pumpkin dumplings
Halloween is only a few days away. Have you picked out your costume yet? I have not.
The past few years I have not dressed up, but I feel like this year is the year to break that terribly un-festive trend of mine. The last time I dressed up was 2 years ago when I was too cool to get a costume together to go out in NYC with some friends, so I chose to put a blanket over my head and let people wonder what I was. Ginormous fail. You can only imagine the things that people came up with. I'm not even going to share.
Prior to the blanket disaster, my go-to costume has always been a ballerina. Always. What female does not like to put on tu-tu and twirl around?
Just because I have not being dressing up, does not mean that I do not love Halloween. I love it. And this year we live in a neighborhood where we should get lots of Halloween traffic. I get so excited to hand out treats to dressed up trick or treaters.
Maybe I should hand out these pumpkin dumplings as a treat this year instead of candy. No? Okay okay ... bad idea.
A good idea would be to make these for a Halloween party. Or just make them for yourself and eat them all. That's what I would do. They're like a Halloween party for your mouth.
P.S. They're baked. You know what that means. You can eat a few extra guilt free.
pumpkin dumplings
Ingredients
a large shallot, diced
2 tablespoons of grapeseed oil
1lb pumpkin, pealed, seeded, and chopped
salt & pepper
a package of wonton wrappers (I usually use Nasoya brand wonton wrappers)
For a dipping sauce:
about 1/2 cup of tamari
a few green onions, diced (then added to the tamari)
*You'll also want to have some flour and a small cup of water handy for when you are making your dumplings.
Directions
- Preheat your over to 350º
- In a medium pan, heat up a tablespoon of the oil over medium heat and toss in the shallots. Cook for a few minutes until the shallots get soft, but are not yet brown.
- Then add the pumpkin and stir to coat with the shallots. Season with salt and pepper. Cook the pumpkin until is it soft and easily falling apart (about 15-20 minutes).
- Place the pumpkin shallot mixture in a bowl and mash the ingredients with the back of a fork until it is completely smooth. You can also do this using a food processor, but I find mashing it by hand works just fine.
- Sprinkle a pinch of flour onto a flat surface where you'll be making your dumplings so the dough does not stick. If your wonton wrappers are square, you want to make them into circles. Using the top of a cup, trace around it using a paring knife.
- Spoon a quarter sized dollop of the mixture into the center of the wrapper. You do not want too much or too little. It may take a few tries to get the amount just right.
- Using your finger, wet the edge of the wrapper with the water. Then, fold it in half and press down on the edges until the dumpling is sealed. Place the dumping onto a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Continue this process until your pumpkin mixture is gone.
- Using the remaining tablespoon of grapeseed oil, brush the dumplings (both sides) with the oil.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until the edges start to brown.
- Serve warm with the tamari dipping sauce.
This should make about 20+ dumplings. Feel free to freeze whatever you are not going to use right away. You can also steam or fry these if you chose.
Enjoy.
