A week ago I realized the obvious: You don’t need a steamer to steam things. Also, you can use wonton wrappers to make things besides wontons! The novelty! This made the possibilities of my wonton wrappers endless! Not only could I make dumplings, I could make pierogies and ravioli! All without the hassle of making dough and getting it thin enough without ripping or sticking to the surface I rolled it out on! And let me tell you, that has kept me from making these things for ages. So everybody go pick up some wonton wrappers from your local Asian food market (make sure they don’t have egg) and go crazy! It took me all of 10 minutes to have dumplings in my mouth, so you have no excuse not to.

This is very similar to my Disappearing Wontons recipe but a different shape, easier and healthier! For dumplings, just chop up some veggies of choice. I recommend cabbage, peppers, onions, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, garlic, etc. Whatever you have around should work. I also added some seitan to mine for good measure. I made a big batch of chopped veggies and seitan, tossed it with soy sauce, a bit of ginger powder and about 1/2 tsp of sesame oil…shook it up in a Tupperware and put in the fridge so I could throw together dumplings whenever I wanted!

When ready, take a sauce pan filled with less than an inch of water in it, put a metal colander/strainer (the dumplings stuck to my plastic/silicone one so I recommend metal) in the pan so that it’s not touching the water underneath, and have a cover ready for your new steaming apparatus. I just put a spoonful of the filling in the middle, dipped my fingers in warm water and rubbed around the edges of the wrapper to make it stick, then folded it in half and squished the edges together with my fingers. Poke a hole in each so they don’t turn into big bubbles, then toss all the dumplings (10-15 at a time) into the “steamer”, cover and let steam for 5-7 minutes. When they turn more translucent they’re ready! Service with soy sauce or dumpling sauce!

I think I’ll try making raviolis filled with spinach and cashew ricotta next, though I’ll probably use two whole wonton wrappers sealed together for this instead of one folded in half. Again, the possibilities are endless! I’m so happy about my obvious discovery of a) steaming without a steamer and b) the versatility of wonton wrappers! I’m so excited about steaming things I might even buy a steamer basket!

Ready to go in my tummy…