Potstickers
Carrot-Spinach Potstickers
This recipe has a special place in my heart because it was one of the first recipes I’ve ever created. Its probably at least 10 years old and was created long before I went to culinary school. I use to eat these spinach dumplings at a local chinese restaurant and wanted to try to make myself. In the end I came up with something not even resembling the dumplings I was trying to recreate. I came up with something so much better. When making the recipe don’t go crazy chopping up all the onions, carrots, etc..it’s all going into a food processor. The rough chopping just helps to get them going in the processor. This also makes a ton of them. You will no doubt be snacking on them as the next batch of them are cooking up over the stove. They are also fantastic cold out of the fridge the next day and the day after that.
Carrot-Spinach Potstickers
1 small onion, roughly chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and again roughly chopped
1 10 oz box chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained of any liquid
2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon low sodium tamari
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 packages of wonton/dumpling skins, usually 50 come in a package, vegan ones can be found in asian markets (completely defrosted if frozen)
olive oil and water for cooking method explained below
*pulse onion, garlic and ginger in a food processor until chopped into smallish bits
*add carrots and pulse until they are in nice smallish bits
*add spinach, tamari and blend until all the ingredients are combined, stop and scrape the bowl with a spatula a few times. Everything should be very finely cut up.
*on a very clean and dry countertop of large cutting board lay out a few rows of wonton skins. (if they are square shaped wrappers lay them so one of the corners is facing you like a diamond) Add a heaping teaspoon of the carrot-spinach mixture in the middle of each wrapper. Dip one of your fingers or a pastry brush in a bowl of water and brush the edges of each wraper and fold in half from top to bottom pressing on the edges to seal them. Wet you fingers and grab the top corners and fold them up so they are touching each other and press to seal them together. It should remind you of a tortellini shape pasta. I like them this shape because you can fit more in a pan and I think they look prettier. You could totally just fold them in half if you want to skip that extra step.
*continue filling the rest of the potstickers.
*Coat the bottom of a large non-stick saute pan with a thin layer of olive oil and place on a medium-high flame. Place as many potstickers as will fit in the pan as long as they aren’t touching each other. Fry for about 1-2 minutes to develop a crispy bottom then add 1/2 of cup of water to the pan and cover immediately with a tight fitting lid. Lower heat and steam approx. 5-8 minutes or until most of the water has evaporated. Take the lid off the pan and let the rest of the water evaporate. Remove the potstickers and start cooking process again from the beginning with the rest of the potstickers, adding a bit more oil to the bottom of the pan. Each batch you’ll find you need less and less oil especially if you non stick pan is still nonstick. Mine isn’t.
*serve with some tamari or you favorite dipping sauce.
This potsticker was true to it’s name and stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Happy VeganMoFo!
9 comments October 2nd, 2009
