Tender is the Dish: Late Summer Dumplings with Garden Tomatoes

A Cooking with Jake Feature

Long before I met Jake, I saved this recipe from the New York Times: Tomato & Dumpling Salad with Chile Crisp Vinaigrette.
It had everything I love—peak-season heirloom tomatoes, dumplings (my forever comfort food), and chili crisp, which I was late in life to loving (but that’s another blog post for another day).

I filed it away, thinking I’d make it someday.

Then I met Jake.

On our magical first date the day after Valentine’s Day, somewhere between sharing stories and much, much laughter, he confessed his own devotion to all things dumpling-esque—potstickers, gyoza, wontons, anything dough-wrapped and sauce-dipped. I think I grinned so wide it startled him. I knew then this recipe would not be a me-alone-in-my-kitchen dish. This one was meant for us.

This Summer — August in Portland

An Extreme Heat Advisory. The forecast: 98 degrees. I was in my sama integration—no sugar allowed—and restless in the heat. So I called Jake.

We talked like we always do, falling into what we call the Jen & Jake Vortex—the kind of conversation where an hour feels like ten minutes.

When he told me it was too hot to cook, I thought immediately of two things: The dumpling dish and how perfect it would be tonight …

And a dish he made frequently during the early days of our courtship that goes something like this:

Trader Joe’s potstickers, plump shrimp, and whatever greens were in season. Broccolini, bok choy, napa cabbage—each cooked with care. Potstickers steamed to tenderness, bottoms crisping to gold; shrimp seared just to pink; greens blanched for a heartbeat so they stayed bright and alive. Sometimes I’d arrive at his place after work, and there he’d be, tending the pan, steam curling into the warm light of his kitchen. He’d place each exquisitely plated bowl on TV trays in his living room and we would watch Seinfeld or Leave it to Beaver as the evenings grew shorter and shorter.

So I said to him, “Let me send you something.”

The Farmer’s Market Vision

In my mind, we’d make it together. Wander through the market, choosing tomatoes that smelled like the sun. But Jake—ever the gardener—said, “Or we could wait and use tomatoes from my garden.”

Just days earlier, as he was eating a local melon with prosciutto, he’d told me about dry watering—how he times the intervals between watering to train his tomato roots to grow deep. It’s part science, part devotion.

Jake’s plants thrive because he tends them with intention. His people, too.

The Original NYT Recipe

(Adapted from Hetty Lui McKinnon)

Ingredients

• 2½ lbs ripe heirloom tomatoes, cut into 1–2″ pieces (room temp)
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• ½ cup basil leaves, torn
• Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lb frozen dumplings or potstickers (unthawed)
• Neutral oil (canola/vegetable)
• 1–2 tbsp crispy fried shallots (optional)

For the Chile Crisp Vinaigrette

• 3 tbsp chile crisp (or chile oil)
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (more to taste)

Instructions

1. Arrange tomatoes on a platter; toss with garlic, half the basil, salt, and pepper—set aside.
2. Whisk chile crisp, vinegar, soy sauce.
3. In a hot skillet, add oil, cook dumplings flat-side down until golden. Add ¼ cup water, cover, steam until water evaporates (3–4 min), cook additional 1–2 min if meat filling. Repeat.
4. Place warm dumplings over tomatoes, drizzle vinaigrette, top with shallots and remaining basil. Serve immediately.

Jake’s Riff — Chef’s Edition

Jake, here’s your space to do your thing:

• Start with your Trader Joe’s potstickers, steamed to tender perfection and crisp-bottomed.
• Add a protein? Or Not.
• Fold in seasonal greens—bok choy, broccolini, napa cabbage, spinach—blanched for brightness.
• Layer in your garden’s dry-watered tomatoes, sun-warmed and bursting with sweetness.
• Dress with a chile crisp vinaigrette kissed with our mutual favorite: Red Boat fish sauce.
• Plate so the colors sing—pink shrimp, red tomatoes, deep greens, gold-edged dumplings.

Adjust ingredients as you see fit—bring in your shrimp-and-greens knowledge, your own vinaigrette balance, maybe even a melon cameo. Add any plating or texture tips you think are essential.

[Insert Jake’s updated version after testing together.]