When I first had to go gluten free 12 years ago I honestly felt like a social leper. Wheat and gluten were in EVERYTHING. I cried a couple of times. I hated going out. All my hospo mates thought I was just a cry baby fuss pot. Yum cha was a regular Sunday thing with friends and all of a sudden I had to explain why I couldn’t eat anything. I stopped going. I’m fine now – great even. Maybe twice a year I’d love to hook into a really good croissant but really? All is well in my gluten free world. How about you if it’s something you’re allergic to?
I missed dumplings for YEARS. They’re something I just love as a treat. A couple of years ago Golden Pig Co launched and I love getting those now on occasion. Something in me just wanted to crack being able to make my own and tonight, I did that. I’m pretty happy with these as was the family.
Allow yourself an hour from start to finish. Serves 4. Makes about 30 dumplings. I served it with a side of broccolini sautéed in FrySafe coconut oil and sprinkled with tamari and a drizzle of honey. Super simple.
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Real Food. Happy Bodies. Happy Planet.
Gluten Free Steamed Dumplings or Pot Stickers Recipe
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1 cup white rice flour
- 1 cup tapioca flour
- 3/4 cup boiled water (still hot)
- 3 tbsp oil (I used half half olive and sesame)
- 1/4 tsp salt
Mince filling (you will have enough left to do a batch of meatballs on the side or save for next time. )
- 700 g pork mince
- 100 g spring onions
- 100 g carrots
- 100 g fresh herbs I used a mix of coriander and mint in equal parts)
- 1 inch knob ginger (half that if little ones are sensitive to strong flavours)
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp tamari or coconut aminos
For the potstickers cooking (you can also skip this and just steam them in a steamer basket)
- 2 tbsp coconut oil (FrySafe is my favourite brand with the highest smoke point.)
- 1 tsp water for each dumpling
Instructions
- For the dough, mix the flours, oil and salt in a bowl while you boil the kettle.
- Then, once water is boiled, pour out 2/3 of the 3/4 cup into the bowl (keep a little back for error in case the flour was slightly under measured.
- Mix your water into the flour with a fork. Press together the dough into your hands. Does it feel like it will come together as a thick dough? If it’s still very dry then add the rest of the water.
- Then work the dough into your hands and press, and press and press until it’s a smooth ball a bit the texture of playdough is what you’re looking for. I find you get a better result when you really spend time working the dough for a good 5 minutes, patting down, stretching, rolling etc.
- Then roll it out into a log and cut discs of just under a 1cm thickness and diameter of a 20c coin.
- Roll all the dough slices into balls.
- Leave to rest 10 minutes. On the kitchen bench or board is fine.
- Mix the spring onion, carrot, herbs, tamari, salt, ginger and garlic all together.
- Then mix that through the pork mince super well until fully mixed.
- Now grab a sheet of parchment paper / wax paper and lightly dust with tapioca flour and fold in half.
- Then, pop two little balls between the sheets and roll (you can do one at a time – I just got a bit cocky and started doing two at a time. I even tried 3 but that didn’t work out so well!) roll them gently one way and then rotate the paper, until you have a round-ish, very flat little disc. Pop a little ball of dumpling in the middle, fold two edges over each other and then press the sides in and pinch – I’m going to have to do a video tutorial for that methinks but for now, just be rustic, like me! TIP: If you over fill it, you will be stretching the dough beyond it’s ability to stretch so just keep it to a small amount of filling so that the dough easily folds over and you’re able to pinch it together well.
- Do it again and again until you have them all rolled and ready to go.
- Then heat coconut oil in a carbon plus / Black steel or ceramic non stick pan on HIGH – you’ll most probably need two pans to get them all cooked at once.
- Place all the dumplings in the pan. Add the water and then cover with a lid. If you don’t have lids that fit your pans, just use a foil cover. Lower the heat now to medium-high
- The idea is that you steam the whole dumpling except for the bottom that gets a chewy, crispy crust underneath. Cook time? 10 minutes or thereabouts. Just check at around 8 minutes that the bottoms of the dumplings aren’t burning.
