Kothey Momo - Himalayan Dumplings

Kothey momo aka Himalayan dumplings are small, hand-folded dumplings filled with savory meat and/or vegetables and wrapped in a thin layer of dough. These are a cheater’s version, made with gyoza skins.

When I first saw momos as the theme for this week’s Sunday FunDay post, I had to look it up! What are they even? I quickly discovered that momos or actually properly momo (which is the singular as well as the plural in their native tongue) are the unofficial national dish of Tibet.  

According to Wikipedia, “They are one of the most popular fast food in Nepal and many other South Asian region populated with people of Nepali origin and people of hilly origin. They are also common in places with noticeable Nepalese and Tibetan diaspora, such as Assam, Delhi, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Shillong, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.”

Fillings vary from place to place and can include yak, mutton, chicken, pork, or vegetables. They are most often steamed and served with a clear soup, though some versions are pan-fried and paired with a spicy tomato chutney.

Kothey momo is one of these variations. The word “kothey” in Nepali refers to the cooking method and roughly translates to half-fried or pan-fried on one side.

The dumplings are first fried in oil until the bottoms turn golden. You then add water to the pan to steam the dumplings. They puff up dramatically (so don’t crowd the pan!) then contract when the lid is removed. Once the water evaporates, they are fried again to get the bottom crispy once more.

Kothey Momo - Himalayan Dumplings

This recipe makes about three dozen momo, depending on how you divide your filling. I have adapted it from several I found online, with special nod to NishKitchen who uses store-bought dumpling skins, which felt like permission for me to do the same. So much easier than making them yourself!

Ingredients

For the filling:

1.1 lb or 500g ground pork 

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 whole spring onions, finely chopped

1 –2 hot red chili peppers, minced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated

1 tablespoon canola or other light oil

1 big bunch cilantro (25g), hard stems removed, the rest finely chopped

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

For making the momo:

1-2 tablespoons canola or other light oil

1 package (300g - you won’t use them all) gyoza skins

For serving:

Chutney of your choice (I served these with my spicy tomato chutney.)

Method

Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for an hour (or more) before assembling your kothey momo. This allows the flavors to blend together.

Lightly wet the edge of one gyoza skin with water. Hold it on your palm and place a scant tablespoon of filling in the center. Fold it in half to form a semi-circle, then pleat and seal the edges tightly.

Heat a drizzle of oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the momo and cook without turning them until the bottoms become lightly golden.

Pour enough water into the pan to cover the dumplings halfway. 

Cover with a lid and turn the heat to medium high.

When the water has completely evaporated, uncover and let the bottoms crisp up again.

Add a little more oil to the pan and repeat until all of your momo are cooked. Serve them hot with the chutney of your choice.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing momo! Many thanks to our host Renu of Cook with Renu. Check out the links below.

• Easy Veg Momos  from Cook with Renu
• Keto Fried Cabbage Momos from Sneha's Recipe
• Kothey Momo - Himalayan Dumplings from Food Lust People Love
• Spiced Lamb Dumplings - Nepalese Momos from Karen's Kitchen Stories

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join

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Easy Lamb Shoulder Roast

Tender and flavorful, this easy lamb shoulder roast melts in your mouth! It’s simple to prepare and, after a fast start, cooks long and slow in the oven. Time making this dish is mostly hands-off. 

If you’ve been reading here a while, you know how much I adore Jamie Oliver. Since his young, baby-face days as the Naked Chef, I’ve watched his career expand as he grew up. Now with a family of his own, he has one of his son’s looking to follow in his footsteps, as he did with his own dad who ran the family pub kitchen.

While occasionally he does a fancy cheffy thing, a nod to his culinary training, most of his recipes are deliciously down-to-earth, like this one. 

Easy Lamb Shoulder Roast

If you can’t find new potatoes or young carrots, substitute regular ones, peeled and cut into chunks. This recipe is adapted from one of Jamie Oliver’s in his book, Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life, published in 2006. I’ve been making some version of it ever since.

Ingredients

1 (2.2 lb or 1 kg) half shoulder of lamb

Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 head garlic, peeled and large cloves halved

1 yellow onion, peeled and cut in thick slices

Olive oil

1 lb or 450g new potatoes

12 oz or 340g young carrots

Method

Preheat your oven as high as it goes, 450-500°F or 232-260°C.

Score the fat side of the lamb with a sharp knife. 

Rub it all over with a generous amount of fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

Wrap it in cling film and set aside while you prep the garlic and onion according to the ingredient list.

Drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom of your Dutch oven and arrange the onion slices to cover the area where the lamb will rest. Put half of the garlic on top, along with half of the leaves from your rosemary, stripped from the sprigs. 

Unwrap the lamb and lay it fat side up on the onion, garlic and rosemary. Drizzle the top of the lamb with more olive oil. Add on the balance of the garlic and stripped rosemary leaves with another little drizzle of oil.

