Add This Shrimp and Green Onion Dumpling Recipe to Your Weeknight Rotation

If you’ve never done it before, making dumplings from scratch may seem intimidating. While filling them by hand definitely takes more time than buying them frozen, the process itself is simple enough for a beginner home cook to master. These shrimp and green onion dumplings come together in a few easy steps, and they taste more delicious than the premade stuff.

This recipe from the Institute of Culinary Education uses a clever cooking method to achieve the perfect dumpling texture. First, they’re fried in hot oil until one side is crispy and golden brown. After that initial step, the dumplings are steamed until they’re fully cooked through.

“So you’re getting two textures there,” Gill Boyd, a culinary arts chef-instructor at ICE, tells Mental Floss. “You’re getting the initial color and browning of it in the pan at first, and then you add some liquid to it and that creates a steaming effect which penetrates into the filling and cooks the filling more.”

To make the dumpling filling, combine shrimp, scallions, garlic, ginger, sugar, sesame oil, and salt in a food processor until you have a paste-like consistency. Lay out your wrappers and scoop half a tablespoon of filling into the center of each. Seal the dumplings by folding the filled wrappers in half and crimping the edges together. 

Brown the dumplings in a saute pan with oil over medium heat. Once you’ve achieved color and texture on one side, add water to the pan, cover, and cook for another 15 minutes to steam fully. Serve with ginger shoyu dipping sauce on the side.

The Institute of Culinary Education serves students from around the globe out of its campuses in  Los Angeles and New York City. Career training programs are available in subjects like culinary arts, pastry and baking arts, hospitality and hotel management, and more. To learn how to make more recipes like the one below, check out their curricula here.

Steamed Shrimp and Green Onion Dumplings with Ginger Shoyu Sauce

Serves 4

Dumpling Ingredients
8 ounces shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 scallions, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tablespoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon salt
2–30 dumpling wrappers
3–4 tablespoons canola oil

Ginger Shoyu Sauce Ingredients
½ cup shoyu
¼ cup mirin
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 scallion, sliced thinly

1. Combine the shrimp, scallions, garlic, ginger, sugar, sesame oil, and salt in a food processor and process until the mixture has a smooth consistency.
   
2. Make the dumplings: Add about ½ tablespoon of filling to a wrapper, then fold the edges and place on a parchment lined sheet tray. Repeat with remaining wrappers.
   
3. Add canola oil to a large saute pan over medium heat then arrange dumplings in the pan and cook until light brown on the surface side.
   
4. Add ¾ cup water to the pan, cover and cook for 15 minutes then turn off the heat.
   
5. Mix all sauce ingredients together and set aside.
   
6. Serve dumplings with dipping sauce.

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