Today I’m going to show you a delicious, easy recipe for making Korean dumplings (aka mandu: 만두). Deliciousness of dumplings depends on the filling. My classic mandu recipe video has been used by many of my readers over the years, to great success! But the mandu I’m showing today is made with only a few ingredients and is much simpler and easier to make.
Even though this recipe is simpler, it’s still incredibly delicious. The combination of the flavors of the ingredients is perfectly tasty and succulent, with a savory richness. It took me many experiments to come up with the combination and ratio, and this is the one that passed my test.
I pick up mandu wrappers from the Asian grocery store and then my strategy is to prepare this fast and freeze almost all of them in a plastic bag. This way, I always have them on hand for a quick meal or snack, or to add to something else. You can pan-fry them (see my wang-mandu recipe for instructions), steam them, or make soup with them. If you drop a few to your Korean ramyeon, it’ll be an instant, delicious upgrade.
You can also make your own mandu wrappers with my recipe for mandu-pi, but be sure to make them smaller for this recipe, about 3 inches round. And if you like pork, you can simply replace the shrimp with pork in the recipe below to make pork dumplings.
I hope you try this recipe and enjoy it! It’s really a lot of fun to make, and fun to eat. I guarantee everyone will love them!
Ingredients
Makes 25 dumplings
- 1 package (25 pieces) of dumpling wrappers (store-bought or made at home), thawed out in the fridge
- 8 ounces shelled, deveined, and cleaned shrimp, chopped
- 4 ounces Asian chives (or green onions), chopped
- 4 ounces of soft tofu, squeezed out excess water
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon potato starch
For dipping sauce:
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru)
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame seeds, crushed
Directions
Make the dipping sauce:
- Mix the dipping sauce ingredients (soy sauce, vinegar, hot pepper flakes, and sesame seeds) in a small bowl. Set aside.
Make the filling:
- Combine shrimp, Asian chives, tofu, kosher salt, ground black pepper, toasted sesame oil, and potato starch in a bowl and mix well with a spoon.
- Put a wrapper on your palm and put some water on the edge of the wrapper. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling to the center of the wrapper and fold it along the edge to seal.
- Fold ripples into the edge to hold it together and make a nice looking pouch.
- Repeat until you’ve made mandu from all your fillings.
Steam the mandu:
- Boil water in a steamer. Line the steamer rack or basket with a parchment paper.
- Place some mandu in the steamer basket and steam for 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve:
- Remove from the heat. If you use a bamboo steamer, you can put it directly on the table. Otherwise, it will be easier to plate the mandu before serving.
- Serve with the dipping sauce
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon for that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
I made these without the dumpling wrappers to drop into broth for a quick meal and they are delicious. Also made burgers with gochujang mayo – fantastic. First refrigerated them then formed into meatballs or patties. Freeze what’s not used the same day. Am looking forward to trying them with the wrappers.
Bonjour Maangchi ! Voici mes tout premiers mandu avant cuisson vapeur. Je suis très fière !!! Le pliage a été un peu compliqué mais ça viendra ! Après cuisson , ils sont délicieux . Merci beaucoup Cindy de Paris, France
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can i change potato starch into corn starch? it will make any different?
Yes, you can replace potato starch with cornstarch.
Hi Maangchi,
I just found you on youtube and want to make this mandu recipe. My question is: when i use frozen, already cooked shrimps, how long do i have to steam them? Still 20 minutes? :)
already looking forward to making these!
Hi Maangchi! Thanks for your incredible recipe! I tried it out yesterday and it was stunning!! I’ve also followed your homemade dumpling wrappers but there were some problems.. when I steamed the dumplings, the dough turned out to be a little bit hard. Is that because my wrappers were too thick? :(( I can’t roll them thinner because they will tear easily later when I put the filling in. Do you have any solution to this :((
The dough must’ve been too dry. Add some more water to the dough and knead it until it’s smooth. Then you will be able to shape mandu more easily. Good luck!
Mine don’t look as pretty as yours. I can’t get the dumplings to look stay pinched up at the top, but they taste great! I didn’t add tofu though but it was still juicy. This recipe is a home run!
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It looks perfect with so many beautiful pleats! The dumplings were pinched and folded so nicely! Gorgeous!
Ils sont magnifiques ! Bravo
Hello Maangchi!
