Colorful Pork and Chives Dumplings
These colorful pork and chives dumplings are my twist on one of my favorite classic Chinese foods! It does NOT get better than yummy crispy-bottomed pan fried dumplings! Whether they’re dipped in a soy sauce vinegar or chili oil, or enjoyed plain, they’re AMAZING. Dumplings are beautiful and while these ones look like literal art, they’re actually very simple to make!
Pork and chives dumplings are the perfect little family project that the whole family can get into and contribute to! They’re super fun to make, and at the end, you have a delicious meal! While I love the classic white dumplings (they’re what I’d make on a regular basis), I wanted to make these ones a little more special! By adding a few steps and ingredients, I’ve colored these (completely naturally!) for that extra pop!
Homemade dumplings wrappers may seem like a difficult task, but trust me, they’re crazy easy to make! Feel free to skip the coloring and just make these all white dumplings!
Folding Colorful Pork and Chives Dumplings
What You’ll Need
Equipment
- Pasta roller: unfortunately, this is a MUST for making colored dumpling wrappers. There are certainly other ways to do it without the roller, but it’s MUCH more tedious and takes a lot longer. Pasta rollers are not too expensive and can always come in handy for other projects and are so versatile! So if you needed a good excuse to get one, THIS IS IT 🙂
- Mixing bowls
- Blender
- Fine mesh sieve
- Rolling pin
Ingredients for Colorful Pork and Chives Dumplings
- All purpose flour
- Beetroot
- Spinach
- Ground pork
- Sesame oil
- Vegetable oil
- Soy sauce
- Shaoxing cooking wine
- Ground white pepper
How to Make Colorful Pork and Chives Dumplings
- Make the 3 different colored wrappers: Blend beets with water for magenta dough; spinach and water together for green dough. Knead the different wrappers separately and let rest.
- Mix together the filling: In a large bowl, mix together ground pork, chives, sesame and vegetable oils, soy sauce, shoaxing cooking wine, and white pepper.
- Fold dumplings: Fold dumplings however you like or follow the video above to make one of my favorite and surprisingly easy folds!
- Cook Dumplings!
Other Recipes You’ll Love!
Rabbit Black Sesame Snow Skin Mooncake
Chinese Bakery Hot Dog Bao Rolls
Pumpkin Gochujang Pork Dumplings
Colorful Pork and Chives Dumplings
Prep Time:
2 hours
Cook Time:
20 minutes
Total Time:
2 hours 20 minutes
My twist on one of my all time favorite foods-- DUMPLINGS. These are classic pan-fried pork and chives dumplings but with natural tri-colored homemade wrappers!
Ingredients
for magenta dumpling wrappers
- 2 1/4 cups (320g) all purpose flour
- 1 medium beetroot, peeled and cubed
- 1 cup (240g) water
for green dumpling wrappers
- 2 1/4 cups (320g) all purpose flour
- 10 oz spinach
- 1 cup (240g) water
for white dumplings wrappers
- 2 1/4 cups (320g) all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (175g) hot water
for dumpling filling
- 1 lb ground pork
- 5 cups chives, chopped
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons shoaxing cooking wine
- 2 teaspoons ground white pepper
Instructions
Make the dumplings wrappers
- For the magenta wrappers: place cubed beets and water into a blender. Blend on high until beets are completely blended down. Pour through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl, extracting as much of the beet juice as possible. Place flour into a large bowl and add 3/4 cup (175g) of the beet water to it. Mix together until a shaggy dough is formed (i like using chopsticks to mix!). It might seem a little dry at first, but don't add any more water! Use your hands to knead the dough together in the bowl, making sure to gather all the stray pieces and dry flour in the bowl. Knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes, then cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes. Make the other doughs as this rests.
- For the green wrappers: place spinach and water into a blender. Belnd on high until the spinach is completely blended down (this does NOT have to be sieved). Place flour into a large bowl and add 3/4 cup (175g) of the spinach water to it. Mix together and knead the same way you did for the previous dough, then cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.
- For the white wrappers, add flour to a large bowl along with the water. Mix and knead as you've done to the previous doughs and cover and let rest.
- After the first dough has rested for 15 minutes, knead it on a clean surface for a few minutes until dough is elastic and smooth. Place back into bowl and cover. Repeat to the other two doughs. Let all the doughs rest for 45 minutes before using.
Make the filling
- While the doughs are resting, make the filling: in a large bowl, add the ground pork, chives, sesame oil, vegetable oil, soy sauce, shaoxing cooking wine, and white pepper. Mix together vigorously, VERY WELL (again, i like using chopsticks) until everything is well combined. Set aside in fridge.
Fold the dumplings
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set to the side.
- Using a sharp knife, cut about 1 inch wide piece of each of the doughs (don't have to be exact here!) and cover the leftover doughs so it doesn't dry out! Squish the three cut out doughs together long-wise, into a long rectangle, making sure they stick well to each other. Rub a small amount of flour onto each side of the dough and roll it long and flat so that it's no more than 1/4 inch thick. Rub a little more flour on both sides. Pass it through a pasta roller on the biggest setting twice. Then, decrease the pasta roller size, pass it through again. Repeat these steps about 2 more times, until the dough is about 1/16 inch thick.
- Using a 3 inch circle cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as possible. Gather the scraps and knead them together, cover and set aside (we'll come back to these-- no waste!).
- Immediately start wrapping dumplings-- we're working in small batches because fresh homemade wrappers need to be used right away! Place about 1.5 tablespoon of filling into the center of a wrapper and fold them however you like, making sure to pinch to seal well so the filling doesn't come out! You can follow along the video above for one of my favorite dumpling folds!
- Lightly flour the scraps, roll it flat, and then roll it in the pasta roller in the same manner as before. Cut out the circles, and fold more dumplings! Repeat these steps with the rest of the dough!
- If you feel like you can multi task, cook some dumplings as you go, following the instructions below! Any dumplings that aren't being cooked right away should be frozen. Place the tray of uncooked dumplings (not touching each other) into the freezer. Freeze for a couple hours until firm, then place them into a freezer ziplock back and keep frozen for up to 3 months.
Pan fry the dumplings
- Heat a very large non stick pan with 2 tablespoons of oil over medium high heat. Place as many dumplings in the pan as possible, leaving a little space between each dumpling. Let cook for about 4 minutes, then carefully pour in 1/3 cup of water and immediately cover with lid and lower the heat to LOW. Let cook for 10 minutes (if cooking frozen dumplings, increase this to 15 minutes).
- Uncover the dumplings, turn the heat to medium and cook until the bottoms are a deep golden brown and crispy.
- Serve with a vinegar soy sauce or hot chili oil!