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This veggie bao recipe makes for a tasty and fun appetiser. Vegan recipe. Jump to Recipe
Bao or Baozi are a type of steamed, filled buns. they can be filled with meat or veggie filling and eaten just like that! The Tibetan equivalent of Bao is Momo, which is more like dumpling. I tried Bao with veggie filling and they turned out really fluffy and yummy! check out other varieties here Wow Bao.
I used to go to Wow Bao in Water tower in Chicago all the time. I would hit the water tower and pick up a variety of Baos and potstickers and head for my shopping in the Water Tower or Michigan Ave!. I miss Chicago!! I used to live 2 blocks from michigan Ave and 4 blocks from Lake Michigan!! Those were the days when I would strut my stuff in heels all day, go shop, or bar hop, or sit by the lake!!
Newer recipe with more pictures for Bao (filled with teriyaki chickpeas) here.
Circles of dough with filling in the center.
Buns on steamer plate, ready to rise.
15 minutes later, rising nicely and getting puffy!
Steamed and ready to pop!
Veggie Bao(Chinese steamed buns)
This veggie bao recipe makes for a tasty and fun appetiser. Vegan recipe
Ingredients
Bun:
- 2.5 cups all purpose flour
- 2/3 cup warm water
- 6 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons quick rise or active yeast, quick rise works better
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil for dough
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil for greasing
Filling:
- 2 cups asian vegetables, chopped carrots, water chestnuts, broccoli, peas
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 1/2 green bell pepper chopped
- 1 serano pepper
- 1 inch ginger grated
- 2 tablespoons stir-fry sauce or hoisin or sweet and sour sauce
- 1 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons oil
Instructions
Filling:
- In a wok, heat the oil and add chopped onion and serano pepper to it.
- Cook onion on high heat for 5 minutes.
- Add green bell pepper and ginger and keep stirring. Cook on high heat for 3 minutes.
- Add the asian vegetables and cook on high heat for 5 minutes. Stir intermittently. I used frozen Asian veggies, so I microwaved them to get them to almost room temperature before adding them to the wok.
- Add in the stir fry sauce and sugar and keep stirring.
- Cook on high heat for another 2 minutes with constant stirring.
- Take off heat and let cool.
Buns:
- Warm the water to about a 110 degrees F(warm to touch) and add yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar to it. Mix well and let sit for 10 minutes or until frothy.
- Add in the rest of the sugar, oil and 1 cup flour and mix well.
- Add 1 cup flour at a time and knead into a soft dough.
- Knead for 5 minutes until smooth.
- Place dough in a well oiled and covered container for an hour or until doubled.
- Knead dough on a well floured surface and divide into small balls. I ended up with 10 balls.
- Roll each ball to form a rough circle with thick middle and thin edges.
- Drop some filling in the middle and gather the dough on top to enclose the filling and pinch the edges close.
- Place the buns on a well oiled steamer plate or bamboo steamer lined with parchment paper. I used an idli steamer, used to steam indian rice dumplings.
- Let buns rise for 10-15 minutes.
- Steam buns in boiling water for 10-12 minutes.
- Serve warm !
Notes
Variation for the filling sauce: use some soy sauce, agave syrup and orange zest! Made these with different veggies, broccoli, zucchini, peas, garlicy spinach and what not!
Nutritional values are based on one serving
Nutrition
Calories: 196kcal, Carbohydrates: 36g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 3g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Sodium: 77mg, Potassium: 193mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 4g, Vitamin A: 2470IU, Vitamin C: 16.6mg, Calcium: 19mg, Iron: 2.1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you make this recipe? Rate and comment below!
This is great. I live in Chicago & love the Veggie Edmame Boa @WowBao. Can’t wait to try these :-). Thank you for posting the recipe.
Thanks for visiting Margaret.. Yes, please do keep dropping by and let me know if you like any of the stuff i am trying out!
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Margaret
https://howtomakecompost.info
These look easy and delicious.
Thank you Sara, Mimi and Sally for dropping by! Yes these are definitely an easier and tastier alternative to potstickers! I am going to get a Bamboo Steamer this weekend and make more variations!!
I have been craving these for 30 years!
I used to devour those during college in Sao Paulo (Brazil) – never had them again….
I will have to make them soon!
thanks for blogging this!
your potstickers look delicious!
I’ve always been a little hesitant to make potstickers because of the shaping, but I’m 100% sure I could handle these. Very interesting dish!
–Nick/imafoodblog.com
thanks Parita! The idli stand worked out fine! The only problem was I could only steam one plate at a time! But 10 minutes is not too long!
Wow this is new to me, i never knew we could make it in idli stand, nice one!