Vegetable Momo- Dumplings

To prepare the dough for momo wrappers, in a bowl combine the flour and salt. Make a well in the center and add room temperature water, a little at a time and mix it well with fingers to get the flour together to a crumbled mass.

Now transfer the dough to a floored surface and knead until it becomes smooth and elastic for 3-5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a bowl cover it with damp kitchen towel and let it rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.

While the dough is resting, we can prepare the momo filling. At first squeeze out all the water from the shredded veggies. In a pan heat 2 tsp oil , add ginger-garlic paste, saute it well till the raw smell goes off.

Add turmeric powder, chopped onions, green chili paste and saute. Now add the cabbage and carrots, salt, pepper and cook till the mixture becomes dry. The filling mixture should not be watery as it will be difficult to seal the dough wrappers.

Let the filling cool down. Rolling out the momo wrappers, pinch out small portion of dough and roll it out as thin as possible using a rolling pin. Try to keep the center of the wrapping a little thicker than the edges.

This will ensure ease in sealing the momos and at the same time provide support to hold the juices secreted during steaming of momos.

Now comes the very crucial, difficult and most beautiful part while making momos, the filling and sealing the momos. Hold the wrapper in one hand, place the filling in the center using a small spoon, use other hand to gather the edges .

Seal the stuffing inside by squeezing the edges tightly making small pleats to securely seal in the fillings. Pleats make the momos beautiful.

There are many ways of sealing the momos and thus can be made into desired shapes.

Getting momos to steam, grease the colander with a little oil or keep a muslin cloth on the colander and place the momos together (but not touching each other) with pleated side up.

Now fill the rice cooker or any steamer with 3-4 inch of water. Place the momo tray in the steamer. Cover tightly to prevent steam from escaping.

Steam until the dumplings are translucent and juicy. It took 10-12 minutes in my rice cooker. Do not overcook or the momos will dry up leaving the filling tasteless.

Serve the momos piping hot directly from steamer onto a plate with hot and spicy tomato and chilli dip!