Vegetarian Keto Cauliflower Rice Dumplings with Tempeh
These keto rice dumplings with riced cauliflower are gold for me! They’re low-carb and vegetarian-friendly. I guess you will love this traditional delicious food with a twist!
Equipment
- Wok or pot
- Bamboo steamer (optional)
Ingredients
For leaf preparation
- 40 pieces dried or fresh reed leaves
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 10-15 dried salt water grass as twine
For filling - shiitake mushrooms
- 50 grams dried shiitake mushrooms soaked for at least 6 hours
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon keto soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 tablespoon monk fruit sweetener
For filling - mushrooms
- 500 grams mushrooms sliced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 grams sea salt
- 1 1/4 teaspoon five spice powder
For filling - tempeh
- 300 grams tempeh
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 1/3 tablespoons keto soy sauce
- 2/3 tablespoon sake
- 1 tablespoon five spice powder
- 1 teaspoon monk fruit sweetener
For filling- salted duck egg yolks
- 10 salted duck egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon sake or rose wine
For sticky cauliflower rice
- 3 1/2 tablespoons minced shallots
- 3 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1.8 kilograms riced cauliflower about 3 1/2 heads
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 14 grams sea salt
- 2-3 grams white pepper
- 45 grams psyllium husk powder
Instructions
For leaf preparation
- If using dried reed leaves, soak them overnight. Skip this step if you use the fresh one.
- Rinse and rub the leaves very gently to clean them. Put them inside a deep pot and add water to cover the leaves.
- Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the water. It will make the leaves more flexible and less likely to crack.
- Put on the pot lid and heat the pot of leaves over high heat until it boils, then turn off the heat immediately. Keep the lid on and let the leaves soak overnight or until the water is warm enough to touch (if you don’t have enough time).
For filling - dried shiitake mushrooms
- Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms for at least 6 hours. They will become soft and bigger after that.
- Cut and discard the stems. In a medium heat proof bowl stir together olive oil, keto soy sauce, minced garlic and monk fruit sweetener to make sauce, then put the shiitake mushrooms in and massage them with the sauce.
- Steam the shiitake mushrooms for 30 minutes.
- Cut them into half and set aside.
For filling - salted duck egg yolks
- Separate the salted duck egg whites and yolks. The egg yolks will be used in this recipe and you can reserve the whites for other dishes.
- Put the egg yolks on a plate or inside a medium bowl. Drizzle sake or rose wine over them and steam for about 20 minutes.
For filling - mushrooms & tempeh
- Break the tempeh into small pieces with your hands. In a small bowl stir together the remaining ingredients for tempeh (except a tablespoon olive oil).
- In a frying pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat, sauté mushroom slices until golden brown and soft, then season with sea salt and five spice powder and stir to combine. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary. Plate up the mushrooms and set aside.
- In the same pan, heat a tablespoon more olive oil, add tempeh pieces to stir fry until golden brown, then pour the bowl of sauce into the pan and fry until the tempeh pieces are coated with sauce. Plate them up and set aside.
For sticky cauliflower rice
- Cut the cauliflowers into small florets. Chop the stems and leaves into smaller pieces. You may discard them if you do not want them.
- Rinse them with running water. Drain and pat them as dry as you can with a clean towel.
- Put the cauliflower pieces in a food processor or blender. Pulse until they become rice-sized. Process them in batches if necessary and don’t over blend them or else they will get mushy. Place the cauliflower rice into a large container and set aside.
- Process the garlic cloves and shallots to the size of rice or smaller.
- Divide the garlic cloves, shallots, cauliflower rice and psyllium husk powder separately into three batches.
- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan (about 12” diameter) over medium high heat. Sauté a batch of garlic and shallots until fragrant, then turn to high heat and add a batch of cauliflower rice to stir fry until it turns pale yellow, for about 3 minutes.
- Season with sea salt and white pepper. Taste and add more if necessary. Dust a batch of psyllium husk powder onto the rice evenly. Stir fry until combined and the rice sticks together. It will finally become sticky that a dough ball can be formed.
- Repeat the steps to finish the remaining two batches.
Assembling
- The leaves should be soaked in water right now. For 10 dumplings, take 40 leaves out and roughly pat them dry. Cut the stems with scissors and it will make the wrapping easier. Soak the twines inside water to prevent them from breaking.
- Use four leaves for a dumpling. Pick two pieces of leaves first, put a piece of leaf on another one like a cross, smooth side up. Fold the overlapped part to form a cone (see photo reference above in the post) and hold the tip of the cone with your hand.
- Fill the bottom with sticky cauliflower rice (around 60 grams). This will be the top of your dumpling so make sure you spread the rice enough to cover the surface, or else the filling may not be held together and the shape of the dumpling will not be pretty. Then add tempeh (about 15 grams), an egg yolk, mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms. Cover the filling carefully with more tempeh (about 15 grams) and sticky cauliflower rice (60 grams).
- Use one hand each time to place the remaining two pieces of leaves separately on the left and right side of the cone. Be careful to hold the shape of the cone. Use your thumbs to close the dumpling by making an inward fold. Then press the dumpling firmly, and fold the upper bunch of leaves down, the lower bunch of leaves up to close the dumpling completely.
- Tight the dumpling with a twine (see pictures above in the post). Cut the redundant part of leaves. Repeat the steps until all ingredients are used.
Cooking
- In a wok or pot bring plenty of water to a boil, then place a steamer rack in the wok or pot. The water level should be below the steamer rack.
- Put dumplings inside a bamboo steamer or on a plate and place them on the steamer rack. Put on the bamboo lid if you use a bamboo steamer. Cover the wok or pot with a lid to steam for 15 minutes over medium heat.
- Take the dumplings out immediately. Unfold the leaves gently and serve hot.