Pumpkin and ginger pot-sticker dumplings

My 10-year-old daughter, who eats most vegetables but loathes pumpkin, declared these dumplings delicious. If that’s not enough endorsement, her meat-loving father thought they were pretty good too.

For the dumplings

500 g	Pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks (Main)
2 ½ Tbsp	Olive oil
6	Spring onions, white and green parts finely chopped (reserve some of the green for garnishing)
1 piece	Fresh ginger, 5cm, grated (Main)
2 cloves	Garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1	Red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
2 tsp	Soy sauce
30	Dumpling wrappers, thawed if frozen

For the dipping sauce

2 Tbsp	Soy sauce
2 Tbsp	Rice wine vinegar
1	Red chilli, finely chopped

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 200C. Arrange the pumpkin on an oven tray. Drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes, until just cooked. Remove from the oven and set aside.
2. While the pumpkin is cooking, set a heavy frying pan over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp of the olive oil, followed by the spring onions, ginger, garlic, chilli and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for five minutes, until soft and starting to colour. Remove from the heat and tip into a bowl. Add the soy sauce and the cooked pumpkin, mashing it roughly with a fork.
3. Set up a dumpling-making station - lay a few wrappers at a time on a board. Fill an egg cup with water and get a pastry brush ready (or use your finger!). Put a small teaspoonful of the mixture in the middle of each wrapper, brush water around the edge, then pinch and pleat to seal (it's the kind of thing that's harder to explain than it is to do). Put the filled dumplings on a plate and continue until all the wrappers and the pumpkin mixture are used up.
4. Set a large, heavy pot with a lid over medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil. When it's hot, add as many dumplings as will comfortably fit without being crowded, sitting them on their 'bottoms'. Fry gently for about three minutes, then add ⅓ cup water. Cover immediately and cook for another five minutes, until the dumplings are cooked through.
5. While the dumplings are steaming, make the dipping sauce by stirring together all the ingredients. Remove the cooked dumplings to a warmed waiting plate and repeat until the rest are done.
6. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce, sprinkled with the reserved spring onion greens.