- Once they’re cooked you’re done and despite a little bit of resistance, they should be more or less able to lift out of the pan with a little knife under a couple of them, you make well have to do! Use the time that the dumplings are cooking to whip up some great veggies like broccolini tamari, chilli and lemon.
- I like serving the dumplings with a sauce of 4 tbsp mirin, 4tbsp tamari and sliced chilli if you’re that way inclined.
- If you have any clarifications needed on this recipe, just pop it in the comments,
I hope you enjoy them as much as we did tonight. I’m looking forward to them again in the near future. Next time I’ll also try to freeze some.
Comments 20
Thank you! I can not wait to try these.
Author
Super welcome – Enjoy! x
Can I use brown rice flour?
Author
Hi Christine, Unfortunately not as the germ in the brown rice would mean it would split x
awesome! can’t wait to try for my family – desperately searching for gluten and dairy free lunch box options for a newly diet restricted little one. Think she will love these!
How do you think beef mince would work? Change the flavour too much?
Author
Totally – chicken, beef, pork, duck… They’d all work and while yes of course the flavour would change, there’s not much wrong with that x
We made this tonight, and while the filling was delicious, the pastry was a big fail. We enjoyed our meatballs though.
Author
Oh no Melissa! What happened? Did it roll too thin and split? Not come together properly? Let me know so I can help you workshop it x
They split and didn’t hold together at all. I composted it all and enjoyed the filling. It seemed fine as the small balls, but the rolling was it’s downfall. I can’t imagine anything would help it. Maybe I didn’t let it rest long enough?
Brilliant recipe Alexx! We loved them 🙂 I did use brown rice flour as that is all we had and the pastry did split a bit but it didn’t matter as they stayed together when cooked and tasted superb. My little guy of 6 loved that he could have gyoza again. Thanks again Alexx for all your hard work xox
Author
Oh yay very excited to know you loved them! And great re brown rice flour. yes, definitely not as sturdy but still would have tasted lovely, no doubt x
These look absolutely fabulous! I do miss yum cha too, I wish we could get Golden Pig dumplings in Qld!
Hi Alexx, I was wondering if I could substitute the rice flour for buckwheat or another type of flour. My daughter is intolerant to rice. I have had success with a number of your recipes, considering I have to make flax-eggs and can’t use dairy (for the same child) and I am super grateful for your tasty creations. Thank you so much.
Hi Alex
Could I use Ghee instead of the coconut oil?
Author
I can’t see why not, no! It would taste a little less authentic with dairy vibes in there but texture would be same same x
Made theses tonight! Had a bit of trouble with the dough but realise it was just too dry so wet the balls before I rolled them and it worked out pretty good. Then cooked them and wow they were delicious!!! Yum will be making theses again for sure!!! Xx
Author
So so glad you enjoyed them and good for you, judging the dough and amending. Half the time we have issues in the kitchen because we don’t trust ourselves x
Can’t wait to try these! I read a post a while ago from someone who added Great Lakes gelatin to stop their homemade seed crackers from cracking. Maybe worth experimenting to see if it helps the pastry be more pliable? Just a thought, not sure how easy it would be to incorporate as I’ve only made jelly lollies with mine!
Author
Not a bad idea at all Jenny! x
Amazing dough recipe. I tried the dumplings and they were yummy and worked well. So i used the same recipe as a pie pastry (small pies) and it was so good. This dough can be baked too. I made the pastry for the pies a little thicker. The troubleshoot for dough not sticking together is heating it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds and keeping the dough warm working quickly with it. I broke pieces off the big dough ball and microwaved as i went, it made rolling it out so much easier. Just don’t over microwave as it will cook. And too cold it will crumble. Great recipe thanks