Hearty Vegetable Shumai

Preparation

Prep rutabaga

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. With your rutabaga, peel the skin then chop into rough 1 inch cubes, doesn't have to be perfect (it's all gonna get mashed later). In a mixing bowl, toss with olive oil and salt/pepper to taste. Prep a sheet pan covered in parchment paper, then spread your coated rutabaga evenly on the sheet pan. Roast the rutabaga in the oven for 25-30 minutes, giving them a quick toss halfway through. Cook until soft, rutabaga should be easily piereced through with a fork.

Make green dough

Take spinach and toss into a blender with 1 1/2 cups water. Blend until smooth, then strain and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, add flour, salt, and 3/4 cups of your freshly made spinach juice (you can store the rest in the fridge or freezer). Mix with a silicone spatula into it's roughly incorporated. Then continue to knead the dough with your hands in the bowl or on a clean work surface until the dough is smooth, about 10 minutes. You'll know the dough is done when it's smooth like a baby's butt and it bounces back a little when you poke it. Cover with plastic wrap and proof for 30 minutes.

Make filling

When the rutabaga is cooked through, toss into a mixing bowl and mash with a fork until roughly smooth. Then, add in the rest of the filling ingredients into the mixing bowl along with the mashed rutabaga and give it a good mix until the all the ingredients are all mixed together and incorporated. Set aside until you're ready to fold dumps.

Make wrappers

To make wrappers with a rolling pin see instructions below. If using a pasta machine, see instructions here.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour. When your dough is ready, take out of plastic wrap and cut into two equal sized pieces. Store one piece of dough with plastic wrap and set aside. With the other piece of dough, cut in half again. With your two smaller halves, roll into two thin cylinders, about the size and shape of small hot dogs. Cut each cylinder into 5-6 equal pieces, they should like like little gnocchis or marshmellows. Then, turn each piece cut side up and with the palm of your hand, press down onto it to flatten to make a roughly flattened circle. Dust each side with flour and then with a rolling pin, flatten to create a thin circular wrapper to desired thickness, about an 1/8 of an inch - not too thin but not too thick. Repeat with the rest of your marshmellow dough pieces until you have a bunch of wrappers. Make sure to flour each wrapper as you roll them out and then cover with plastic wrap so they don't dry out. Repeat process with other half of dough whenever you want to make more wrappers.

Assemble dumplings

To create the shumai fold, place a small scoop of filling (about the 1/4 of the size of your wrapper) onto the green wrapper. Create small pleats around the filling until its enclosed by the wrapper so it looks like a little bundled package. With a single chive, carefully tie your shumai so that its enclosed, (do this part slowly so that the chive doesn't break). Repeat with the rest of the wrappers.

Cook dumplings and serve

If steam-frying — In a nonstick pan, add generous dab of oil and place dumplings bottoms down and fry on medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes. When the bottoms have browned, add 1/4 cup of water and place a lid on top (the water will splatter when it hits the oil so just be careful!) cover and steam for 5 minutes on medium heat. If water evaporates before 5 minutes, add a little bit more tablespoon at a time. Once the water has evaporated at the 5 minute mark, use a thin metal spatula to take dumplings out of the plan, then serve. Garnish the tops with scallions and/or any of your favorite fresh herbs.

If steaming — In a bamboo steamer place parchment paper underneath each shumai (or get steamer liners with holes in them) and place shumai's on top. Place your steamer with shumai on top of a shallow pot with boiling water. Steam for 5 minutes until wrappers and filling have cooked through, serve.