Here's an easy recipe for nutrient dense, vegetarian mandu, the Korean version of dumplings! All you need for the filling is tofu, shiitake mushrooms, and kale or any other greens you like. Shall we?

What is Mandu?
Mandu, sometimes spelled mandoo, is a general term for Korean dumplings that can be filled with any- and everything from ground meat to chopped kimchi. Mandu can be any variety of shapes, and cooked in any variety of ways.
This Vegetarian Mandu recipe is filled with protein-rich crumbled tofu, ultra umami shiitake mushrooms, and superfood kale. The mandu can be steamed, boiled, pan-fried, or deep-fried, or thrown into other recipes like dduk mandu gook Korean rice cake and dumpling soup.

What is the Difference Between Mandu, Wontons, and Gyoza
Mandu, gyoza, and wontons are all types of dumplings, but they come from different culinary cuisines. Mandu 만두 are Korean, gyoza 餃子 are Japanese, and wontons 馄饨 are typically associated with Chinese cuisine.
Though they can differ in terms of the dough used as the dumpling wrapper, filling, and cooking methods, the differences are nuanced and even with one type like gyoza, there can be multiple subtypes.
How to Pronounce "Mandu"
Personally, I think "mahn-doo" is a better translation of the Korean characters, but if you pronounce "mandu" the way you read it, it might come out as "man-duh" and guess what, it's good enough that we know what you're trying to say.
By the way, I used to be super self-conscious about pronouncing ANY non-English word Spanish Korean and otherwise and that held me back a lot from learning about cultural cuisines. How stupid was that. Now I go around and do my best, learn, do my next best and keep learning. You should too.
Ingredients You Need for Vegetarian Mandu
Fresh/refrigerator ingredients:
- Firm tofu, 1 14-ounce package, drained and crumbled
- Kale or napa cabbage, 12 ounces, blanched and finely chopped
- Shiitake mushrooms, 1 cup chopped
- Green onions, ¼ cup chopped
- Garlic, 4 cloves
- Dumpling wrappers, 2 packages about 80-100 wrappers total
Dry/pantry ingredients:
- Tamari or soy sauce, 1 teaspoon
- Sea salt, 1 teaspoon
- Sesame oil, 1 teaspoon
What Type of Wrappers Do You Use for Vegetarian Mandu?
There are square and round mandu wrappers. I like the round ones because they make half-moons, but the square wrappers will make mandu triangles, which can be made into little crowns by pressing together the opposite corners.
Instructions for How to Make Vegetarian Mandu
Prepare Vegetarian Mandu Filling
Drain Tofu: Remove tofu from its container, pat dry, and place between a few layers of paper towels or clean kitchen towel. Set a heavy plate or cutting board on top to pr
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add kale and cook for about 90 seconds. Drain kale into a colander, rinse with cold water, then squeeze the kale in your hands to remove as much water as you can. Chop kale into fine pieces.
Into a large mixing bowl, crumble the pressed tofu.
Add chopped kale, chopped mushrooms, chopped green onions, 4 cloves grated garlic, 2 teaspoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sea salt, and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Mix everything together, while making sure to break up tofu. Using your hands is recommended!
Make Mandu
Place a teaspoonful of the filling mixture just slightly off center of a mandu wrapper.
Paint the edges with water. Fold the wrapper in half carefully, making sure to gently squeeze out any air bubbles, then press the edges to seal into a Vegetarian Mandu! You can get fancy and make "ruffles."
Set folded vegetarian mandu on a plate and cover with a lightly damp kitchen towel to keep the wrapper from drying out.
Cook mandu right away by steaming, boiling, pan-frying, or deep frying.
Are Mandu Healthy?
Dietary Considerations of Vegetarian Mandu
This recipe for Vegetarian Mandu as published is:
- 100% plant-based/vegan
- vegetarian
- dairy-free
- sugar-free
Vegetarian Mandu, Korean Dumplings Recipe
Ingredients
- 14 ounces pressed and finely crumbled firm tofu (usually one package)
- 12 ounces kale or napa cabbage dunked in boiling water and squeezed, it will end up about 1 cup
- 1 cup chopped shiitake mushrooms
- ¼ cup chopped green onions
- 4 cloves garlic, grated or finely minced
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 package dumpling wrappers, about 40
Instructions
Prepare Filling Ingredients
- Remove tofu from its container, pat dry, and place between a few layers of paper towels or clean kitchen towel. Set a heavy plate or cutting board on top to press out excess water for at least 30 minutes while you prep the remaining filling ingredients.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add kale and cook for about 90 seconds. Drain kale into a colander, rinse with cold water, then squeeze the kale in your hands to remove as much water as you can. Chop kale into fine pieces.
