vegan bao buns

These completely vegan char siu “pork” bao buns are the meatiest, stickiest, freshest little bao buns you’ve ever tried. Say “goodbye” to bao FOMO and “hello” to char siu!

Vegan Char Siu "Pork" Bao

instant yeast

235 ml plant milk ((warmed

flour

tbsp caster sugar

60 ml vegetable oil

Hoi Sin Sauce

soy sauce

tbsp shaoxing wine

tbsp brown rice syrup/fruit syrup/maple syrup

brown sugar

garlic

tsp chinese five spice

water

110 g dehydrated soy

a cucumber ((thinly sliced))

carrot

coriander

tsp white sesame seeds

Pour the warm milk into a small bowl along with 2 tbsp of the sugar - stir together until dissolved. Sprinkle over the yeast. Whisk lightly and leave to go slightly foamy.

Place the remaining ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Knead for a minute or until you have a very sticky messy dough. Remove the dough hook and cover the bowl - leave for 10 minutes for the dough to hydrate fully. After 10 minutes return the hook to the stand mixer and knead for around 5 minutes or until you have a smooth ball of dough.

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a cold oven. Pour around 100ml boiling water into a baking tray and place at the bottom of the oven - beneath the dough. Leave until doubled in size (around 1-2 hours). While the dough is proving, prepare the Char Siu.

Once the bao dough is proved, remove the dough from the oven and push out any large air bubbles with your finger tips. Lightly flour a work surface and tip the dough out onto it. Divide the dough in half with a sharp knife then divide each half into 6. Form each piece of dough into a small ball and place on a baking tray. Cover with cling film and leave to relax for 10 minutes. While relaxing, cut out 24 squares of greaseproof paper around 3 inches in size.

Once the dough is relaxed, remove one ball from the tray and place on the floured surface, covering the rest of the balls back up. Dust the top of the ball lightly with flour and, using a rolling pin, roll out into a long oval. Place a greaseproof square on the bottom half of the oval and carefully fold over the top half. Carefully, transfer the folded bao bun onto another greaseproof square and place on a baking tray. Cover while you repeat the process with the remaining 11 balls of dough. Once all dough is prepared, turn on your steamer or place a bamboo steamer over a pan of boiling water.

Keeping the bao buns on their squares of greaseproof, place them in the steamer - allow room for the bao to expand when they cook (It’s unlikely that your steamer will fit all the buns in one go, so you’ll have to do them in batches - keep the excess buns in the fridge while the others are steaming).

To Make the Bao Buns

Place all the ingredients for the Char Siu into a medium saucepan and place over a medium heat. Bring to the boil then turn off the heat immediately. Add your dehydrated soy slices, cover, and leave to rehydrate for at least 20 minutes. Once rehydrated, use a slotted spoon to remove the soy slices from the marinade and place them on a baking tray. Place the marinade back on the stove and cook over a medium heat, siring frequently, for around 5-7 minutes or until you have a nice, thick, glossy glaze. Remove from the heat and set aside.

To Make the Char Siu

Fire up the grill/broiler to full temperature. Using a pastry brush, brush some glaze over the slices of “pork”. Place the “pork” under the grill/broiler for around 3 minutes on each side, brushing with glaze as you flip. Remove from the grill.

Once all the buns are steamed it’s time to fill them. Add a few slices of the char siu, some finely sliced carrots, around 3 slices of cucumber and a good few leaves of coriander. If you have any excess marinade, brush or drizzle some onto the char siu. Serve and enjoy!

To Finish off the Dish

An easy recipe for fluffy steamed vegan bao buns filled with sticky jackfruit. This Asian inspired vegan dish is healthy and tasty. It's an instant crowd-pleaser and the perfect meal to serve your family and friends.

Vegan Jackfruit Bao Buns

all purpose flour

9.80 fl oz water

yeast

tsp caster sugar

salt

jackfruit*

ginger

tbsp olive oil(or sesame oil)

tbsp rice vinegar

mirin

In a bowl, mix

In a bowl, mix the flour, warm water, yeast, sugar and salt together.

Knead the flour until

Knead the flour until your dough becomes smooth and easy to handle.

Place the elastic dough

Place the elastic dough in a bowl and cover with a damp towel. Allow to proof for 40 minutes or until double in size.

In the meantime, make

In the meantime, make the sticky jackfruit filling. Remove jackfruit from the can and drain.

Place the jackfruit in

Place the jackfruit in a cloth and squeeze all the water out of it. Twist and squeeze as much as you can.

In a deep frying

In a deep frying pan heat up a little olive oil. Add the ginger and the garlic cloves and fry for 2-3 minutes until fragrant.

Add the jackfruit, soy

Add the jackfruit, soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar and mirin and mix.

Cook for 5-7 minutes

Cook for 5-7 minutes until the sauce has reduced. Mix often so the jackfruit doesn't stick to the pan. Set aside in a bowl to cool.

Line a steamer basket

Line a steamer basket with parchment paper.

When the bao dough

When the bao dough has risen, remove from the bowl and place onto a lightly flowered surface.

Press on the dough

Press on the dough to remove any pockets of air. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.

