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Looking for gluten-free Chinese recipes? Try this gluten-free pork dumpling recipe made with taro-infused dumpling wrappers. Enjoy a soft and moist filling prepared with minced pork, chopped mushrooms, green onions, and flavoring ingredients.

What Are Dumplings?

Chinese dumplings are pieces of dough stuffed with a juicy filling. In other variations, this dish is also known as gyoza in Japan, mandu in Korea, and buuz in Mongolia, to name a few. You can have dumplings as appetizers, snacks, or even a main meal with rice, noodles, or soup.

Traditionally, it uses a dough wrapper or dumpling skin made with plain wheat flour and water. Once you have this, you can make different types of dumplings, such as potstickers, wontons, and har gow. The wrappers are folded in 7 ways and are sealed by pinching the edges together.

After assembling the dumplings, it can be cooked by boiling, deep-frying, steaming, or air-frying. Dumplings can be eaten alone or with a savory dumpling dipping sauce, soy sauce, or sweet chili sauce. In this recipe, I boil the dumplings until they float to the top and serve it with soup using light soy sauce, salt, lard, green onion, chicken bouillon powder, and chili oil.

Why Make This Gluten-Free Dumpling Recipe?

Traditionally, dumpling wrappers are not gluten-free since wheat flour or all-purpose flour contains gluten. So, if you are following a gluten-free diet or have gluten sensitivities, dumplings in restaurants or takeouts won’t be a good option for you. That is why I created this recipe to make gluten-free wrappers made from mashed taro and sweet potato flour.

While I’ve always been a big fan of crafting traditional dumplings, I must admit that after numerous tests and preparations, my Gluten-Free Pork Dumplings have surpassed their wheat flour-wrapped counterparts in both flavor and texture.

Don’t worry! Making the dumpling wrapper dough is simple and easy as it only requires steaming the taro and kneading it with the sweet potato flour. For the filling, you can choose any filling you want or follow my recipe filling made with minced pork, chopped mushrooms, green onions, and several seasonings.

Finding ready-made gluten-free dumpling wrappers in stores may be difficult. So, I recommend making homemade gluten-free dumpling wrappers instead. It is a better option because I use natural and fresh ingredients without harmful chemicals or preservatives.

What To Know About Taro

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a root vegetable of the plant family of Araceae that is commonly used in Asian cuisines. You can use it to make desserts like Taro Mochi, Taro Bubble Milk Tea, and Taro Cake. It can be made into snacks or desserts, such as Taro Bun, Taro Chips, Taro Fries, Deep-fried Sugared Taro, and Taro Sago Dessert Soup.

For something savory, a total crowd-pleaser to fill your appetite are One-Pot Taro Rice (Yam Rice), Wu Gok 芋角 (Deep-Fried Taro Dumpling Puffs), and Chinese Taro Cake. For this recipe, I incorporate taro into making the dumpling dough with sweet potato flour using a 2:1 ratio. Keep in mind taro is different from similar root vegetables like sweet potato or yam

When looking for taro in Asian supermarkets or in the Asian section of grocery stores, it should have brown-grayish skin with ring patterns like a tree bark. The inside should have a white flesh with light purple tiny dots. You will love its starchy, slightly sweet, nutty, and earthy taste.

One important thing to be aware of is that taro contains high levels of calcium oxalate, which is toxic when eaten uncooked and causes skin irritation when touched with bare hands. So, make sure to cook taro thoroughly before eating. Some types of taro will have a slimy layer that when touched can cause skin irritation, so it is best to wear kitchen gloves to avoid this.

Ingredient Tips And Alternatives

I share below a breakdown of the ingredients you need for the gluten-free dumpling wrapper, meat filling, and soup base. You can alter the ingredients according to your preferences. Follow the alternatives and suggestions I recommend for better-tasting dumplings.

Gluten-free Dumpling Wrapper

Taro: Use fresh, frozen, or canned, whichever is available to you. Steam the taro until soft enough to mash into a paste and mix with sweet potato flour. If you can’t find taro, you can swap it with other starchy vegetables like regular potato, sweet potato, or yam. However, each type may produce a different wrapper texture.
Sweet potato flour: The amount you need should follow the taro to sweet potato flour ratio (2:1 ratio) in order to create a non-sticky dough. Feel free to adjust the texture to your preference by adding more water if it’s too firm or incorporating more sweet potatoflour if it becomes sticky. Some excellent gluten-free substitutes for this are sweet potato starch, potato flour, rice flour, and tapioca flour. However, you may need to play around with the amount to produce a non-sticky dough.

