Delicious Steamed Pumpkin Filled Vegetarian Dumplings.

My favourite time of the year Holloween has sadly come to an end. So now it's time to take down the spooky decorations, pack away the mountains of scary Halloween movies and retire our costumes to the attic of no return.

BUT WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE PUMPKINS??? you're probably wondering, or maybe it is just me 😂

Well, I'll let you in on the spookiest secret of them all...

Almost 8 million pumpkins are binned in the UK alone. Not only is it sad to know our pumpkin friends have ended up in the landfill, but this also has negative implications for the environment. Our pumpkins produce methane gas, which gets released into the atmosphere, this is a no-no.

So, I've got a fun and delicious solution that will bring a delicious end to the Halloween celebrations and hello to Christmas. PUMPKIN DUMPLINGS!!!!!!!!

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 1 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil,
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce,
• 1/2 tsp sugar,
• 1/2 tsp salt,
• 1/2 tsp black pepper, 
• 4 garlic cloves,
• 150g pumpkin,
• 1/2 red chilli (optional).

Dough:

• 60g of boiling hot water
• 35g of tap water
• 180g of Flour.
• Green and orange food colouring

The dough is the most straightforward part of this recipe. Unlike bread dough, dumpling dough only uses two ingredients. Water and flour...

Ingredients:

• 60g of boiling hot water
• 35g of tap water
• 180g of Flour.
• Green and orange food colouring

Step 1) Mix together your boiling water and flour. The mixture should look dry, this is perfectly fine as we will now mix in our tap water.

Step 2) Knead!!!! I put emphasis on the kneading as your dough may look dry or sticky. The kneading allows the gluten to come together leaving your dough smooth.

Note - If your dough is still crumbly after kneading, add a tablespoon of tap water continuously until the dough is smooth. Or if your dough is sticky and wet, shake on 5g of flour and knead.

Step 3) Your dough should now be formed, you want to remove 5g of your dough which will be used to create the stems.

Step 4) Add around two drops of orange food colouring to the larger portion of your dough. Kneading it in until you have a consistent colour throughout. Repeat this step, adding only one drop of food colouring into your small 5g of dough.

Let rest for 10mins.

If you are planning to use a leftover pumpkin from Halloween that has been decorated or carved ( Like I am), there are a few extra things you want to keep in mind before you eat it.

• Is it mouldy? This probably seems very obvious but mould has a great way of hiding, especially with Halloween pumpkins. They've been handled by many people, left outside and carved/drawn on. You want to inspect for soft spots, and white black or green fluffs.
• Is it toxic? Why would an edible pumpkin be toxic, well if it has been painted on even just the skin, or has had a candle lit inside of it for a long period of time I don't recommend you use it.

Now enough with that, let's get started.

Step 1) Cut your pumpkin into medium-sized wedges, there's no need to worry about peeling it as we will do that later. Then place your pumpkin slices into a colander that is suspended over boiling water in a pot. Cover it with a lid and let it steam for around 15 mins.

Note - If you don't have a colander you can just boil it, but I recommend washing the skin so your pumpkin isn't boiling in dirty water

Step 2) When your pumpkins are ready, ( they are soft enough to poke with a knife). Cut the now soft skin of your pumpkin slices and place 150g of your pumpkin flesh in a blender.

Step 3) To your blender adds in: 1 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 4 garlic cloves,150g pumpkin, 1/2 red chilli (optional). Blender until a puree.

Ingredients:

• 150g Chinese leaf
• 150g spinach
• 50g carrot
• 50g Onions

Step 1) Dice your vegetables, you can also use a food processor on the lowest setting.

Step 2) Place your pan on a medium flame; fry your onions and carrots for around 5 mins until the onions become translucent. Then add in your leafy greens and let that cook with the lid on for 10 min. As your veg has been chopped up fine, they should cook quickly.

Step 3) In a separate pan, add in your pumpkin puree and fry until the water has reduced and you get a nice thick paste.

Step 4) Combined your cooked vegetables and pumpkin paste.

This may sound very difficult as dumpling folding is a technical skill that only the dumpling masters can do properly:), but luckily this method is super easy.

Step 1) Place your orange ball of dough onto a floured surface, and using a rolling pin roll it out.

Step 2) After you've finished rolling the dough, cut it into approximately 3inch x 3inch squares.

Step 3) Once you've done this, fold each side onto the corresponding symmetrical side. I've highlighted in the image above the sides that go together ( Green on green, red on red).

Step 4) After this your dumpling may look a lot like a pillow this is okay, you just need to slowly shape it into a circle by rolling it in the palm of your hands.

Step 5) Now for the detailing use a butter knife to add the lines into your pumpkins, and the green dough to make little leaves and a stem.

Steaming methods

I used the traditional method of steaming, where you place a bamboo basket over a pot of boiling water. But if you don't have a bamboo basket you can use the shallow boiling method - This method isn't really steaming but it works just fine, add 4cm of water inside a pan and line your dumplings, making sure they don't touch. Let this boil/steam for 5 min or until the skin is almost translucent.