Put the cover on the Dutch oven (or a tightly fitting piece of thick foil) and put it in the oven. Immediately turn the oven temperature down to 325°F or 163°C. 

Roast for three hours. Meanwhile, scrub the new potatoes and young carrots and toss them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Set them aside, ready to go in. 

When the three hours are up, remove the Dutch oven from the oven and take the lid off carefully, so you don’t burn yourself.

Add in the potatoes and carrots and turn them in the pan juices. Put the lid back on and roast for a further 30 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and check to see if the meat is falling off the bones yet. It should be! 

If you’d like a little more color on your lamb, baste it with the pan juices and pop it back in the oven without the lid for another 15-20 minutes or until it is colored to your satisfaction. 

Remove the lamb to a serving platter with the potatoes and carrots. 

Pan juices, along with the onion, garlic and rosemary, can be made into gravy with the addition of a little flour and stock or they can be served as is on the side. 

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 12th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter L. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the L recipes below:

• Deviled Eggs with Lemon Caper Remoulade from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Easy Lamb Shoulder Roast from Food Lust People Love
• Greek Pork Chops from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Instant Pot Spicy Moroccan Lamb and Lentil Stew from A Messy Kitchen
• Lasooni Palak from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Lemon Lavender Scones from Blogghetti
• Lentil, Sweet Pepper, Spinach, and Linguica from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Low Carb 2 Ingredient Oat Bread from Sneha’s Recipe
• No Bake Lemon Lush Dessert from Jolene’s Recipe Journal

Here are my posts for the 2026 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew

B: Baby Cos Peach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing 

C. Traditional Cullen Skink 

D. Coconut Cream Date Caramel 

E. Edamame Summer Salad 

F. Lamb Feta Mint Patties 

G. Ricotta Gnocchi à la Poêle 

H. Hazelnut Vodka 

I. Italian Sausage Stuffed Mini Peppers - this post!

J. Jägersuppe - Hunter's Soup 

K. Easy Chicken Kapama 

L. Easy Lamb Shoulder Roast - this post!

To check out the Alphabet Challenges for 2024 and 2025, click here.

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Brown Sugar Lemon Cassava Loaf #BreadBakers

Naturally gluten free, this Brown Sugar Lemon Cassava Loaf bakes up light and fluffy with a lovely crunchy sugar top. It’s great as is or even toasted.

A couple of my fellow food bloggers have introduced me through their recipes to two flours I had never used before, cassava and coconut. No one in my family needs to be gluten free but I do love experimenting with new ingredients. 

Recently I read the fascinating book, Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America and learned even more about the traditional use of cassava in cooking and baking by the indigenous tribes of the Caribbean. 

To quote the Amazon blurb: “Exemplifying how Native foodways can teach us all to connect with the natural world around us, Turtle Island features rich narrative histories and spotlights the communities producing, gathering, and cooking these foods, including remarkable stories of ingenuity and adaptation that capture the resilience of Indigenous communities.” 

It's an amazing read and extremely humbling. There’s so much I didn’t know and still need to learn about this continent, pre-arrival of foreign colonizers.

I was expecting guests for a teatime visit a couple of weeks ago so I decided to give cassava flour a spin. They took the leftovers home with them, one saying that she planned to eat her slices with coffee for breakfast, that’s how well it went over! 

Brown Sugar Lemon Cassava Loaf

Both my husband and I thought the loaf could have been a little sweeter but, as I said, the guests liked it just as it was. If you have a bit of a sweet tooth, use the whole ¾ cup or 150g of brown sugar in the list. Next time I bake this, I plan to. 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups or 180g cassava flour

½ – ¾ cup or 100-150g dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Zest 1 lemon (save lemon for juicing)

3 eggs, room temperature

½ cup or 120ml canola or other light oil

½ cup or 123g plain full-fat Greek yogurt

Juice 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Optional but highly recommended for that crunchy top: 2-3 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and line a loaf pan with baking parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cassava flour, brown sugar, baking powder, sea salt and lemon zest.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla extract together until smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and fold until it is just combined but make sure no flour is showing.

Pour the batter into your lined loaf pan. I hold the baking parchment up with clothes pegs which works a treat. You do have to remove them before baking! 

Sprinkle on the turbinado sugar, if using. 

Bake for 45–50 minutes. The edges should be golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

Leave to cool in the pan then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Slice to serve. Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month which means it’s time for my Bread Baker friends to share their bakes. Our theme today is Breakfast Bread! Many thanks to our host Kelly from A Messy Kitchen. Check out the links below.

• Brown Sugar Lemon Cassava Loaf from Food Lust People Love 
• Girelle - Italian Breakfast Pastry from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Greek Yogurt and Blueberry Oat Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Kheema Anda Paratha from Sneha's Recipe
• Sourdough Gingerbread Waffles from A Messy Kitchen
• Sourdough Plum Almond Bread from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Zucchini Cassava Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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