Filling

Diced mushrooms: Any type of mushroom will do. Depending on the mushroom you use, the taste and texture will vary. For instance, button mushrooms are earthy and slightly nutty, while portobello mushrooms are meaty and dense. Oyster mushrooms add a hint of seafood, while shiitake mushrooms give a smoky, meaty, and umami taste. I prefer shiitake mushrooms for dumplings for their smoky and meaty buttery taste and texture. You can use fresh or dried shiitake mushrooms.
Minced pork: Use minced pork to prepare the filling faster. However, you can also opt for pork cuts and simply dice and grind them with a food processor or blender. You can swap this with other minced ingredients such as beef and seafood. If you want to have an all-veggie dumpling, use mushrooms, tofu, and soy meat.
Light soy sauce: Make it salty and umami with light soy sauce. You can swap this with other types of soy sauce and adjust the amount, such as regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce, use tamari, liquid aminos, coconut aminos, or gluten-free soy sauce.
Oyster sauce: The taste of oyster sauce is distinct, comparable to a mix of soy sauce and barbecue sauce. It is umami, salty, and sweet with a hint of caramel. You can substitute oyster sauce with hoisin sauce, teriyaki sauce, kecap manis, Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce and sugar, oyster-flavored sauce, or fish sauce if you don’t have oyster sauce.
Salt:Add salt according to taste. Use sea salt, regular table salt, or kosher salt.
Chicken bouillon powder: This ingredient is a flavor booster that adds a hint of chicken taste. You can use powder, cubes, or broth. Alternatively, pork cubes, vegetable powder, and Italian seasoning mix are excellent options that work well with the filling.
White pepper powder: I love white pepper powder for its distinct earthy and musty taste with a hint of heat. If you don’t have this, swap it with black pepper powder. However, black pepper powder imparts more heat and piney taste.
Green onion and ginger water: Make this water mixture by soaking chopped green onions and ginger in warm water. Once the water absorbs the flavors of green onions and ginger, pour it into the filling by passing through a strainer to separate the bits.
Chopped green onions: Green onions or scallions give the filling a mild sweet and oniony taste. This is a common ingredient for dumpling wrappers that enhances the overall flavor. Swap this with chives, shallots, white onions, yellow onions, or red onions if needed. You can add more chopped green onions for the soup base if desired.

Soup Base

For the soup base, I mixed light soy sauce, salt, lard, green onion, chicken bouillon powder, and chili oil. Adjust the amount according to taste.

Then, the water I use is the water from the boiled dumplings for an extra rich flavor. So, make sure not to drain the water yet when taking out the boiled dumplings from the pot of water.

Prepare These Ingredients And Kitchenware

The three kitchen tools to prepare are a steamer, mixing bowls, and cooking pot. If you don’t have a steamer, you can still steam without a steamer in 5 ways: pan with steamer rack, microwave, pan with sieve, rice cooker, and instant pot. Don’t forget to use kitchen gloves if you have sensitivities with raw taro and a potato masher or blender to mash the taro easily.

Gluten-free Dumpling Wrapper

400g of taro
Sweet potato flour (220g, in a 2:1 ratio with taro)

Filling

100g of mushrooms
250g of minced pork
2 tsp of light soy sauce
2 tsp of oyster sauce
Salt (to taste)
Chicken bouillon powder (to taste)
5 tsp of white pepper
60g of green onion and ginger water
Chopped green onions

Soup base

2 tbsp of light soy sauce
Salt (to taste)
1 tbsp of lard (swap with vegetable shortening or vegetable oil), refer to my lard-making recipe for instructions
10g of green onion
Chicken bouillon powder (to taste)
Chili oil (to taste)

Steps To Make Gluten-Free Dumplings

I divided the recipe steps according to preparing the initial ingredients, making the filling and dough, assembling the dumpling for boiling, and making the soup base. You can do the steps in a little over an hour since the mushrooms and minced pork are refrigerated for 1 hour. Follow how I did the steps by watching my Instagram or TikTok tutorial reels.

Don’t forget to share your dumpling creations by tagging me @kitchenmisadventures! If you loved this recipe, I recommend making Wu Gok 芋角 (Deep-Fried Taro Dumpling Puffs) and Homemade Ham Sui Gok 咸水角 (Fried Glutinous Rice Dumplings.

Prepare the ingredients.

Wash and steam the taro until soft enough to peel and mash for later.
Place the mushrooms in a bowl of water. I am soaking shiitake mushrooms in the refrigerator overnight.
Place the minced pork in a bowl. Refrigerate minced pork for 1 hour; this step is optional.

Make the filling.

Take out the refrigerated mushrooms and minced pork.
Mix minced pork, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, chicken bouillon powder, and white pepper.
Stir in green onion and ginger water until well absorbed.
Drain the water from the mushrooms and squeeze out as much water as you can.
Chop the mushrooms into bits and chop the green onions.
Mix the chopped mushrooms and green onions in the filling.

Make the taro dumpling dough.

Once the taro is soft, peel and mash the hot taro. You can use a potato masher or blender to mash the taro.
Mix mashed taro with sweet potato flour (2:1 ratio) to form a non-sticky dough.
Knead the dough until smooth.
Then, take a portion of the dough and cook it in boiling water for a few minutes. This step enhances the chewiness of the dough.
Incorporate the cooked dough portion back into the rest of the dough.
Knead again until you have a stretchy dough that does not break easily.

Assemble the dough wrapper and filling.

Take a portion of the kneaded dough and make a circular wrapper shaped like a small bowl. Don’t make it too thin. It should be thick enough to carry the filling without tearing.
Place about a teaspoon of filling in the center. Do not overfill the wrapper or this will cause it to break open when boiled.
Seal the edges of the wrapper by pinching them together. Make sure there are no openings left.

Cook the assembled dumplings.

Prepare a pot with water and bring to a boil.
Cook the dumplings until they float.
Once they float, add a bowl of cool water to the pot.
Stir once more and continue boiling for an additional 3 minutes.

Prepare the soup base.

In a serving bowl, mix light soy sauce, salt, lard, green onion, chicken bouillon powder, and chili oil.
Pour a few scoops of the boiled water used for boiling the dumplings into the bowl.
Gently place the cooked dumplings.
Enjoy these soft and smooth dumplings with your favorite drink and chili oil for extra flavor!

How To Make Gluten-Free Dumplings

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Prep Time 40

Cook Time 9

Course Breakfast, Soup

Cuisine Chinese

Servings

Calories 1028 kcal