Before You Start
Momos came to India with Tibetan refugee communities, settled firmly into Darjeeling, Sikkim and the hill states of the Northeast, and then travelled well beyond. Today they are among the most commonly eaten street snacks in cities far from the mountains, and in Delhi momo carts are as ordinary a sight as chaat stalls. Three things make a good momo. The dough should be thin but strong enough not to tear or go gummy in the steam. The filling must be chopped fine, so it cooks fast without releasing enough water to make everything soggy. And the fold has to be snug, because each dumpling holds a small pocket of steam while it cooks. You need nothing more than a steamer, but if the pleating feels clumsy at first, that is normal and it improves quickly with practice.
Where This Dish Comes From
Momos are a Tibetan dish. In India they are linked most strongly with the Tibetan refugee community and with hill towns like Darjeeling and Sikkim, where Tibetan families have lived for decades. They are also tied to the wider Northeast, including Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya, where steamed dumplings have long been part of local food, under related names and with their own fillings. Over the last few decades momos moved into mainstream Indian street food, especially in Delhi and other northern cities. Cooks there adapted them with hotter, chilli-heavy chutneys and sometimes fried or pan-seared versions that are not part of the Tibetan original. It is worth saying plainly that momos are not a generic Indian snack. They are Tibetan and Himalayan in origin, and their popularity elsewhere in India is a recent layer on top of a food culture that continues in the Northeast in its own right.
Step by Step
-
Prep
Knead the dough and let it rest
Stir the flour and salt together, then add water a little at a time until the mixture comes together into a smooth, soft dough, softer than roti dough but not sticky. Knead for 4 to 5 minutes until it turns elastic, rub a little oil over the top, cover with a damp cloth and leave it for at least 20 minutes. The rest is what lets you roll the dough thin without it springing back.
-
Prep
Salt, squeeze and season the filling
Toss the chopped cabbage with a light sprinkle of salt and set it aside for 10 minutes. After that, grab handfuls over the sink and wring out all the liquid you can. Skipping this is how fillings turn watery and seep through the wrapper in the steam. Mix the squeezed cabbage with the carrot, spring onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and salt. If you are unsure about the seasoning, cook a small spoonful and taste it, because raw cabbage seems blander than it will be once cooked.
-
Prep
Roll the wrappers
Break the rested dough into 20 small balls and roll every one out to a thin circle of roughly 2.5 to 3 inches. Keep the center a touch thicker than the rim: a sturdier middle carries the filling without tearing, and the thin rim pleats easily.
-
Assemble
Fill and pleat
Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the middle of a wrapper. Lift the edges up around it and make small folds as you work around the circle, pinching the pleats together at the top and twisting slightly to close. If pleating feels awkward at first, fold the wrapper into a half-moon, press it shut and crimp the edge as you would for a pierogi. It holds just as well and cooks the same way.
-
Cook
Steam until glossy
Brush the steamer basket with a little oil, or lay in parchment with a few holes punched through it, and set the momos down with space around each one, since they swell as they cook and will stick if they touch. Cover and steam over briskly boiling water for 10 to 12 minutes, until the dough looks slightly translucent and glossy and no longer dull or dry.
-
Prep
Cook the chutney
Put the tomatoes, soaked dried chillies and garlic in a pan with a little water and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, until the tomatoes collapse entirely. Blitz it into a coarse purée. Heat the oil in a small pan, return the purée to it and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, until it thickens slightly. Add salt and let it cool before serving.
-
Serve
Serve while hot
Bring the momos to the table straight from the steamer, glossy and hot, with the chilli chutney for dipping. As they cool, they firm up and the wrapper turns noticeably tougher, so eat them within a few minutes of steaming, the same way you would from a street cart.
Swaps That Work
Store-bought dumpling or wonton wrappers can replace the homemade dough when you are short of time. They are thinner and more delicate, so handle them gently and don't overfill. Finely chopped mushrooms or crumbled paneer can go into the vegetable filling, or replace part of it, to give it more body. If you have no sesame oil, a few extra drops of ordinary oil plus a pinch of toasted, crushed sesame seeds get you close. Tamari can take the place of soy sauce for a gluten-free filling, though the wrapper still contains wheat flour.
Turning the Heat Up or Down
The momos carry only black pepper, so the chutney supplies almost all the heat, and that works in your favor: you can tune the heat for each person at the table rather than for the whole batch. Want it mild? Use fewer dried chillies and let the tomato sweetness lead. Want it hotter? Add more soaked chillies, or stir in a spoonful of vinegar-based red chilli sauce, as many momo stalls do for sharpness and a longer life in the jar. Some Darjeeling-style stalls also finish the chutney with a few drops of sesame oil.
Where Cooks Often Slip
Skipping the salting and squeezing of the cabbage is the most common mistake; a wet filling soaks through the dough as it steams and leaves the base of each momo soggy. Rolling wrappers too thick comes next, and it gives a doughy, bread-like bite instead of the thin, slightly chewy wrapper momos are known for. Aim for edges you can nearly see your fingers through. Overcrowding the steamer is another: momos that touch will stick to each other or the basket and tear when you separate them, so leave visible gaps. Finally, under-steaming leaves raw, gummy dough at the seams. Open one momo from the middle of the batch, not just the edge, before you decide the whole batch is done.
Keeping and Warming Up Leftovers
To keep it: Momos that are filled but not yet cooked freeze nicely. Spread them on a tray so none touch, freeze until hard, then transfer them to a sealed bag or container, where they keep for up to a month. Steam them directly from frozen and give them 3 to 4 minutes more. Cooked momos can go in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days, although the wrapper is clearly better fresh from the steamer. The chutney keeps separately in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
To warm it up: Steam cooked momos again for 3 to 4 minutes. This revives the wrapper far better than a microwave, which tends to leave the dough tough and slightly rubbery. If you have no steamer, a damp paper towel over the momos and short bursts in the microwave will do, but steaming is clearly better if you can spare the few extra minutes. Whatever the method, heat them until they are steaming hot all the way through.
Kitchen Safety Note
The filling is made of vegetables and is fully cooked in the steamer, so the main concern is handling the cooked filling and finished dumplings safely, not raw meat. If you cook the cabbage mixture or pre-cook any vegetables before assembling, cool them to room temperature within an hour and refrigerate them instead of leaving them out, especially in warm weather. Cooked vegetables left at room temperature for long can support bacterial growth even without any meat. After steaming, cool leftover momos within two hours before refrigerating, and don't let a cooked batch sit on a buffet at room temperature for more than two hours. If your kitchen is also preparing non-vegetarian dishes that day, keep the raw dough and filling away from any surfaces that touched raw meat.