These eggplant and shishito pepper dumplings may be accidentally vegan, but they’re intentionally delicious. Try eggplant in a way you haven’t had before (read: not eggplant parm) and thank us later!
THE INGREDIENTS:
Eggplant: Who knew eggplant wasn’t just for eggplant parmesan! Eggplant may be a vegetable, but it is meaty in texture. When roasted, it softens and mixes well with the peppers, onion, garlic, and spices to make a flavorful dumpling filling.
One problem (that isn’t really a problem) is that eggplants come in many different sizes. For that reason, we say one to two eggplants. You get much less eggplant than you think when you roast it and only scoop out the softened filling. We usually use two, even if the eggplants are not small in size. With that being said, sometimes the store (or your garden) has what can only be described as ultra-mega-jumbo eggplants. Those are the eggplants that are larger than your head. In that case, 1 is fine.
Shishito Peppers: These little peppers add a punch of flavor and a little bit of heat, too. Shishito peppers bring a noticeable flavor to these dumplings that really helps the eggplant go up a notch. On the other hand, they can vary wildly in heat. Some peppers are very mild, but the occasional one is quite hot. If you’re worried about the heat, you can reduce the amount of shishito peppers, try to smell or taste for heat and put those peppers aside, or deseed the shishito peppers.
If you don’t have shishito peppers on hand or just want to avoid that extra work, we’ve found this recipe is also delicious when you use anaheim peppers. In fact, you could even go crazy and try out a poblano or green bell pepper. Each one adds a bit different of a flavor, but everyone has their own tastes! Still, if shishito peppers are available, just know that those are the ones we reach for.
Onion: So basic, yet so important! Onion adds more flavor to our dumpling filling. Since eggplant can be quite bland when it is plain, it’s very important to spice it up with what you have. We don’t recommend replacing the onion with dried minced onion or onion powder in this recipe. If it’s all you have, of course, reach for 2 tbsp of dried minced onion or 1 tbsp of onion powder.
Garlic: Same as the onion! So basic, yet important. We need all the flavor we can get, and this garlic brings flavor without it being the star. We’d argue the most prominent flavor, actually, would be the ginger in this recipe. However, it is not too strong, just pleasantly noticeable! Without fresh garlic, we’d reach for ¼ to ½ tsp of garlic powder.
Dumpling Wrappers: If you really just wanted to eat the dumpling filling on top of a bed of rice, no one is stopping you. With that being said, if you’re here you probably want dumplings! To save time and effort, we often buy our dumpling wrappers at the store. The packages we use come with about 50 wrappers, and we find that to be more than enough. Of course, this depends on how you fold your dumplings. Some folds can fit more or less filling than others.
Ginger: At first, we wanted these eggplant and shishito pepper dumplings to be super simple. Minimal ingredients level of simple. And what was ginger but another ingredient? We thought the dumplings were already delicious, after all. Adding ginger out of curiosity, though, was one of our best ideas for this recipe. Although it’s true some recipes probably list a ton of spices just to seem tastier, some meals are better off when you add that extra spice or two. This is one of them! Although we use dried ginger, feel free to use 1.5 tsp of freshly grated ginger instead.
Salt: Without salt, this dumpling would fall flat! It really helps to perk up the entire meal. As always, increase or decrease as desired. You know how much salt you like best.
Black Pepper: A single spice that, like the ginger, also goes a long way! If you have white pepper on hand, feel free to use that instead. Whatever is in your pantry is the right answer here. Either way, the meal should be super delicious!
Vegetable Oil: Vegetable oil not only helps us to get a nice roast on your important eggplant, but it is necessary to cook down the onion, shishito peppers, and garlic. Oil also helps to bring out their flavor. 2 tablespoons is a rough estimate of how much we use, but you don’t really need to measure here. Just drizzle a little on the eggplant and pour a little in your pan, adding more as needed.
