Dumpling Salad

I have a genuine weekly dumpling habit, and for years that habit only ever showed up in one form: steaming hot, dumped in their dipping sauce ; or maybe sometimes in a large bowl of broth, an ideal cold-weather food. Then summer hit, but I still needed my fix. I asked myself the obvious question: why not a cold version?

So yes, I built one. Believe me when I say it turned out to be an absolute revelation. The sauce is the whole point here: fresh, punchy, deeply savoury, with just enough heat and funk to make plain boiled dumplings taste like the best thing you've eaten all week. Toss it all with crunchy cucumber, carrot and a big handful of herbs, and you get something that's cold, gourmande, and dangerously easy to make on repeat. I recommend this a thousand times over.

Dumplings — jiaozi in Mandarin — have been a staple of Chinese cuisine for centuries, with roots often traced back to the Han dynasty. Wontons (餛飩, húntun) are their thinner-skinned, silkier cousin from southern China, traditionally boiled or served in soup rather than pan-fried. That's exactly why they're the better choice for this salad: their delicate wrapper soaks up the sauce instead of turning heavy or greasy, which is the whole point when you're building something meant to be eaten cold.

Dumpling Salad – Recipe

Ingredients – Advice & key points

• Wontons: Ideal here, but choose whichever dumplings you have in your freezer. 10 pieces -maybe 12 depending on their size- for one bowl. I really recommend wontons over dumplings here — their thinner, silkier wrapper works much better once everything cools down and gets tossed in sauce.
• Light soy sauce: the salty backbone of the whole sauce.
• Chili oil: with the crispy chili flakes included — they add texture as well as heat.
• Sesame oil: just 1 tsp — any more and it completely overpowers everything else in the bowl.
• Vinegar: ideally straight from a jar of pickled chilies for extra depth, or plain white vinegar if that's what you have on hand.
• Oyster sauce: for a deeper savoury note.
• Sugar: just enough to round out the acidity and the salt.
• Garlic: fresh, not the jarred stuff, it really makes a difference here.
• MSG: optional, but it rounds everything out beautifully — don't be scared of it.
• Dumpling cooking water: 2 tbsp, whisked into the sauce. Don't skip this — it loosens the sauce and ties it back to the dumplings.
• Cucumber, carrots: for crunch.
• Scallions, coriander: or pick either, to add a nice overall flavour and freshness.

Recipe – Advice & key points

• The sauce is everything: make it first and taste as you go. This recipe lives or dies on the balance between salty, sour, sweet and spicy, so adjust before you touch a single dumpling.
• Save your cooking water: boil the wontons as usual, then scoop out 2 tablespoons of the starchy cooking water before draining. It goes straight into the sauce and gives it body.
• Serve it lukewarm, not fridge-cold: toss the freshly boiled dumplings with the sauce while they're still a little warm, then let everything come down to room temperature. Truly fridge-cold dumplings turn slightly gluey.
• Add the vegetables last: toss the cucumber, carrot, scallions and coriander in right before serving, so they stay crisp instead of going limp in the sauce.
• Scaling up: this is written for one generous bowl, but the sauce multiplies perfectly if you're feeding more people — just keep the ratios and taste as you scale.

Enjoy!