These vegan koi goldfish dumplings are gorgeous and always a conversation starter!
It is so important for Chinese during Lunar New Year to have something that represents fish. Fish (鱼 yú) is the same sound as excess (余 yú). And this idea is to always have some fish on the table over LNY so you will 年年有余 (nián nián yǒu yú), or have lots of excess in the coming year.
Being vegan, it’s obviously rather difficult to have a lot of fish dishes unless you want to indulge in mock meat. Luckily, we can be a little creative and make koi goldfish dumplings!
As always with my dumpling posts, this is not really a recipe as much as a wrapping tutorial. You need to make your own dumpling skin for this recipe. To colour the dumplings red, I used 红曲粉 (hóng qū fěn) or red yeast powder. For the yellow, I used turmeric powder. You can also use beet and pumpkin. For more about natural food colouring, check out this guide from food52.
I absolutely enjoyed making these dumplings. Crafting something so beautiful out of flour and water is great therapy. These dumplings are so adorable that my daughter refused to eat them, although the adults had no problem at all 😀