Veggie Potstickers

Not much to report from the weekend. After last weekend it was nice to enjoy some "do nothing" time.

I did make Vegetable Potstickers and (spoiler alert) they were delicious. Potstickers are one of my all time favorites and I have made several times, but only meat-filled versions. I have been trying to be purposeful in introducing more vegetarian meals to my diet. I always have carrots in my fridge - except this day - had to make a quick trip to the store.

Prep started with chopping and grating. I kept looking at the carrots thinking "that's a lot of carrots" and at the mushrooms thinking "that's not enough mushrooms".

The recipe called for grated ginger, which means first there must be peeled ginger. I watch all kinds of cooking shows and I have seen this trick many times, but for some reason I refused to try it. I continued to peel my ginger with a knife. And if you know how knobby ginger is that is no easy feat. The trick...peel the ginger with a spoon...yes a spoon!  Simply scrape it with the edge of the spoon and the peel come right off with no danger of cutting yourself. I am embarrassed I didn't try it sooner...don't be me.

I saw water chestnuts in the recipe and decided to skip them. I've never been their biggest fan.- kind of a take it or leave it situation.  When I ran to the store for carrots, I decided to pick up a can. I opened it fully intending to use them, then I took a taste.Nope...straight into the trash.

All the chopped veggies were sauteed until a little tender and mixed with the rest of the ingredients (seasonings) and an egg. The egg is supposed to be a binder for the filling. Maybe my cabbage was a little too large because it didn't really seem to bind the filling. It was still going every which way.

They were a little tricky to fold, but a little patience and a dab of water around the edges to seal them did the trick.

I ended up with about 35 potstickers. The outsides are a little messy - those mushrooms were constantly sticking to my hands and ending up on the outside of the wrappers.

I put most of them on a parchment lined sheet pan and put them in the freezer for a couple of hours. Once frozen I transferred them to a freezer bag.

The rest of them I cooked up for my niece and I to sample. I made a simple dipping sauce with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and garlic/ginger paste. I looked through a few recipes to determine a ratio for soy sauce to rice vinegar (2:1). I have winged it on the sauce many times, but often struggled to balance those two ingredients. The ratio turned out great.

And so began the struggle to not reach in the freezer and eat potstickers for every meal. There is a little bit of work involved in making these, but nothing difficult. If you are a potsticker fan I definitely recommend making a batch or two to keep in your freezer for a super quick meal.

I am still enjoying beautiful anniversary flowers. I love the colors!