It’s been a long time since I last celebrated Lunar New Year — ever since I moved to Australia.
So this year, I made mandu with Lee’s family to celebrate it the Korean way. It was so much fun making mandu together. We had a small family gathering, which felt really special.
And of course, it was delicious — Lee’s family all enjoyed it!
I hope you guys enjoy this recipe too 🙂 🥟🧧
Calorie friendly Korean Mandu 🥟 (for Lunar New Year!)🧧
Difficulty: Medium25
servings50
minutes30
minutes113
kcal8
g12
g3.5
gIngredients
Mandu Filling
• Mandu-pi (Korean wonton wrappers) 400–420g
• Minced garlic 50g
• Bean sprouts 450g
• Firm tofu 350g
• Lean pork mince (90/10) 700g
• 2 eggs (separate whites & yolks)
• Garlic chives 100g
• Soy sauce 20g
• Oyster sauce 20g
• Tuna extract 15g
• Dasida (MSG or beef stock powder) 5g
• Optional: Ground pepper🍲 Mandu Soup Broth (5–6 servings)
• 1.5L water
• Dried sardines (for stock)
• Soup soy sauce 20g
• Dasida 10g
• Extra salt or fish sauce to taste.
(Add it after cooking the mandu — the broth can become saltier once the mandu are added.)Vegetables & Garnish
• Carrot (julienned) 150g
• Spring onion 180g
• 3–4 beaten eggs
• Optional: Crushed nori (gim)
Directions
- Preparation
- Prep the Filling
Blanch tofu and bean sprouts separately. - Drain and squeeze thoroughly using a cheesecloth.
⚠️ This is important — excess moisture makes mandu difficult to shape. - Finely chop the bean sprouts.
- Wash and chop chives.
- Separate egg whites and yolks.
• Use yolks in the filling.
• Keep whites to seal the wrappers. - In a large bowl, mix:
• Pork mince
• Bean sprouts
• Chives
• Garlic
• Soy sauce
• Oyster sauce
• Tuna extract
• Dasida
• Egg yolks
Mix thoroughly. - Shape the Mandu
• If needed, roll wrappers slightly larger (not too thin).
• Add about 50g filling per mandu.
• Lightly brush egg white around the edges to seal.
• Fold and pinch tightly.
Make them pretty — Lunar New Year deserves it 😉 - Cooking
- Cook Options
🥟 Steam
Steam and enjoy as is. - 🍲 Mandu Soup
1. Bring 1.5L water to boil.
2. Add dried sardines, soup soy sauce, and Dasida.
3. Add mandu.
4. After ~4 minutes, add beaten eggs and carrot.
5. When mandu float, they’re ready.
6. Add spring onion and cook 1 more minute.
7. Top with crushed nori for extra umami.
Serve with kimchi if you like ❤️
Recipe Video
Notes
- I used a Korean brand wonton wrapper, which is about 17g per wrapper. It’s bigger and slightly heavier than Chinese dumpling wrappers, so it holds its shape better — especially since I make my mandu quite large (around 50g of filling per piece).
- You can find these at most Korean grocery stores. I used our home brand firm tofu (350g) because it’s calorie-friendly — it contains 9g of protein and 3g of fat per 100g.
- For steaming, I used a steaming sheet from an Asian market called 찜 시트 (Jjim sheet).
- I used 90% lean, 10% fat pork mince. You can use an even leaner option if you prefer.
- Tuna extract can be substituted with extra soy sauce.
- Dasida is basically MSG. You can substitute it with powdered beef or fish stock.
- If you don’t cook all the mandu at once, steam them first and then freeze them. They’ll hold their shape much better this way. If you freeze them raw, they can easily fall apart when you cook them later.