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Green Onion Pies

Green Onion Pie

My favorite childhood food and the first recipe I remember learning.
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Green Onions
Servings: 4 pies

Ingredients

  • 4 c all-purpose flour
  • ½ tbsp salt
  • c warm water
  • 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.
    Pour the warm water into the bowl of flour and salt.
  • 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.
    Add water a little at a time, mix, repeat, until all the loose flour is gone.
  • 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.
    Knead until you get a smooth ball and all the loose flour has joined the ball of dough.

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.
    Chop the green onions.
  • 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.
    Roll out the dough.
  • 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.
    Spread the oil around until it covers the entire surface area of the dough.
  • 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.
    Sprinkle salt, flour, and green onions.
  • Roll the dough with all of your ingredients away from you to form a horizontal tube.
    Roll away from you.
  • 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.
    Squeeze the tube to get most of the air out and to create flaky layers.
  • Cut the long tube in half to form 2 tubes. Each of these shorter tubes will make a green onion pie.
    Cut the tube in half.
  • 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.
    Flatten.
  • Roll the green onion pie in on itself starting from the fat end.
    Roll from the fat (cut) end to the skinny end.
  • Tuck the skinny end on the bottom of the roll.
    Tuck the skinny end underneath.
  • 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.
    Gently flatten with the palm of your hand.

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.
    Try not to break the skin as you roll it out or the layers won't be created.
  • Add a healthy amount of oil to a pan on high heat. Adjust the temperature to medium-low. Add more oil as needed.
    Cook in a pan with hot oil.
  • 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).
    Flip when golden brown.

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!