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This is hands down my #1 favorite traditional Chinese dish. My Mom would make this once in a while and I remember requesting it so much that eventually she put her foot down and said if I wanted to eat it I could make it myself. She taught me the recipe that day (I was in the 6th grade) and since then I’ve made this easy recipe for parties, house visits, and potlucks. The great thing is that since this is just flour and green onions, almost anybody with diet restrictions can eat green onion pie!
Aloha with love,
Amy
Servings: 4 pies
Ingredients
- 4 c all-purpose flour
- ½ tbsp salt
- 1½ c warm water
- 1½ tbsp oil Mom uses olive oil.
- 2 c green onions
Instructions
Dough
- Add flour and salt to a large mixing bowl. Prepare 1½ c warm water (half hot water, half room temperature). The water should be very warm, but you should be able to put your finger into the water comfortably.
- Slowly add the warm water to the mixing bowl to create a shaggy dough. If possible, do not use up all of the water. Pour just enough so that there is no more loose flour.
- Knead 1 – 2 minutes to make the dough smooth. The sides of the bowl should be clean of loose flour. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.
Green onion pies
- Chop as many green onions as you'd like. Mom used 2 c green onions for this recipe. I personally think the more the better.
- Cut the ball of dough in half. Take one half out onto a floured surface. Leave the other half in the bowl covered so that it doesn't dry out.Roll out the half dough to a circular shape without kneading. Use the rolling pin to flatten and roll the dough out to a thin, circular shape. This does not need to be a perfect circle.
- Add about 1½ tbsp of olive oil to the surface of the rolled out dough. Spread the oil around with your fingers or a brush so that it covers the whole surface. Avoid adding too much oil as the excess will make it difficult to work with the dough later on.
- Add the salt followed by a sprinkle of flour, then the green onions. The flour will help accentuate and separate the layers as the green onion pie cooks.Optional: Add anything else that you'd like to try. In the past, we've added bacon bits, pepper, and roasted sesame seeds.
- Roll the dough with all of your ingredients away from you to form a horizontal tube.
- Starting from the middle, squeeze the tube so that it's about twice as long and twice as thin. The longer you can make this, the more layers you'll create, but don't make it too thin. Once the skin breaks, the layers won't become flaky after being cooked.
- Cut the long tube in half to form 2 tubes. Each of these shorter tubes will make a green onion pie.
- Each tube should now have a fat end (the side that was cut) and a skinny end. Close both ends so that no oil or air can escape.
- Roll the green onion pie in on itself starting from the fat end.
- Tuck the skinny end on the bottom of the roll.
- Press it down gently with your hand. Cover with saran wrap and repeat the above instructions with the remaining dough. This recipe will make 4 pan-sized green onion pies.
Cook
- Once you've finished with the remaining dough, flatten each one with a rolling pin until it's about a ½ cm thick. Gently roll it out and rotate it often to avoid breaking the outer layer of dough. It should form a perfect circle with a diameter that's about 8 inches.
- Add a healthy amount of oil to a pan on high heat. Adjust the temperature to medium-low. Add more oil as needed.
- Flip when golden brown. Cut into each green onion pie like a pizza (or eat as is!). Dip it in your favorite sauce or use it like a naan, tortilla, or wrap. We dip it in some shoyu and vinegar (with hot sauce).
Notes
- Mom likes to mix shoyu and vinegar for her dipping sauce. I do the same with some hot sauce. Dad will often eat this like a burrito with leftovers in the middle.
- A common way to eat this in Taiwan is with an egg. Scramble one egg and cook on a fry pan. Immediately add the green onion pie right on top of the egg. As the egg cooks, it will stick onto the green onion pie. This is great for breakfast.
- Reheat leftover green onion pie in a toaster or in a pan with no oil.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
