Sweet Potato Dumplings 地瓜饺
Sweet Potato Dumplings is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
Sweet Potato Dumplings (地瓜饺) are small dumplings with a sweet potato wrapper from the Matsu (馬祖) islands, which form Lienchiang County (連江縣). They are also called golden dumplings (黃金餃). A recipe filed by the Lienchiang County Cultural Affairs Bureau (連江縣政府文化處) calls them the most representative traditional snack of Matsu, and the classic filling is chopped peanuts, spring onion, lard and sugar.
Where it comes from
The bureau's recipe explains that Matsu's soil and climate are unsuited to rice, so drought-resistant sweet potato became one of the islands' main early staples. Islanders made it into sweets and snacks and brewed sweet potato wine. In 2017 the Dongyin (東引) township branch of the county women's association held a hands-on workshop on them and on mochi (麻糬) to pass on Matsu food traditions, describing both as authentic Matsu sweets that it wants younger people to learn to make.
How it is made
In the bureau's recipe, sweet potatoes are peeled, cut up, steamed and mashed. The mash is kneaded with potato starch (太白粉) into a dough, rolled out and cut into small wrappers. The filling is peanuts, sugar, chopped spring onion and lard, mixed evenly. Each wrapper is pressed around the filling into a jiaozi shape or a triangular zongzi shape. The Nangan (南竿) township office says the dough is mainly made with sweet potato flour, the filling mixes equal parts peanut and sugar with a little five-spice powder, lard and spring onion, and the dumplings can also be folded into triangles or curry-puff shapes.
How it is eaten
Sweet Potato Dumplings are fried, steamed or boiled. For a sweet soup they are boiled and served with sugar syrup cooked separately; fried ones are ready when they float. The bureau notes that they can also be wrapped around a meat filling and eaten as a savoury dish. It describes the wrapper as soft but firm to the bite, with a mild sweet potato sweetness and a springy chew, set off by the aroma of spring onion. Frozen dumplings are sold in Nangan for visitors to take home.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.