- Into a large mixing bowl, crumble the pressed tofu. Add chopped kale, chopped mushrooms, chopped green onions, 4 cloves grated garlic, 2 teaspoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sea salt, and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Mix everything together, while making sure to break up tofu. Using your hands is recommended!
Make Mandu
- Place a heaping spoonful of the filling mixture just slightly off center of a mandu wrapper. Paint the edges with water. Fold the rapper in half carefully, making sure to gently squeeze out any air bubbles, then press the edges to seal. You can get fancy and make "ruffles."
- Set folded mandu on a plate and cover with a lightly damp kitchen towel to keep the wrapper from drying out.
Cook Mandu
- Cook mandu right away by steaming, boiling, pan-frying, or deep frying.
- To freeze, place mandu on a flat plate or tray in a single layer and without touching each other, and place in freezer. Let freeze overnight. Transfer frozen mandu to airtight storage containers or zipper bags.
Food for Afterthought
Mom loooves Vegas. If it had been up to her, we would have stayed and played in Vegas through Monday. Maybe even Tuesday, if we had to make up some losses. However, I had only agreed to accompany her on this wedding trip with a stipulation. We had to return to LA at the earliest possible moment. I would have packed my bags and hopped the last plane out on Saturday night immediately after the wedding. Unfortunately, Mom didn't want us to be preoccupied with travel during the wedding reception.
I conceded, but only after my highly audible sighs, grimaces, and horrible pouting facial expressions made it absolutely clear that I was not happy. We were on the first flight out of McCarran on Sunday morning at 9 am. There were two other flights before that, but they had stops in Phoenix??? Now that is some brilliant flight planning. Who gets to LA from Vegas by going backward via Phoenix?!
(Yes, yes, I know about the hub-and-spoke system, but this is my moment of hyperbolic venting therapy.)
Out of the Gate
For a 9 am flight, you have to be check in an hour before - that's 8 am. In any other spatially and temporally parallel travel universe, that means you can arrive at the airport about 15 minutes before, give or take a few minutes for potential man-handling by security.
However, this is the 21st century at McCarran International Airport, so you have to arrive an additional hour before because 1) you are doing the steeplechase through the terminal, dodging huge crowds of over-eager Sunday-through-Wednesday-is-cheaper Arrivals, hurdling over bags that are most certainly out of their owners' possession, and doing giant slalom around alternating See's Candies carts and slot machines; 2) filthy, fraying tarpaulin suspiciously draped over precarious scaffolding has narrowed the concourse to the width of an artery on a keto diet because McCarran is trying to improve the airport experience, so "please excuse our dust"; and 3) "regional airline" is to airlines what Drew Lachey is to celebrity - a B-list perpetrator - so their gates are so far at the other end of the terminal that by the time we've walked there, I was sure we had actually crossed the state line.
Security
The narrowest bottleneck, however, was at the security gate. Everyone was required to remove all loose clothing as well as their shoes, no matter what type of shoes. Every single person had to walk through the metal detector in bare feet. Thank God I was wearing socks. It created a huge mass of people bending or kneeling over, kind of like the doorway to a Korean person's house that's hosting a Friday night Bible study dinner.
A woman with crimped hair refused to remove her shoes. She started screaming at the guard that she was from Orange County. And that is relevant, how? I don't know but it just is. She was severely retarding flow of people through the gates, but I didn't mind because I was thoroughly amused by her claim. Oh! Orange County! The OC. Well, step right this way and we'll have your personal cavalcade escort you, Ms. '80s Flashdance, carrying an Esprit backpack purse.
So, none of that has to do directly with the airline, but it made for an anxious Sunday early-morning with a mild hosted-bar hangover. And it sure made our direct interaction all the better!
Delay De-lie
We checked in. We sat down next to a very lovey-dovey, suspiciously married couple. Tao the night before? Maybe Green Valley Ranch. Anyway, I watched my Mom with amazement as she pulled from her purse a couple of oranges and a tiny plastic bag of dduk (Korean rice cakes) that she had brought from home the day before. Breakfast, she told me, since we wouldn't have time in the morning with such an early flight. Amazing.
About one minute before the quoted boarding time, the caffeinated gate attendant's voice came over the PA system and happily announced that our flight would be delayed. Our plane had not yet left Denver. Denver?! If it hadn't left Denver, didn't that mean they knew about it at least two hours ago?! To make matters worse, we wouldn't leave Las Vegas for a couple of hours, either, until the plane arrived. Then I swear I heard her giggle over the PA. I was mad. Anger leads to brilliance. I went to the gate agent and told her to switch our flights now, right now! To the next flight our of Vegas for any airport in LA. She put us on a flight to Orange County (okay, that was kind of funny), boarding in 15 minutes.
