🥙 LUNCH
Xiaolongbao
Delicate steamed dumplings with a thin pleated skin and a burst of hot pork soup inside, a Shanghai treasure.
Chinese · advanced · serves 4
prep 60 min · cook 15 min
~590 cal · 40g protein · 62g carbs · 18g fat · 2g fiber · 1g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Xiaolongbao, little basket buns, are the celebrated soup dumplings of Shanghai and the surrounding Jiangnan region, an object of genuine devotion and endless debate over whose are best. Delicate and translucent, they are a triumph of technique.
The secret is the soup within. Cubes of pork aspic, a jelly made from rich broth, are folded into the pork filling; as the dumplings steam, the aspic melts into a mouthful of hot soup trapped inside the thin, pleated skin. Eaten with care, one lifts a dumpling by its topknot, rests it on a spoon, nips the skin to release the steam, sips, and then eats it with black vinegar and ginger.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, egg- and nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup warm water, plus a splash as needed
- a pinch salt
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 1/2 cups rich broth, set with gelatin into aspic
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 2 scallion, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wineHard to find? dry (fino) sherry - the closest thing there is, and it disappears into the dish; buy dry sherry from the wine aisle rather than the salted bottle sold as cooking sherry. What will not work is rice vinegar, which is an acid where Shaoxing is a wine, and turns the dish sour
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- black vinegar, to serve
Instructions
- 1Chill the broth with gelatin until set to a firm aspic, then chop it small.
- 2Mix the pork with the ginger, scallion, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, white pepper, sesame oil, and the chopped aspic, then chill.✎ Chef’s noteKeep the filling cold so the aspic stays solid while you wrap. Once it warms, it turns to liquid and makes sealing impossible.
- 3Make the dough: mix the flour and salt with the warm water, adding it a little at a time, and knead 10 to 15 minutes until very smooth and soft. Cover and rest 30 minutes.
- 4Roll the dough into a log and cut it into small pieces of about 10 g. Roll each into a thin circle, thicker in the centre, and pleat tightly around the filling into a topknot.
- 5Steam over high heat for about 8 minutes and serve at once with ginger and black vinegar.
Shanghai dumpling tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Shanghai. Hairy crab is a season more than a dish. The Chinese mitten crab, most associated with Yangcheng Lake, is steamed whole through the autumn and picked over slowly with vinegar and ginger. Xiaolongbao come from Nanxiang in Jiading on the city's edge, where they are still called xiaolong mantou.
🗺️
China. China holds eight great regional cuisines within one border, the fire of Sichuan, the delicacy of Cantonese dim sum, the wheat noodles of the north, and more. Techniques like stir-frying, steaming, and braising, plus soy, ginger, and rice wine, unify an endlessly diverse table.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Steamer.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a China meal
SuanmeitangDrink
Nian Gao (New Year Rice Cake)Dessert
Hongshao Rou (Red-Braised Pork)Dinner
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Xiaolongbao?
Delicate steamed dumplings with a thin pleated skin and a burst of hot pork soup inside, a Shanghai treasure.
Where does Xiaolongbao come from?
Xiaolongbao is a Chinese dish from Shanghai, China.
Can Xiaolongbao be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Xiaolongbao recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Xiaolongbao safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Xiaolongbao take to make?
About 75 minutes total (60 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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