Vegan potstickers

Again we will have a lovely vague recipe. I don't know if I ever really have fixed ones. I made these three times in a week as I enjoyed them so much and varied the ingredients each time so do not feel you have to follow what I have written at all. Just make sure that everything for the filling is finely diced as it tastes better this way. I originaly got the idea from Obachen's Kitchen Garden. It isn't a vegan food blog but then I often get ideas from non-vegan places. But it was an idea that stuck and so I tried them out.

Potsticker filling
One onion, finely diced
One stick of celery, finely diced
One medium carrot, finely diced
Good handful of green beans, finely diced
Chunk of seitan or tofu or even mushrooms, finely diced (if you are using tofu it is best if it is a marinated and firm one. I tried hazelnut tofu in one of the batches and it was tasty but tofu marinated in red wine, tamari, ginger and garlic would be delicious too
Couple of tablespoons sweet soy sauce, or normal soy sauce
Dumpling wrappers
Dipping sauce

Fry off all the vegetables in a little bit of oil, once cooked throw in the seitan or tofu and allow to go golden. Throw in the sweet soy sauce and stir to coat everything. Add more if you feel you need it

Set the mixture aside to cool. This is important as therwise the dumpling wrappers will just go soggy and be more difficult to work with.

Fill the suckers! They don't hold too much so don't overfill them, which is what I was doing to start with! About a teaspoon is good. Then wet the rim of one half of the wrapper and then fold over pinching the wrappers closed. You should have a half moon crinkled dumpling now that should look better than the ones at the top of the page! If you have cooled the filling your litle dumplings can just sit all happy on a plate until you are ready for them.

Prepare a pan. You will need a pan which is not too deep but has a lid. My old, scratched pan has a glass lid which would be useful but it steams up so I can't see what is going on anyway. Put some sunflower oil and some toasted sesame oil in the bottom of the pan. Not too much sesame as it can be overpowering but it is an important flavour in this. Heat it up and when lovely and hot sit the little dumplings in the pan so the bottom of them sits flat.Don't cover yet. Fry!

When their bottoms are golden you need to add boiling water Obviously this is quite dangerous so I usually hold the lid in front of the pan to shield me and means I can drop the lid down on top once the water is in. Pour in enough water to come a couple of centimetres up the pan. Cover and cook. The wrappers hsould be cooked and soft and the bottoms golden (5-10 minutes depending how many are in there...you may need more water). Eat with dipping sauce.

Dipping sauce

Equal amounts tamari/soy sauce and Linghams chilli sauce and a splash of rice vinegar