These Afghan dumplings are delicious and will impress your guests. These dumplings can be made either with meat or vegetarian. I recently served these at a church coffee hour and since we are fasting, it needed to be vegetarian. The dumplings are stuffed with leeks, and the tomato topping can be made with ground beef or lamb. Here the recipe calls for Chana Dal instead of meat, but if you can’t find these you can use yellow split peas. Serving these classically, you make the dumplings, then top with the tomato sauce, and then top with a yogurt mint sauce.
Leek Dumplings – Aushak (Vegetarian Version)
These dumplings take a bit of time, but the result is well worth the effort.
Ingredients
Aushak Filling
- 3 Medium leeks, cleaned.
- 2 tsp Peanut oil or equivalent
- 8 Scallions chopped fine
- ¾ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
- 2-3 Garlic cloves minced
- ¼ cup Cilantro finely chopped
Tomato Sauce Vegetarian
- 2 Cups Chana Dal or yellow split peas
- 2 tsp EVOO or Peanut oil or equivalent
- 1 White onion diced
- 2-4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 ½ tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp Coriander ground
- 1 TBPS Turmeric
- ½ tsp Cardamom ground
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
- ½ tsp Aleppo chili ground I love aleppo chilis and believe that this adds a great addition to this dish. But the chili does ramp up the heat. So if you wish a dish that is less spicy, oimit or use ¼ tsp.
- 16 ounces Centro marzano crushed or chopped tomatoes
- 1/2-1 cup Vegetable stock Watch the dish, as it cooks it may need more liquid.
Yogurt Sauce
- 1 cup Plain homemade yogurt
- 1-3 Garlic cloves minced
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp Fresh mint leaves finely chopped
Assembly
- 1 pound Pot Sticker skins
Instructions
Aushak Filling
- Wash the leeks thoroughly. Cut the darker green leaves and discard (or save for stock). Cut the leeks longways 3 cuts, divids the leek into 6ths. Cut the root end off the leek and thinly slice.
- Add the oil to a fry pan over oderate high heat. When hot add the leeks, green onions, salt and pepper.
- When the leeks are softened add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the cilantro, mix and turn off the heat.
Tomato Sauce
- Soak the Chana Dal (or yellow split peas) for at least 2 hours.
- When the dal is softened, drain and set aside.
- In a fry pan, it can be the same one you cooked the leeks in, add the oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the onion. When fragrant add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
- Add the Dal and cook until the dal is tender.
- Add the paprika, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, salt, pepper and chilis. Cook until the spices are very fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes and the vegetable stock. Reduce it down to a very thick sauce.
- Set the sauce aside.
Yogurt Sauce
- Mix the yogurt, garlic, salt and mint.
- Taste and add more salt if needed.
Assembly
- Take one skin and place on a clean floured surface. Take ~ 1 TBPS of the filling on the skin, fold over into a half moon shape and set on a parchment covered cookie sheet.
- Once all the skins and filling are used, put a 6-8 quart pot willed with salted water over high heat. Bring to a boil.
- Boil the dumplings about 5 minutes, the cooked ones will float to the top of the water. Scoop them out and place in a colander.
- You can do one of two things with the yogurt sauce. Either place it on the serving dish, them place the dumplings on top of the yogurt sauce, them pour the tomato sauce over the top of it all. Or, you can place the dumplings on a serving dish, pour over the tomato sauce, and then pour the yogurt sauce on top of the tomato sauce.
- Serve them hot or warm.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
