Eating healthy/clean and St. Patrick’s Day don’t really mix, especially when you’re not willing to give up beer for the holiday. That’s when I stumbled across a recipe for Cabbage Dumplings that are Whole 30 -friendly.
Cabbage dumplings sound kind of weird. “Won’t I miss the best part of the dumpling, the soft doughy outside?” The answer is simply, “No.”
These dumplings and the “ponzu” sauce are Whole 30-approved. Anyone on the Whole 30 diet knows it can be difficult finding quick and easy dishes within your diet restrictions but also taste delicious.
But this recipe delivers. Conveniently, I look for the same types of recipes when meal planning because coming up with something a toddler won’t immediately feed to the dog is not the easiest task.
I gathered my ingredients and started the simple, easy to follow prep. Please note I do NOT have a cute, fancy, bamboo steamer basket that you will see on the link I will share at the end, but my plain old steamer works just fine.
*Side note: I have found that when I make a recipe that I find online I want to have the EXACT tools that chef uses, practical or not. Yes, I had to talk myself out of buying the cute bamboo steamer.
The most arduous prep I had to do was chop the green onions and boil my head of cabbage for 10 minutes. I did not have the Savoy Cabbage the recipe calls for, but
Boil it for 10 mins, remove it from the water and let it cool enough to handle. This makes the leaves amazingly easy to remove and roll.
While the cabbage is boiling, mix your pork, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes (if you use them- I don’t), coconut aminos, fish sauce, ginger, green onion and sesame seed oil. THAT’S IT! This becomes the most savory and moist filling. So good, in fact, that my 2 year old will tear these up! I do find it easier to mix by hand, it really ensures everything blends properly (in my opinion).
Spoon your mixture onto the leaf and roll it up. I use ¼ cup to measure the mix and place it at the “bottom” of the leaf and roll it up then fold the sides in. Place the roll seam side down in your steamer and continue making dumplings until you run out of filling. Now, to steam the dumplings the recipe calls for chicken broth, I have forgotten to buy some and the chicken I bought to make broth is currently sitting snugly in my freezer *sigh*….I will be steaming these with water tonight. Even steamed in water, these dumplings taste very good, but the chicken broth adds a little richer flavor to the cabbage leaves.
Once you get all your little bundles wrapped and placed in the steamer, steam them for 15 minutes. While they are steaming, mix up the dipping sauce. When the dumplings have cooked 15 minutes, pull one out and cut it open to ensure the pork is cooked through.
And yall, that’s it. They are ready to serve and enjoy with a little side of the dipping sauce. Viola! Bon Appetit!
This is not an original recipe, created by me. The original recipe is from The Defined Dish and can be found here.
