This homemade mushroom shumai recipe is super easy to make. Today, we’re going with a vegetarian version made with sticky rice, mushrooms, and peas–perfect when dipped in a bit of soy sauce and chili oil.
Shumai (shaomai in Mandarin and siu mai in Cantonese), according to the good folks at Wikipedia, is thought to have originated in Inner Mongolia, where it was made with minced lamb, ginger, and scallion. If you’ve had it at a dim sum restaurant, it was probably made with pork and/or shrimp.
The goal of this particular mushroom shumai recipe is to make this traditional dish a bit healthier, as well as vegan!
The big plus of this recipe is that we also made homemade shumai wrappers, because we haven’t been able to find any store-bought wrappers ideal for this dish.
Give the recipe a try, and let us know how it goes!
Recipe Instructions
Start by making the dough. Mix the flour, salt and boiling water together in a mixing bowl, handle with care and knead until you get a smooth dough.
Put in a bowl covered with a damp towel, and let the dough rest for 1-2 hours. You can also cover it tightly and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight if you want to make it ahead of time.
To make the filling, cook the sticky rice (aka sweet rice, glutinous rice). You can either steam it (full instructions on how to pre-cook sticky rice using a soaking and steaming method here) or follow your rice cooker’s instructions if it has a special setting for sticky rice.
Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat, and add the reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms and shallots. Stir-fry for a few minutes, until the shallots are translucent. Add the scallions, shaoxing wine, salt, soy sauce, mushroom soy sauce (or regular dark soy sauce), five-spice powder, sesame oil, and water.
Cook for another minute. Stir in the cooked rice and peas. Turn off the heat.
Divide the dough into four pieces. Working one piece at a time (cover the rest of the dough with a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out), roll the dough into a long rope and cut it into small pieces about the size of an acorn. This method is similar to the one we used for dumpling wrappers.
To assemble the shaomai, first prepare the steamer, lining it with a layer of damp cheese cloth, or by brushing it with oil to prevent sticking.
Dust a clean surface with flour and using a tapered edge or French rolling pin, roll out each piece of dough into a small circle about 3.5 inches in diameter. No worries if it’s not perfect. In this case, uneven edges are encouraged. They’ll give you a nice ruffled edge when assembled.
Place a bit of the sticky rice mixture in the middle, and squeeze the wrapper around it to form the shape you want.
Place your mushroom shumai or shaomai in the steamer about an inch apart. See our post on how to set up a steamer if you’re not familiar with steaming foods in Chinese cooking.
Steam the shaomai for about 5 minutes.
Serve your mushroom shumai immediately with the dipping sauce of your choice!
Check out our homemade chili oil recipe which go great with these mushroom shumai!
Sticky Rice Mushroom Shumai w/ Homemade Wrappers (Vegan)
Ingredients
For the wrappers:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for dusting)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup boiling water
For the filling:
- 2 cups uncooked sticky rice (aka sweet rice, glutinous rice)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 15 dried shiitake mushrooms (cleaned, soaked in warm water until softened, and diced)
- 2 shallots (minced)
- 2 scallions (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon mushroom soy sauce (dark soy sauce)
- 1/8 teaspoon five-spice powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 3/4 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Start by making the dough. Mix the flour, salt and boiling water together in a mixing bowl, handle with care and knead until you get a smooth dough. Put in a bowl covered with a damp towel, and let the dough rest for 1-2 hours. You can also cover it tightly and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight if you want to make it ahead of time.
- To make the filling, cook the sticky rice. You can either steam it (full instructions on how to pre-cook sticky rice using a soaking and steaming method here) or follow your rice cooker's instructions if it has a special setting for sticky rice. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat, and add the mushrooms and shallots. Stir-fry for a few minutes, until the shallots are translucent. Add the scallions, shaoxing wine, salt, soy sauces, five spice powder, sesame oil, and water. Cook for another minute. Stir in the cooked rice and peas. Turn off the heat.
- Divide the dough into four pieces. Working one piece at a time (cover the rest of the dough with a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out), roll the dough into a long rope and cut it into small pieces about the size of an acorn. This method is similar to the one we used for dumpling wrappers.
- To assemble the shumai, first prepare the steamer, lining it with a layer of damp cheese cloth, or by brushing it with oil to prevent sticking.
- Dust a clean surface with flour and roll out each piece of dough into a small circle about 3.5 inches in diameter. No worries if it’s not perfect. In this case, uneven edges are encouraged. They’ll give you a nice ruffled edge when assembled.
- Place a bit of the sticky rice mixture in the middle, and squeeze the wrapper around it to form the shape you want. Place them in the steamer about an inch apart.
- Steam the shumai for about 5 minutes and serve immediately with the dipping sauce of your choice!
I’m looking forward to making these. Is the wrapper dough suitable for other types of dumplings? Can the dough be frozen? Thank you for all of the wonderful recipes!
Looks good – will be the first recipe I try when I get back home from college. Are we using high-gluten flour (for dumplings) or regular all-purpose flour, and do we need to let the rice sit out for a day after cooking? I have a rice cooker that can make the rice, but do I add it to the wok after done or do I let it sit out for a day? Thanks again for your great recipes!
Hi Teddy, you can use all purpose flour for the wrappers. As for the cooked rice, you don’t want to let it sit out for a day, as glutinous rice will turn hard once cold.
I made this recipe today. It took me hours! I ended up with 28 shumai. They tasted ok but I don’t think I will make again as it just took wayyyy tooo long.
Hi Dee, to make your effort more worthwhile, freeze a large batch like you’d do with dumplings/wontons, then steam a serving or two whenever you want :-)