dumpling leftovers bento

if you've ever bought hot dog materials in an american supermarket, you might have noticed that buns and wieners always come in uneven numbers. well, not to say even versus odd, but you get something like 8 buns and 10 wieners. but it's been a very long while since i've even eaten a single hot dog so maybe things have changed for the better. anyway my point was that homemade dumplings are much like that. i've never seen just the right amount of filling made for the perfect number of wrappers. if you have extra wrappers, you can simply freeze them. but what do you do with leftover filling...?

freeze it?
hmm, might be too moist to become filling again. though i might try it sometime.

toss it?
do you think i'm made of money?!

...make it into a patty to put into your work lunch?
bingo.

to make a vegan filling like mine (tofu + shiitake + spring onions + mung bean sprouts) stick together as a patty, you'll either need bread crumbs, flour, or else you gotta un-vegan it. in my laziness, i just added an egg. it went well with my salad and i still felt somewhat virtuous. but maybe next time i'll just dunk it in panko and fry the hell out of it. (;