Spicy Vegetarian Dumpling Soup
It has always been a Chinese tradition to eat dumpling or jiaozi (饺子) on the Eve of Chinese New Year, especially in the Northen region of China.
Unlike the European dumplings, Chinese dumplings are filled with minced meat with finely chopped veggie wrapped into a thin and elastic piece of dough skin. Typically, dumpling could be eaten boiled or steamed. Filling mixtures vary depending on personal tastes and region, but the most popular mixtures are pork with Chinese cabbage for non-vegetarian jiaozi; chives for vegetarian jiaozi.
Not long ago I bought a package of frozen dumpling jiaozi from Asian supermarket. Since it is still within the 2 weeks of Chinese New Year period and has been snowing intermittently recently, I decided to pamper myself with a bowl of spicy veggie dumpling soup.
I chose the instant Kimchi soupbase paste as the broth for my dumpling soup. Bring the water to boil with 1 tbsp of Kimchi soupbase paste. Add-in some Chinese cabbage, tomato slices and the dumplings and cook for 10 minutes under medium high heat. Serve the dumplings in a bowl and garnish with some fried shallots and scallions. Simple, easy and tasty.
The dumplings are surprisingly good especially the fillings. The finely chopped mushrooms, carrot and glass noodles (冬粉) filling is well seasoned; while the dough skin is thin and soft which melt instantly in my mouth.
Guys, if you would like to skip the idea of making your own dumplings at home, my recommendation to you is to go for the Taiwanese brand, ChiMei Frozen Dumplings (奇美食品). Speaking from my experience, the Qi Mei dumplings taste better than the one sold in many Chinese restaurants, where their dumpling skin is thick and coupled with strong floury taste.