I finally got a chance to make these dumplings today! I panfried a few to go with some other side dishes and put the rest in the freezer for later. They were delicious and my husband loved them! I can’t wait to try them in soup! I also got your cookbook recently and am looking forward to making the Braised Lotus Root dish this week as well. Your new mushroom soup recipe will be on the menu this week too!
Thank you for all your delicious recipes! Everytime someone compliments my Korean cooking, I tell them it is easy to learn with you!
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wow, it sounds like you are having fun cooking many delicious Korean dishes! : ) The dumplings look amazing! Yes, you will love dumpling soup. I add them to noodle soup, spicy fish soup, and even to Korean instant ramyeon. Good luck with your Korean cooking!
So delicious!!! This is the first recipe that we’ve made from this blog — Maangchi, you already are our favourite chef. Because of you, these dumplings came out great and now we have the confidence to do more Korean cooking!
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wow, they looks perfectly delicious and cute!
Is there a way to cook these without steaming them? I don’t have a steamer big enough to cook them all at once.
A thai style dipping sauce made with fish sauce is also an option. Swap out the soy for fish sauce and add a teaspoon of sugar. I prefer fresh chopped chilis instead of flakes for this style of dipping sauce.
I make my normal dipping sauce with a little mirin, toasted sesame oil, ginger and green onion too. If you add mirin you can leave out the sugar unless you like it sweeter.
A simple chili oil also works if you really like spicy. Its just pepper flakes, regular sesame oil and a pinch of salt. Mix oil and pepper flakes. The flakes will expand into a paste and absorb all the oil. Let it rest for a while and add just enough additional oil to cover the flakes.
The left over chili oil makes a nice condiment to spicy up a bowl of soup.
I would really love to make these but I can’t eat soy. Is there any substitution for it?
Hi Chas,
If you can’t eat soy products, you might want to make this as dipping sauce:
1. finely sliced ginger, black or red vinegar
2. Red chilli slightly boiled to soften, blend together in food processor with some garlic and warm water. Then add sugar, salt and lemon water to taste.
Good luck
Hi Ermin, thank you for the suggestions! I will definitely try these they sound delicious :)
Hello. I just made an account to reply to you, because like you, I also cannot have soy. I have some tips that may help you out in this regard.
Erin Fei’s recommended sauce recipe is definitely an option, but if you want to use maangchi’s recipe, replace the soy sauce with coconut aminos. This is a soy-free soy sauce substitute that I use all the time. It tastes almost exactly like soy sauce, only since it’s made from coconut it’s a bit sweeter than regular soy sauce. To combat this, just add a bit more vinegar to this sauce recipe and perhaps a bit of salt. This will add back that tartness that you get from regular soy sauce.
As for the soft tofu in the dumplings (in case you weren’t aware, tofu is also made with soy) I have heard that you can replace soft tofu with either yogurt (I’d recommend plain Greek yogurt, because it’s thicker and more tart – preferably strained Greek yogurt if you can get your hands on it. I know fage makes a great strained Greek yogurt), sour cream or ricotta cheese. I know it sounds questionable to use these products in place on soft tofu, but actually soft tofu is made almost exactly like western yogurt or soft cheeses, the only difference is that it is made from soy milk as opposed to regular cows milk, so the results should be similar. I haven’t tried these, but I plan on making these dumplings tonight with strained Greek yogurt. I’ll be sure to let you know how they come out. Keep in mind that because yogurt, ricotta cheese and sour cream are all milk products they will spoil faster than these dumplings that maangchi made. If you freeze them they will keep for longer, however.
In future, if there is a recipe you want to make that requires regular hard tofu, I’d recommend seeking out Burmese tofu. Unlike most tofu which are made from soy beans, Burmese tofu is made from garbanzo beans. It is made in the same process, only it uses a different bean. The result is a slightly softer tofu that is yellow in color as opposed to white. It doesn’t fry as well as regular tofu, but it’s a great replacement for those of us that can’t have soy products. They also make garbanzo bean versions of many soy products, for example you can find garbanzo bean miso paste for miso soup.
Sorry I went on for so long. I hope I was able to be helpful!
Thank you so much for sharing your tips about soy free here! Actually I had never heard about coconut aminos. I just looked it up and found it can be a good substitute for soy sauce. Cheers! : )
Maangchi, they look wonderful and so simple! We will be having these tomorrow. And thank you for showing us the ‘Hot Maangchi Mouth,’ the hottest mouth around when tasting something super, super hot! Wow wow wow!!!