What to Serve with Dumplings? 7 BEST Side Dishes

Dumplings, those little pockets of joy, are a global favorite. They come in all shapes, sizes, and fillings. What pairs well with them? That’s the million-dollar question.

We’ve all been there. Plate full of dumplings. Mouth watering. Yet, something’s missing. We crave sides that complement, not overpower.

Think crispy vegetables. A tangy salad, perhaps? Or maybe a savory broth whispers your name. We’ve been on this quest too.

Through trial and error, we’ve found sides that elevate the humble dumpling to a feast. Ready to find out?

Why Consider Serving Side Dishes With Dumplings?

We’ve often eaten a plate of dumplings from a street vendor, but that’s not the most enjoyable way to eat them.

Dumplings can be the highlight of a beautiful home-cooked meal, suitable for intimate dinners or family lunches.

A complete meal does not necessarily mean multiple courses, but a variety of dishes fills the table.

Some people also quickly tire from eating dumplings alone, and adding other dishes makes the meal as a whole more exciting.

If you’ve ever eaten dumplings at an Asian meal, you will have had soups and sauces to complement the dumplings.

Rice or noodles will probably also have featured heavily.

All this shows that dumplings are enjoyed most with other dishes to accompany them.

What to Serve with Dumplings? 7 BEST Side Dishes

Here are the best side dishes to serve with dumplings.

Most of these dishes are Asian or inspired by Asian cuisine.

1 – Sauces

If you’ve ever ordered dumplings at an Asian restaurant or from a street vendor, you will have been served sauces with it.

These sauces add flavor and spice to the dumplings, and you can add the amount you want yourself.

We recommend that you serve at least one dipping sauce whenever you serve dumplings.

The simplest sauces to serve are bottled condiments you can find at the store.

Asian stores will have a variety of sauces for you to try, but most will be spicy.

If you cannot handle spice, you can always use ketchup.

If you want to try making your dipping sauce, the ingredients we recommend you use are soy sauce, chili oil, and rice vinegar.

2 – Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

Probably the best side dish to serve with dumplings is soup.

There is just something about eating dumplings and soup that makes them so good together.

If you are making meat filling for your dumplings, you can make a meat broth from the byproducts of the filling.

Bone broth is incredibly healthy, and you can use it for many other dishes.

Chinese hot and sour soup makes a perfect partner for dumplings.

Soy sauce and vinegar are the keys to this sauce’s unique taste.

3 – Vegetable Stir Fry

We always recommend you serve vegetables as one of your side dishes for whatever main dish you are serving.

With a vegetable dish as your side, you can supplement the main dish with the needed nutrients for your body.

Vegetable stir fry is a dish inspired by Asian cooking.

This fits with the overall flavor palette of your meal.

However, you don’t have to use ingredients like soy sauce and pepper flakes if you don’t want to go that way.

This dish will be an excellent choice to supplement meat dumplings, as they will contain fewer vegetables.

4 – Spring Rolls

This side dish is on the lighter side and can be eaten as finger food along with your dumplings.

Spring rolls are delicious and are often served at parties as an appetizer or snack.

However, you can incorporate them into meals as a side dish or starter course.

When serving them along with dumplings, you can use the same dipping sauces.

The best part of spring rolls is how customizable they are.

With a bit of experience, you can add almost anything you like to them.

If you want to give your rolls a fresh ‘spring’ taste, use ingredients like onion, carrots, or cabbage.

Chicken, crab meat, or mushrooms will make your spring rolls more filling.

5 – Quinoa Cabbage Salad

Quinoa is a gluten-free superfood.

Demand for this nutrient-rich grain has increased dramatically recently with more and more internet exposure.

With that fame, people have been incorporating quinoa into their recipes.

Our recommended fresh salad is quinoa cabbage salad, a healthy and delicious dish you will surely love.

This salad uses cabbage, cucumbers, carrots and peppers as the main vegetables, and the quinoa and dressing bring it all together.

6 – Chicken Noodle Soup

If you want to use dumplings as a side dish, you will need an appropriate main dish.

Noodle soup is perfect, as it’s filling but won’t take much attention away from the dumplings.

Our recommendation is a more subtle but hearty chicken noodle soup, but you can also serve ramen or udon noodles if you want.

The secret to giving a noodle soup that umami flavor is ingredients like Chinese cooking wine.

If you don’t have this ingredient, you can use oyster sauce instead.

7 – Fried Noodles

To make your meal as filling and exciting as possible, there is no better dish than fried noodles.

You can add your own choice of toppings to your fried noodles to make them as simple or extravagant as you want.

Veg fried noodles use no meat and can be made vegan with vegan noodles.

Egg fried noodles keep it simple, leaving dumplings as the main attraction.

The secret to the best-fried noodles is the sauce.

Soy sauce, hoisin sauce and similar ingredients give your noodles that umami flavor that is so delicious.

Conclusion

Dumplings are unique, as they are individually small enough to be eaten in one bite but still make a complete dish as a whole.

They will suit your table in almost any setting and can be made with almost any filling.

We recommend you always serve dipping sauce with dumplings.

Soup is another excellent choice that will not take the spotlight away from any main dish.

Vegetable dishes are a great way to add color to your table.

We hope you can put together a beautiful meal with our suggestions.