Dumpling Hotpot

Gyōza Nabe

The key to this quick and satisfying hotpot dinner is your favorite fresh or frozen dumplings. Throw together a delicious savory broth from only four ingredients, chop a few veggies of choice, and voila! Dinner that draws people in like an inviting campfireand feels special even though it only took twenty minutes from fridge to table.

Dumpling Hotpot

Serves 4

For the broth (this fills a family-size pot, and can be cut in half for a smaller one:

6 cups (1.5 liters) chicken broth

1/2 cup (120ml) soy sauce

1/2 cup (120ml) mirin

1/2 cup (120ml) sake

What to cook in the hotpot:

20-25 fresh or frozen potstickers, gyōza or other Asian dumplings (5-6 per person)

2 carrots

2-3 leeks

12-16 shiitake mushrooms

Spinach leaves (small salad bowl full of uncooked leaves per person)

Mix broth ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer on the stove while you chop the vegetables into bite-sized pieces and sort them into bowls.

Here’s the way Japanese cooks would chop these veggies, but feel free to do it your way. The key is to keep them thin/small enough that it doesn’t take forever for them to cook at the table.

I usually give each person their own dumplings and a small bowl of spinach leaves, which they can cook at their own pace, with extra on the table in case they’re still hungry.

If you’re serving this as a cook-at-table hotpot, move the simmering broth to the tabletop burner and remove the lid, then add half of each of the veggies to begin cooking. Everyone can cook their own dumplings (takes about five minutes if they’re frozen, three if they’re fresh) and swish their spinach around until it’s cooked (which happens really fast).