KEY INFORMATION:
What’s The Difference Between Steamed and Boiled Dumplings? Not everyone has a steamer basket on hand-and that’s ok! In a pinch, boiling still leads to a dumpling with the same amazing filling. The two main differences between steamed and boiled dumplings are their appearance and texture. A boiled dumpling will have a wrapper that is almost transparent, whereas a steamed dumpling remains more on the opaque side. Texture wise, steamed dumplings have more chew than their softer, boiled counterparts. Both are delicious!
How Do You Fold a Dumpling? Honestly, there are so many ways! You don’t need to have good technique to make a good dumpling, the key is to just make sure you have enclosed the filling, after all. If you really don’t enjoy the folding process, you can even just spoon in some filling and fold the dumpling wrapper in half. Quick rectangular dumplings! If you like to get fancy, you can try out more advanced folds instead.
What Goes With Eggplant and Shishito Pepper Dumplings? A bed of your favorite rice is a great way to start. To follow it up, make sure to have your favorite dipping sauce ready. Are you team soy sauce, sweet and sour, or something else? Since this meal is a bit lacking in the protein department, we also have some ideas to help solve that. First, you could get your stir fry on and make a simple sesame chicken stir fry or a beef and broccoli stir fry. If a stir fry doesn’t sound like what you want for a dumpling meal, you could even have some slices of chicken katsu instead. Even more fun, you could practice your tempura skills with fish and vegetable tempura.
Finally, get your canned (or raw) tuna and use your rice to make some sushi. Don’t forget the mayo, cucumber, and whatever other additions you like! For the vegetarians, we’ve found sushi where egg salad (Japanese-style or not) is the filling is oddly delicious. We’ve even served egg salad with smaller pieces of seaweed to eat it with. To bring dumplings and sushi together, a simple miso soup that the dumplings could go into would do the trick. Finally, have more crunch thanks to rangoons or egg rolls. You could do whatever filling you like!
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 425 F / 220 C.
- Cut the eggplant(s) in half and place them on a baking sheet.
- Score the eggplant(s): Without cutting all the way through, slice both horizontal and vertical lines so the eggplant is almost cut into cubes.
- Add a small drizzle of vegetable oil to the eggplant(s) and spread it around the top of the eggplant(s).
- As desired, add additional salt and pepper on top of the eggplant(s).
- Bake the eggplant(s) at 425 F / 220 C for 35 minutes.
- While the eggplant(s) bake, prepare the rest of the filling. First, dice the onion.
- Add it to the pan with a drizzle of vegetable oil and cook until translucent on medium-high heat.
- While the onion is cooking, slice the shishito peppers and mince the garlic.
- Once the onion is cooked, add the garlic and cook until fragrant, roughly 30 seconds.
- Add the shishito peppers, the salt, the black pepper, and the ginger. Cook until softened and then reduce the heat to low if the eggplant is not done baking.
- Take the eggplant(s) out of the oven. Carefully use a spoon to scoop out its filling. Place the filling in the pan with the shishito pepper mixture and mix.
- Now, it's time to make the dumplings! You can fold how you desire or do our method. Our Method: First add a little water to all of the sides of the wrapper with your finger. Add a heaping teaspoon of filling, increasing or decreasing as needed, to the middle. Fold the wrapper in half, so you have a rectangular dumpling. Next, take the two corners on the same side as your fold. Carefully bring the corners to each other and pinch them together. Repeat until the dumplings are folded.
- Now, cook the dumplings! To Steam: Add water to the bottom of your steamer basket. Fit roughly 1/4 of the dumplings in the steamer basket, put the lid on, and turn the heat to high. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and let cook for 10 minutes. To Boil: Add dumplings to a pot of boiling water, being careful to not overcrowd the pot. Make sure it is not boiling too fiercely or the dumplings will fall apart. Boil until the dumplings begin to float to the surface, usually between 2-4 minutes.
- Enjoy!
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