Momos! Who doesn’t like these pretty little steamed snacks? Stuffed with greens, veggies or meat, dipped in some sweet or spicy sauce, it is a perfect accompaniment with a bottle of beer 
I know what you are thinking. I know that just the thought of making momos itself is tiring. All the steps sound complicated. But trust me; it’s far simpler than you think it is. Sure it takes more than 10 minutes to make but it’s totally worth the effort. Homemade steamed momos are light, delicate and taste delicious right out of the steamer.
I have used a cabbage, carrot and radish stuffing in my version but feel free to try different stuffings. Chicken, beef, pork, tofu or egg are all very tasty. Momos are healthy as it has lots of vegetables and is steamed, requires very little or no oil.
A friend asked me if I have a good momo recipe so here it goes… Try this recipe and be amazed that you were actually intimidated by something so simple!
Enjoy this documentary about two Tibetan refugees living in North India and their daily routine.
Vegetables for the stuffing
Finely choped vegetables
Flour, salt and baking powder
Knead well
Knead well
Sauté vegetables
wrappers for the momos
wrappers for the momos
Stuffing the momos
Hot Momos!
[typography font="Cantarell" size="24" size_format="px" color="#b36f98"]Ingredients:[/typography]
For Dough
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
For the filling
- ½ head of medium sized Cabbage
- 3-4 medium Carrots
- 1 Radish
- Ginger garlic paste
- Soy sauce
- Vinegar
First mix all the dry ingredients and kneed well with enough water. Make a soft (not sticky) dough. Keep it covered with a wet cloth and let it rest for an hour.
For the filling: Finely chop the vegetables. I use my ‘Morphy Richard’ hand blender/chopper which only takes a second to chop a big pile of vegetables. I don’t know how I ever cooked without one of these! Seriously!
Heat oil in a pan; add some ginger garlic paste and the vegetables. Sauté for 2 minutes till it loses its rawness. Don’t cook it for too long. A little bit of ‘bite’ left is good. Season with soy sauce and vinegar and it’s ready.
Now make the wrappers for the momos. Roll out the dough into a very thin, transparent sheet. Take a cookie cutter or a simple tumbler and cut out circular 3-inch diameter wrappers. Ideally you should be dividing them into small balls and rolling them out individually into wrappers which are thick in the center and thinner around the edges. But we don’t live in an ideal world! And my (easy) way of making wrappers resulted in good momos so go ahead and do it the wrong way!
Once you have the wrappers ready, fill them with your vegetable mixture and seal the edges. Make sure you press the edges well and completely seal the stuffed dumpling. You don’t want any of the liquid to ooze out while steaming.
Arrange the dumplings in the greased steamer with space between the dumplings. Close the lid, and allow steaming until the dumplings are cooked through, about 10-15 min.
Be careful when you take the first bite of the hot momos since the juice is very, very hot, and can burn you easily.
Serve hot with some sweet chili sauce.
19 comments :
Tibetan Vegetable Momos with Coriander and Cashew Nut Pesto « Cook Eat Live Vegetarian November 4, 2011 6:19PM
[...] Serves 3 Makes about 16, Vegan. Adapted from Love Food Eat [...]
Sarah October 12, 2011 4:42AM
This looks yummy! Cant wait to try it out! bookmarked!
Natalie July 23, 2011 1:22PM
I’m so glad I found you, I was having a momo moment and you came to the rescue. Your photos are beautiful & the step by step is great. Thank you!!
Chinmayie July 23, 2011 1:26PM
Thank you Natalie! Glad I could help
Warm Speckled Butter Beans with Cauliflower | Love Food Eat July 12, 2011 8:37AM
[...] a beautiful Momo Steamer which has been one of the best gifts I have received!! Now I can make my momos in a real steamer instead of a pressure cooker! My cousin and her boyfriend who are here for a [...]
kalie May 26, 2011 5:50PM
If you want to use meat, like pork or something, do you precook it or do you think steaming would cook it enough?
Chinmayie May 26, 2011 6:24PM
Hey! It’s traditionally stuffed with yak meat or beef and the filling is not precooked. Mix the minced meat with soy sauce and other seasonings and just steam it. You might have to cook it for a little longer this way.
Katie's Somerthing Sweet May 25, 2011 7:54PM
Wow! Look soo yummy! Your blog photos make me so hungry!^^
Chinmayie May 26, 2011 4:07AM
Thank you Katie!
Kathryn May 24, 2011 8:56PM
Yum! So they’re kind of like little veggie dumplings? They look super tasty! How did you get the vegetables to be so finely chopped? Did you use a food processor? I hope so, otherwise your arm must be EXHAUSTED!
Chinmayie May 25, 2011 6:10AM
Hey Katherine… they are basically steamed vegetable dumplings, and yes they are super tasty!
Ofcourse I used a food processor. Like I mentioned in the post – I use my ‘Morphy Richard’ hand blender/chopper which only takes a second to chop a big pile of vegetables.
I am too lazy to be sitting and chopping up vegetables like that! lol
kadhyaa May 19, 2011 6:50AM
Thats a very nice step by step instructions for the preparation of momos..my hubby loves this
Chinmayie May 19, 2011 8:24AM
Thank you kadhyaa
Anutalkies May 10, 2011 12:54PM
Thanks for the momo recipe chinmayie. Your momos look delicious. I will defintely use maida when I make it this time. Sometime back I tried to make momos and I got adventurous and strayed from the recipe. I used wholewheat flour instead and the outerskin did not taste so good.
Chinmayie May 11, 2011 5:34AM
Anytime Anu! I just need excuses to try out new recipes
alefia May 8, 2011 3:43PM
mmm… IM GONNA TRY THESE!! you use white all-purpose flour for the dough??? thanks chinnu! i want lots of yummy recipes on this thing….
Chinmayie May 8, 2011 4:34PM
Yes Alefia! I used white all-purpose flour. Hope you like the momos
Sia May 8, 2011 11:20AM
I learnt this recipe fm my Nepalese friend as he cooked it for potluck party. He used little cheese with veg stuffing n it gave little gooey texture along with crunchy begs. Ur pics of gorgeous momos r tempting me to pick one right fm the screen. Gr8 one chins
Chinmayie May 8, 2011 12:50PM
I had some spinach momos in Dharamshala and i am sure cheese + spinach will be yum! My next set of momos will have to be those