Vegan dumpling making party
I love a good dinner that gives my guests a fun way to participate — it immediately takes away all of that potential awkwardness (especially if they’re coming over for the first time!) and takes a lot of the lift off of me as host. I make these dumplings so often, and even my non-vegan guests love them.
About an hour before they arrive I throw together whatever salad veggies I have, and make the salad dressing which is miso ginger:
¼cup peanut oil or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn
¼cup rice vinegar
3tablespoons mild or sweet miso, like yellow or white
1tablespoon dark sesame oil
2medium carrots, roughly chopped
1inch long piece fresh ginger
A few tbsp sugar to taste or mirin
Sometimes I add a bit of vegan mayo for heft as well!
I throw it all into the blender and pour it into my salad jar for when we’re ready to eat.
_______________
Then I assemble the filling, which is:
1 pack of impossible ground (or 3 impossible burger patties)
1 bunch of scallions
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
4 chopped garlic cloves
1 tablespoon of tamari
1 tablespoon bachan’s GF Japanese bbq sauce or vegan oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 cup of sliced or chopped shiitake mushrooms
I throw all of this into a food processor until everything is cut small and put into a couple of bowls next to each work area.
_______________
Finally, for the dough I use this recipe. They’re also gluten free, but this dough works out so well every time you can’t even really tell. It’s totally workable, and I’ve even taken to putting washed/dried rice in my vitamix for the rice flour. Like why buy another thing anyway?
I’ll typically double it for it for 5-6 people just so there’s some extra in case of mistakes. I also use a bit more water and slowly stream it in then wait for it to all come together in my mixer. After a few minutes I’ll try kneading with my hand. If it’s sticky I add more tapioca starch, if it’s dry I splash a bit of water and keep it running. It ends up like play-dough texture.
I separate the dough ball across workstations and put a damp towel over the top so it doesn’t dry out.
I then lay out the workstations with a few options for assembly — everything from easy empanada presses, square dough stamps, big and small rollers, and a few cutting boards, along with some tapioca flour for dusting the work surfaces.
When we’re ready to go, all I have to do is make an example dumpling and let everyone else do the work. Even if they don’t look good or break or overfill, they’re always delicious and cook up just fine, so there’s no pressure around mistakes. I then set out stuff so they can make their own dipping sauce (rice vinegar, chili crisp, tamari, sesame oil) and that’s it!
🥟🥟🥟🥟