Veg Momos Recipe | Vegan Dumplings

Veg momos are tasty, savory steamed vegan dumplings with juicy crunchy vegetable filling wrapped in thin-tender covering made of flour. They can be enjoyed as snack or dunked in hot comforting bowl of soup / broth on a chilly winter day.

Momos or momo are originally from Nepali / Tibetan cuisine and eventually gained popularity as street food in Northern parts of India. They are mostly relished with bold spicy red chutney (sauce) made with chillies & garlic, that takes their flavour even a notch higher. The last time I tried them in Delhi, the street-food vendors were also serving mayonnaise with momos (absolutely loathed that combo!).

Its filling typically includes minced meat but can easily be made meatless using variety of ingredients like mixed veggies, tofu, paneer, or textured plant protein like soy mince (or soya granules). In this post, we have made everything from scratch including the wrappers for dumplings.

Dimsum vs Momos:

Many people often get confused between dimsum & momos as they look very similar but they are subtly different. The first difference lies in the place of their origin- momos originated from Himalayan region (Nepal & Tibet area) whereas dimsums originated from China (cantonese region). 

Secondly, the momos’ wrapper dough is made using wheat flour (or all purpose flour) whereas in dimsums other gluten-free flours like rice flour, tapioca flour or potato starch etc are also added, which gives them slightly translucent glassy look.

The Korean equivalent of these dumplings is known as ‘mandu’ wheeras in Japanese cuisine these are referred to as ‘gyoza’. These can steamed, pan-fried or deep fried. The vegetable dumpling recipe shared here is:

Momo Ingredients:

Flour: The outer covering for momos is made with 4 simple panty ingredients – all purpose flour (maida), water, oil and salt. A soft pliable dough is kneaded, divided and rolled into circular shapes to make wrappers. To cut short the preparation time, you can use store bought dumpling wrappers.

I sometimes add spinach puree or beetroot puree while kneading the flour to give the wrappers green or pink colour. I once tried purple coloured dumplings at a restaurant in Dubai, where they had added ‘purple sweet potato’ powder in dough for colour.

Vegetables: Feel free to add any vegetables in filling like cabbage, purple cabbage, capsicum, bell peppers, onion, carrots, sweet corn, french beans, button mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms.

Protein: To add protein to these veg dumplings, crumbled paneer (cottage cheese), tofu or minced soy can be included in the filling. Soya mince or granules need to be boiled & squeezed before using.

Sauces or seasoning: The veggie filling is seasoned with simple salt & freshly cracked black pepper. Some restaurants also add MSG (monosodium glutamate) for enhancing taste but I have not used any here. Instead you can add some soy sauce or vinegar to add further depth of flavours.

Aromatics or Herbs: Ginger, garlic and spring onion greens add punch of flavour and aroma to the stuffing. Fresh green chillies are added for heat and spiciness but if you do not like spicy food, skip it.

• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• For covering:
  • All purpose flour (Maida) – (1+1/2) cup
  • Water – 1/2 cup (as required)
  • Salt – 3/4 tsp
  • Oil – 1 tsp
• For stuffing:
  • Sesame Oil / Cooking Oil – 1 tbsp
  • Garlic (minced) – 3 to 4 cloves
  • Ginger (grated) – 1 inch piece
  • Green chillies (finely chopped) – 1 to 2 (optional)
  • Cabbage (finely chopped) – 2 cups
  • Onions (finely chopped) – 2 medium
  • Bell Pepper / Capsicum (finely chopped) – 1/2
  • Carrots (finely chopped)  – 1 small
  • Spring onion (white part chopped) – 2 tbsp
  • Spring onion (green part chopped) – 3 to 4
  • Salt – 3/4 tsp (to taste)
  • Black Pepper (freshly cracked) – 1/2 tsp (to taste)

Directions:

Step 1:
Add flour and salt to a mixing bowl. Start adding water gradually to knead a soft dough. When the dough starts to come together, drizzle oil on it and knead till it become smooth. Cover with a slightly damp cloth and let it rest for 20-30 min. In the mean time, let’s prepare the stuffing.

Step 2:
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan or wok. Add ginger, garlic, green chillies and saute for 20-30 seconds. Add spring onion (white part), onions and saute for 40-50 seconds more while stirring.

Step 3:
Add carrot, capsicum. Saute while stirring for a minute. Add cabbage and saute for 2-3 minutes more. Add salt, black pepper and mix well (If you wish you can add soy sauce also at this step). Saute for a minute more. Do not overcook as we want the veggies to be crunchy.

Step 4:
Taste and adjust salt or seasoning as per your taste. Add spring onion greens at the end. Let the stuffing cool completely before starting to make dumplings. While it is cooling, let’s prepare the wrappers.

Step 5:
First divide the dough in 2 equal parts. Divide the first part in 12-14 portions & roll into smooth balls. While we are working with first half part, keep the second part in an airtight container (or cover with cling wrap to prevent from drying). The recipe yields total 24 to 28 momos

Step 6:
Lightly flour the kitchen counter. Take a ball and using a rolling pin, roll in roughly 3.5″ circle. If you are finding it difficult to get perfect circles, roll them slightly bigger and then cut the edges with a bowl or cookie cutter.

(Make all wrappers like this and keep them covered while working. To prevent them from sticking, dust little bit flour between them.)

Step 7:
Take roughly 1 to 1.5 tablespoon of the mixture and place it in the center of rolled dough. Apply little bit water on the edges. First bring the edges together from the center (to make semi circle) and then make pleats on both sides (as shown in image). Press the edges firmly to seal the dumplings.

Tip: Repeat to make rest of the dumplings. As you go on, cover the shaped dumplings with slightly damp cloth to prevent crusting on skin.

Step 8:
Bring water to rolling boil in a steamer. Brush oil on the steamer plate & keep it inside while the water is boiling. Once the water starts steaming, arrange the momos on the basket while leaving space between them.

Step 9:
Cover with a lid & steam these veggie dumplings for roughly 7-8 min till their outer covering become slightly shiny & translucent. Bring out the steamer basket and transfer the momos on a serving platter. Enjoy it with this spicy fiery chilli garlic sauce or any dip of choice.

Tips:

1. You can also even pan fry these momos in a non-stick pan or well seasoned cast iron pan to get crispy dumplings. They can also be added to soups or broth to make dumpling soup.
2. In filling you can use other crunchy veggies also like- boiled sweet corn, spinach, coloured bell peppers, mushrooms. For adding protein to the stuffing, included crumbled tofu, paneer or soya granules (prep them as shown in soya kebab recipe).
3. To cut down the prepping time, use store bought dumpling wrappers. For vegetable prepping, use food processor or electric chopper.

Pin for later:

(P.S: The recipe was originally published on 9th June’2015 and has been updated with better recipe and images.)

If you try this vegetable momos recipe & share pics on social media, then don’t forget to tag on Facebook, Instagram or use #kuchpakrahahai.

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(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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