Pea dumpling broth recipe
This isn’t a classic Chinese or south-east Asian broth but something I created made with seasonal peas such as sugar snaps, mangetouts or even pea shoots. You can use fresh peas for the filling but I find the frozen kind work really well. I use wonton or gyoza wrappers, which I always have to hand in my freezer. I hate wasting things, so the peas and leeks from the stock become the dumpling filling.
This recipe makes enough filling for about 25 dumplings, but any extra can be spread on toast as a snack.
Timings
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 15-25 minutes
Serves
4
Ingredients
For the broth and filling
1.5 litres vegetable stock
200g frozen peas
1 small leek, or half a medium leek, washed and finely chopped
100g mangetouts, sugar snaps or a mix of both
40g root ginger, scraped and finely chopped
2 spring onions, trimmed, halved lengthways and finely sliced
For the dumplings
10 wonton or gyoza wrappers
a few sprigs of coriander
Method
To make the broth, put the stock, frozen peas and leek into a pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve into another pan. Season to taste. If the flavour isn’t strong enough, you can simmer it for 10 more minutes so it reduces.
Put the strained vegetables into a blender or food processor and blitz to a coarse purée. Season to taste and leave to cool.
Take the gyoza or wonton wrappers and lay them on the work top. Brush the edges with water and put a good teaspoonful of the purée in the centre of each. Fold them in half to form semicircles, and seal the edges by gently pressing them with your fingers. If not using them straight away, store them on a plate in the fridge for up to 2 hours. There are a couple of extras here as occasionally they split.
Shred half of the mangetouts or sugar snaps and leave the rest whole, or cut larger ones in half.
Add the ginger to the broth and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the dumplings and simmer for 1 minute. Finally, add all the mangetouts or sugar snaps and the spring onion and simmer for 30 seconds.
Carefully ladle into bowls, evenly distributing the dumplings. Garnish with the coriander and serve.