Roll each piece into

Place some of the

Place some of the jackfruit in the centre of the disk and fold into a bao shape. I like mine smooth but you can make all sort of beautiful folds.

Place the assembled buns

Place the assembled buns into the steamer basket. Let them rise for 20 minutes.

Steam the buns for

Serve hot with dipping

Serve hot with dipping sauce on the side.

How to make Vegan Jackfruit Bao Buns

Soft and fluffy bao filled with shredded sweet potato, mushrooms, lemongrass, shallots, and chili. Moist on the inside and packed with flavor!

Sweet Potato Steamed Buns (Bao)

bao flour

tbsp sugar

tsp oil

dry yeast

tsp salt

tbsp oil

shallot (minced)

lemongrass

green onions

red chili ((optional, only if you like it spicy))

dry shiitakes (soaked in hot water for 10 minutes)

potato

cornstarch

tsp sugar

black pepper (or more to taste)

Add the bao flour, water, sugar, oil, dry yeast, and salt to a mixing bowl. Knead until it forms a smooth dough, about 5 minutes. Cover with a clean wet cloth and let it proof in a warm place for about 1 and 1/2 hours or until it has almost doubled in size. In the meantime, prepare the filling.

Dough

Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the minced shallot, lemongrass, garlic, green onions, and chili if using. Sauté for about 2 minutes.

Drain and finely cut the shiitakes and black mushrooms and add to the skillet. Sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add the shredded sweet potato and 2 tablespoons of water. Cook for 7-10 minutes or until the sweet potato is tender.

In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, water, cornstarch, sugar, and black pepper. Add to the skillet and stir to coat. Cook for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and let cool for about 15 minutes. Scoop out about 3 tbsp of the sweet potato filling and squeeze it into a ball using your hands (you can also use a cookie scoop to make it easier). Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining filling.

Punch the dough down and divide it into 8 balls (6 if you want larger buns). Cover with plastic film to prevent them from drying. Take one ball and flatten it into a circle of about 4-inch diameter. Place the sweet potato filling in the middle of the dough and wrap the dough around it. Check out this video to get an idea of how to wrap it. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and place your bamboo steamer over it. Depending on the size of your steamer, place 3-4 buns inside, leaving about 2 inches between each (they will rise). Steam for 17-20 minutes. Remove from heat and repeat with the remaining buns.

Enjoy warm or at room temperature! These buns will keep for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat in the steamer for 7-10 minutes.

Filling

This is a wonderful lunch! Very soft, fluffy and delicious. Like one of your fans said, the parchment paper does help for the buns not to stick when you are steaming, especially if you are using a steamer that is not bamboo.

Thanks for getting back to me so fast. I will wait until I get dry yeast to make this dish. I don't want to risk messing it up. My other question is could I use a digital glass steamer instead of a bamboo steamer? I also have a multipurpose rice cooker that I use for steaming vegetables sometimes. Would that be something I could use as well? I do not have a bamboo steamer. Thanks again,

This recipe looks wonderful. My question is can I use Quick Rise Instant Yeast instead of regular dry yeast with this recipe? If so, how much of it do I use? Thanks

Great recipe. I used regular flour and I don't know if that's the reason but the Dough was too sticky/wet. so I had to add more. Also, I used a bit more shrooms and shallot just because of personal preferences.  The color was indeed a bit off, but it still turned out amazing! Will definitely make it again :)

Thank you so much for sharing all these amazing recipes. 
Just wanted to ask which replacements you would suggest for the bao flower and the wood ear mushrooms as I can’t seem to find them anywhere around here.
Thank you again

OK, the bao flour arrived, and the day came to try making the bao.   

Since I don't normally work with wheat flour (i.e. don't do much baking), I wasn't too sure where it would all end up.

The instructions on the package were slightly different than in the recipe above, so I tried to go halfway between both.

Although the rounds I made for each bao were pretty mushy, I managed to get them filled and popped them right into the steamer.   Following what I have seen at local dim sum houses, and also recommended on the flour package, I put each bao onto a small piece of parchment paper, to keep them from sticking to the steamer.

Long story short - they turned out perfectly - I couldn't believe it!  LOL   Will also mention that I only have two left of the eight made, after the first day.   Some for friends, a lot for me, and two more to go!   Plus, I had bought several packs of the flour, so am already envisioning the next time.

Thank you!

OMG, these are so much fun to make and absolutely delicious!  Thank you for the great recipe, Thomas!  I can't wait to try other fillings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQiGJDECT4s&ab_channel=FullOfPlants

Soft and fluffy bao buns filled with shredded sweet potato, mushrooms, lemongrass, shallots, and chili. Moist on the inside and packed with flavor!

FULL RECIPE: https://fullofplants.com/sweet-potato-steamed-bao-buns/

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Top 3 vegan bao buns recipes from across the web

The most viewed vegan bao buns recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

Top Tags

Vegan Char Siu "Pork" Bao

Vegan Jackfruit Bao Buns

Sweet Potato Steamed Buns (Bao)

Top 3 vegan bao buns recipes from across the web

The most viewed vegan bao buns recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Vegan Char Siu "Pork" Bao

Vegan Jackfruit Bao Buns

Sweet Potato Steamed Buns (Bao)

The most viewed vegan bao buns recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine