Chicken Basil and Spinach Dumplings

I wanted to make healthier dumplings. So I select ingredients that are healthier for my filling. I included lots of oats and spinach, which very good for the heart. There's also a good amount of basil, garlic and ginger. Here's the ingredients for chicken basil and spinach dumplings. For more information on dumplings, please check my dumplings page

1kg chicken, minced
1 cup of finely chopped spinach leaves (buy one big bunch of bayam(spinach) and pluck the leaves.
1 cup of oats
1/4 cup of chopped thai basil (half a bunch from HuaHo)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1/4 cup of minced garlic (one whole garlic)
1/4 cup of small red onions, chopped finely (around 5 small onions)
2 tablespoon of minced ginger (one thumbs worth)
2 teaspoons sesame seed oil
1/2 teaspoon of black vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of honey

Mix ingredients well and use as filling to wrap your dumplings or wontons.

You can steam or add the dumplings to your soup noodles. Or do what I like, pan fry + steam.


First, heat up a non-stick frying pan, and rub a little bit of sesame seed oil on the surface. Then fill the pan with the dumplings, let them pan fry for about 2 minutes on medium heat, then add about 1/4 cup of hot water (or chicken soup if you want to add more flavour) to the frying pan and cover almost immediately with a lid, then lower the heat to low flame. After 3-5 minutes, open the lid and your Gyozas will be ready to eat. Remove the pan from heat, and scoop the dumplings off gently.



As you can see, the bottom bits are lightly seared while the top bits looks steamed. If you prefer both sides to be brown, you can turn them around to sear them again. Since I got some leftover cream corn soup and chicken soup, I decided to make some chinese style spaghetti.



I sliced some straw and abalone mushrooms, chopped some garlic and ginger. After that, I stir fried the garlic and ginger till fragrant. Then I add in some chicken soup, about 1 cup's worth and kept stir frying till more than half the liquid has evaporated, then I add in 2 cups of the corn soup, bit by bit, until it has thickened a bit. Add in the chopped mushrooms, a tablespoon of oyster sauce and grounded some black pepper.



I decided to use wholemeal spaghetti, it's already cooked in salt water and ready to be tossed with the sauce.


There you go. Mushroom and cream corn sauce spaghetti.




This is my breakfast after the controversial defeat of Arsenal in the Champions League. Got me into a mood for cooking, to heal the pain. Of course, I did not finish the whole plate! lol



Add a little bit of Mulberry Vinegar into your mug of warm water and you will get a healthy morning drink as well :)