Spicy Tomato Dumpling Salad @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I originally found the base of this recipe by Hetty Lu McKinnon in New York Times Cooking section, called dumpling tomato salad with chili crisp vinaigrette. I made it several times and we found it delicious and addictive. But then I started thinking about expanding the salad base to make this into a main meal. The original recipe can be found here, and below is my adaptation.

Ingredients

3 to 4 tomatoes

Handful of fresh basil leaves.

Fresh mozzarella balls

One avocado

Fresh greens

One small red onion, or shallot

Vegetable, or other dumplings, or potstickers

Chili crisp

Rice vinegar

Low sodium soy sauce

Cut the tomatoes into chunks, and snip the basil into ribbons. In a small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon chili crisp with 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, and one to 3 teaspoons of soy sauce. (You can add more chili crisp or soy sauce later if you think the dish needs it.) Stir the dressing into the tomato basil mixture and set this aside.

Cut the mozzarella balls and the avocado into chunks the size of the tomatoes and gently stir those into the tomato mixture.

Add a bit of oil to a frying pan and fry the frozen potstickers with the chopped shallots, until one side of the dumplings is brown. Add a quarter cup water to the pan and cover it, so the potstickers cook through. (This will only take a few minutes.)

Arrange a layer of greens on a shallow bowl or serving dish. Layer the tomato mixture over top of that and finally the dumplings and shallots. Serve warm.

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series including USA Today bestselling and Florida book award winning A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS. You can order that wherever books are sold. 

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