Don’t be afraid of getting fat with vegetarian rice dumplings! Red quinoa adds health benefits to rice dumplings

The Dragon Boat Festival holiday is underway. In addition to the traditional customs of dragon boat racing, eating rice dumplings and hanging calamus, people should also be careful about eating too many rice dumplings as they may easily gain weight. Chef Yang Qijun, the champion of the vegetarian Golden Chef Competition, specially teaches people how to make healthy vegetarian rice dumplings with red yeast rice in 10 minutes.

We choose red quinoa, the currently popular "ruby of cereals", to make rice dumplings. This is because red quinoa does not have the green and astringent taste of whole grains, and is rich in dietary fiber, 7 times that of sweet potatoes. It can increase satiety and promote intestinal peristalsis. It is a healthy rice dumpling that you won’t gain weight if you eat it during the Dragon Boat Festival this year.

Chef Yang Qijun also reminded us about the cooking process. It only takes ten minutes to make "zongzi" by using a cast iron pan that has no chemical coating, is safe and non-toxic, and heats evenly and quickly. The filling is king oyster mushrooms marinated in soy sauce and then fried. It tastes as delicious as fried chicken, so you can enjoy the color, aroma and taste even if you are a vegetarian.

The method of making red yeast rice dumplings is as follows:

1. Add 1 jin of long glutinous rice to 1 handful of red quinoa and soak in cold water for 3 hours. Also soak 0.8 liang of red yeast rice for 3 hours. If soaking in hot water, it only takes half an hour.

2. Pour out the water used to soak red quinoa and long glutinous rice, drain them, and put them into a cast iron pot; add the drained red yeast rice, but keep the water used to soak the red yeast rice for later use.

3. Add equal amounts of water to glutinous rice, red quinoa and red yeast rice in a 1:1 ratio and put them into a cast iron pot and cook for 5 minutes. Then simmer for 5 minutes until cooked. If you use a regular steamer, it will take at least 25 to 30 minutes.

4. In another frying pan, add a little sesame oil, add minced ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, then add a little vegetable powder, pepper, sugar, and light soy sauce to season, then pour in the water used to soak the red yeast rice and cook until done.

5. Pour the cooked red yeast rice sauce into the glutinous rice and mix it to make it bright red.

6. Then overlap the two leaves end to end.

7. At 2/3, fold the rice leaf into a funnel shape.

8. Add 1 spoonful of rice, press it slightly, and put the fried tofu, chestnuts, shiitake mushrooms and king mushrooms as fillings. The king mushrooms marinated in soy sauce and then fried taste as delicious as fried chicken, and the rice grains have the aroma of ginger oil.

9. Add another spoonful of rice and press down the rice leaves. Use your palm to pinch the rice dumpling leaves tightly, then fold up the excess leaves, turn them, and shape them into a triangular rice dumpling shape.