2 cups Cabbage

1 table spoon Oil

2 table spoon butter

1 table spoon Fresh Sage

½ teaspoon Ground sage

2 cloves garlic

1 small onion

½ teaspoon Salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Home-made dough

2 cup Flour

¾ cup almost boiling Water

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon oil

Soy dipping sauce

1 tsp soy sauce/oyster sauce

2 tbls  water

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 stalk scallion (whole)

½  tsp hot pepper flakes

½ tsp vinegar

Instructions

Soy dipping sauce

 First start by combining all the ingredients to make the dipping sauce, the longer the red pepper flakes and scallions soak in this mixture the better. You can make this even the day before.

Dumplings

• Place very hot almost boiling water in to your measuring cup along with the salt and oil
• Place the flour in a food processor and turn it on while drizzling the water in
• The dough will form a ball
• Remove from the food processor and knead for a minute
• Place in a plastic zip lock bag and set it aside for 30 to 45 minutes
• Heat oil and butter, add fresh sage, chopped onions and garlic in the fat. Sauté
• Toss in pumpkin and cabbage, cover on low and allow to steam
• Sprinkle in salt and black pepper, dried sage stir and allow the pumpkin to cook (about 15 minutes)
• Once the pumpkins are cooked remove the mixture from the flames and allow cooling
• Prepare your steamer by boiling a pot of water and placing the steamer basket on top
• line the steamer basket with parchment paper with holes or slits in it
• Toss the dough in a little flour and knead again break apart in to small balls and roll each into a circle about 2 ½ inch diameter
• Spoon in about 1 tablespoon of filling and pinch closed
• Place the dumplings in the steamer tray and allow the dough to cook about 15 to 20 minutes

Optional:

• For some texture pan fry the steamed dumplings to a golden brown so the bottoms crisp up.

Not too bad for a novice

Greedy  Tips:

• These babies are not afraid to stick, make sure to line or grease your steamer basket
• Make sure to poke holes of slits in the paper so the steam can pass through
• Also lightly flour your work surface when rolling them thin to prevent sticking. I rolled mine out on the silicon baking mat
• Try to make the edges of the wrapper thinner than the center
• Make your dipping sauce even the day before so the flavors are strong
• If you don't have fresh sage double up on the dried sage

Xoxo Greedygirl