Plane Sight
We made phone calls. We left messages, and arranged for a ride from John Wayne back to our originating airport so we could pick up our car in long-term parking. And then...because I was standing next to the podium, I heard one of the gate attendants on the phone say that they had found the plane. They "found" the plane? Was it lost? I didn't know you could lose a 10,000 ton tube of metal with wings on it. Wasn't the plane in Denver!??! No, they thought it was Denver because they didn't see it outside, but haha! It was actually on the other side of the ramp and they just didn't see it.
OhmahGodtheydidn'tseetheplanesotheythoughtitwasinDenver *breathe* don'ttheyhaveCBradiosorsomethinglikethattotelleachother!??!?
My confidence in the skills and abilities of the airline's employees just dropped at three Gs. Was I really going to be entrusting my life with their "pilots?" I had to, otherwise I'd be trapped in the desert forever. We switched our flight back just so we'd end up in the same airport we started. Then made our way down the ramp onto the plane that they thought they had "lost."
Size Matters
Now here is where it gets exciting, and that's only if exciting means the same thing as f--king terrifying. Back in November when I travelled to Chicago, I specifically requested to book a flight on the largest plane available because I figured, just like luxury automobiles, the larger and heavier the vehicle, the smoother the ride. It's sort of true, unless, of course, you happen to crash.
Well, our plane was tiny. You know how regional airlines fly those 737s, which are pretty small, but they're still larger than a Greyhound? This was less than half that size. It felt like a very large Suburban with wings. I was nervous, but Mom told me not to worry so much, I'll get wrinkles. Too late. Give me the La Prairie. I noticed that there was one flight attendant with a very bad perm standing near the rear of the plane. Where was the rest of "her crew?" Apparently teeny-ass planes only need one flight attendant, and one pilot. One pilot! There's a reason Maverick doesn't fly without Goose, you know. I wanted to get up, de-plane, and take up permanent residence in Sin City.
Fright Time
The plane was less than half-full, which means there were about eight people on the whole flight, excluding Captain Solo and our stewardess (she had permed hair, so I'm allowed to call her that), and including two couples, each in matching football jerseys of opposing teams and heavily laden with 10 karat gold accessories. Mom and I were seated in the last row, but since half the seats were empty, I asked if we could move to the front. You know, because if we take a nose-dive and crash into the Joshua Tree National Forest, I wanted time to go in and strangle the pilot for killing me.
She said no, and in her most official airline voice, she said that it would "throw off the aircraft's weight balance."
Excuse me HWHHHHAT?!
Frying the Friendly Skies
Did that mean that if, while we were in flight, someone in the front of the plane accidentally got up from his seat and walked to the back of the plane to go to the bathroom, someone from the back of the plane would have to simultaneously get up, and dance step for step up the very narrow aisle to maintain the balance, otherwise we'd all go spiraling downward in a plume of un-weighted, un-balanced smoke and fire?!?! I buckled my seatbelt, pulled the strap low and snug across my hips and had my Mom's left hand in a sweaty death-grip.
It was the longest 38 minutes of my life. I felt every bump in the atmosphere. Every dip. Every bank and roll. And every rush of air that shot up the side of the mountains that Captain Maverick thought would be fun(ny) to fly through. I was queasy, hyper-ventilating, sometimes on purpose to make myself pass out.
Unfortunately, I didn't pass out. I didn't speak for fear that my breath would upset the cabin pressure and that my voice might throw off the aircraft's sound balance. I'm sure that over the course of the flight my face had turned every shade of white and green and I had converted to at least four different religions just so I could pray to any god that would hear me. On the final approach, our plane was wobbling. Someone was throwing off our weight-balance.
We finally bounced onto the runway. I made a silent, solemn promise to myself that I would never ever ever never not in one bazillion years get on a plane again. Never. I couldn't formulate words in the car on the way home. Funny, my Mom had slept through the whole flight and said it was great.
Done and Done-r
When we got home, it was still early since the airline luckily found the G-dd--n plane for that first flight out. Mom asked me if I wanted mandu for lunch. I said no and went to go pass out in post-traumatic shock on my parents' couch.
Well, now that I've gotten all that off my chest, I feel much better. Let's talk about mandoo, which is sometimes Romanized as "mandu," but which I find completely inaccurate because someone might say it as "man-duh." Mandu are the Korean version of what is popularly known as a "dumpling," also as "gyoza" in Japan, "won ton" in China, and "f--kin' tasty" in The Delicious Life.
When we were little, Mom always made the mahn-doo filling from raw ingredients, counting on its fully cooking during the deep-drying or steaming process. However, I have decided that cooking the meat and vegetables before filling the mahn-doo wrappers not only ensures that the filling will, indeed be fully cooked, but also renders fat from the ground beef, a health-conscious effort that gets completely negated when those babies dive head-first into the deep end of a pool of bubbling grease.
