Steamed Vegetable Dumplings

Other Fast Without Oil Published April 11, 2026

Chinese jiaozi — dumplings — are one of the great engineering feats of home cooking: a thin wheat wrapper enclosing a savory filling, sealed by hand, and steamed until the dough is translucent and tender. The standard filling is pork, but a cabbage-and-mushroom filling is traditional for Buddhist vegetarian cooking and makes perfect sense for fasting days. Steamed, not fried — no oil touches these at any point.

Making dumplings is meditative, repetitive work that suits Lent well. Enlist help. A family making dumplings together for a fasting dinner is one of the better uses of an evening during Great Lent.

FASTING LEVEL: Fast Without Oil (cooked food permitted, no oil, no wine)
SERVINGS: 4 (about 32 dumplings)
TIME: 1 hour 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS

For the dough:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup just-boiled water
- Pinch of salt

For the filling:
- 3 cups napa cabbage, finely shredded and then chopped
- 200g shiitake or cremini mushrooms, finely diced
- 2 green onions, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame paste or tahini (optional — adds richness without oil)
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt

For the dipping sauce:
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon chili flakes or chili crisp (check for oil if strict)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 green onion, sliced thin

METHOD

1. Make the dough. Place the flour and salt in a large bowl. Pour in the just-boiled water and stir with chopsticks or a fork until a shaggy dough forms. When cool enough to handle, knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover with a damp towel and rest for 30 minutes.

2. Make the filling. Toss the shredded cabbage with 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then squeeze out as much liquid as possible with your hands — this prevents soggy dumplings. Combine the squeezed cabbage with the mushrooms, green onions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame paste if using, and white pepper. Mix thoroughly.

3. Roll the dough into a long rope and cut into 32 small pieces. Roll each piece into a thin circle about 8cm in diameter — thin edges, slightly thicker center.

4. Place a heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of each wrapper. Fold in half and pleat the edge to seal, pressing firmly. The seal must be tight — any gap and the dumpling will open during steaming.

5. Line a steamer basket with parchment paper (poke a few holes for steam) or cabbage leaves. Arrange the dumplings in the steamer without touching — they expand slightly.

6. Steam over vigorously boiling water for 12-14 minutes until the wrappers are translucent and the filling is cooked through.

7. While the dumplings steam, stir together the dipping sauce ingredients.

8. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce on the side.

NOTES

- The dough must rest. Unrested dough is elastic and fights you — after 30 minutes it becomes supple and easy to roll.
- Squeezing the cabbage is the most important step in the filling. Excess water is the number one cause of dumpling failure.
- These freeze beautifully. Freeze them in a single layer on a parchment-lined sheet pan, then transfer to a bag. Steam from frozen — add 3-4 minutes to the cooking time.
- If the dipping sauce contains oil (some chili crisp does), use plain soy sauce and vinegar on no-oil days.