Normally, when you make mahn-doo at home, you want to take the time and energy to make several hundred at once, because they freeze, maintain their shape, and can be cooked straight from the freezer. However, because my freezer is reserved for the storage of other important things like vodka, I just make mandoo as I need them. The measurements for the filling should be enough for one package of mahn-doo wrappers.
Sam says
I am going to take off where you leave with vegas :)
wait to you see the pictures of our pimped up hotel room upgrade.
Anonymous says
Beautiful photo!
FooDcrazEE says
hm....can we have the recipe ?
santos. says
so what you're saying is that show on abc is actually about a bunch of people lost somewhere on the wrong side of mccarran airport? :)
another fun thing about driving to vegas: scandia amusement park. the rollercoaster there is not unlike the plane you took--everyone is distributed in the car by weight. it was seriously one of the most terrifying experiences i've ever had, second only to a flight i took to the big island once where they had to weigh everyone who got on board.
beautiful photos, btw!
santos. says
so what you're saying is that show on abc is actually about a bunch of people lost somewhere on the wrong side of mccarran airport? :)
another fun thing about driving to vegas: scandia amusement park. the rollercoaster there is not unlike the plane you took--everyone is distributed in the car by weight. it was seriously one of the most terrifying experiences i've ever had, second only to a flight i took to the big island once where they had to weigh everyone who got on board.
beautiful photos, btw!
sarah says
sam: which hotel? i can't wait to see and read!
anonymous: thank you!
foodcrazee: yeap, recipe coming - i just got lazy for a moment.
santos: are you talking about the show lost? LOL! i have to ask because i have never seen it - among many other primetime shows that normal people watch (csi? american idol? desperate housewives? none of them)
um, you said "fun." LOL! there must be some connection between roller coasters and airplanes in my brain because i never ride roller coasters, either. well, except space mountain at disney land once because someone told me it wasn't a roller coaster.
s'kat says
well, except space mountain at disney land once because someone told me it wasn't a roller coaster.
Hmph. They played that same dirty trick on me.
david hong says
Great picture of that mandoo. Shin Peking on Olympic just west of Western makes a mean yaki mandoo.
david hong says
Great picture of that mandoo. Shin Peking on Olympic just west of Western makes a mean yaki mandoo.
sarah says
s'kat: lol! i think actually, they said it was like a "fun house." FUN HOUSE indeed. the funny thing is, i don't mind other types of thrill rides, like that viking ship thing, or anything that spins around in circles. i just don't like roller coasters.
david: hm, i don't think i've ever had them there!
Catherine says
HAhahahahaha...HAHAhahhaaa!
OMG, the horror of having to fly America West.
Delta's not all that either. That's how we flew to Maryland and lemme tell you, a snack pack containing "smoked gouda cheese", a bag of nasty orange flavored Craisins, along with other processed, complex carb items from Nabisco's finest DOES NOT, i repeat, DOES NOT constitute breakfast, especially not at 9 am.
Anyway, I try to avoid America West and Delta if possible.
jackt says
mmmm yum guun mahn-doo. when in doubt, deep fry! =)
santos. says
space mountain nearly killed me and my cousin. of course, it didn't help that we forgot to pull down the safety bar, and the inattentive south bay high school student they hired as an attendant didn't even bother to check. luckily, we looked at the thing as we climbed the first slope and said to each other, "shouldn't that thing be down?" and secured it just as we swooped through. we decided to go in the middle of the day because we heard that the ride picks up speed (snort); in fact, it was so fast that everyone in our set of cars was pushed down and nearly out from the g-force. we both ended up with the safety bar wrapped around our elbows to keep from being sucked out the sides. when the ride was over, we both just looked at each other and said, "****". everybody else was dead quiet, even the kid who was crying buckets behind us. the woman in front of us lost a bag full of souvenirs; although, that might've been a euphemism my cousin made up for 'crapped in her pants'--i was too in shock to comprehend properly.
that, of course, was the last time i was ever in a not-a-rollercoaster.
Hiro says
You have a great food blog. Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm a fellow LA food blogger who just so happens to be Korean as well.
Please feel free to check out my site:
westlafoodblog.blogspot.com
onetomato says
hilarious as ususal. sorry to laugh at your suffering...do you ever watch that show "airline?" you should've been on it.
Anonymous says
You should talk about food in this blog. That would be cool!
sarah says
cat: delta's quality must have gone down because i used to fly delta all the time from cincinnati to la and back and i never had a problem! actually, now that i think about, i don't think there is a single airline that's awesome. maybe virgin? i've never flown.
jackt: :)
santos: OMG! they didn't even check?!?! that is SCARY. i would have sued mickey mouse's butt for injuries. LOL!
hiro: thanks! and of course, west la is my 'hood so we're probably checkin' out all the same places :)
onetomato: i heard about that show. i seriously think i would have made for some good drama. ;)
anonymous: you think? hm...
nah. i don't like food very much.
thanks for the suggestion. ;)