Vegan Spring Onion Buns

spring onion bun

One of my favourite Chinese breads is the Spring Onion bun. It’s slightly sweet, tender and savoury all at the same time. If you’ve had any oriental (i.e. Chinese or Japanese) bread, you’ll find that they are sweeter and more delicate and tender in texture than your normal bread. They taste like a soft hamburger bun or brioche.

Unfortunately most of these breads are made with eggs or butter so I can’t have them.

And since I don’t want to deprive myself of these comfort foods,  I made my own vegan-friendly version of spring onion buns :)

I use the Cuisine Companion to make them which makes it feels almost like I’m cheating because the machine does all the kneading for me, but, if you want to go manual, it can certainly be done quite easily too.

The first step is to proof the yeast (i.e. ‘waking it up’ in warm sugary water) to make sure that the yeast is still active. It usually takes about 5-8 minutes. After this the process is quite simple – just add the yeast mixture to the dry mixture and knead until it’s elastic and no longer sticky. It would take about 15 minutes by hand or 3 minutes if you use a mixer with dough attachment.

Then you need to let the dough sit in a warm spot until it doubles in size.

Then the fun begins…. You cut the dough into 4 sections, use a rolling pin (or your hands) to flatten them to 1 cm thickness and spread the sliced onion all over the surface of the dough, make a log roll and cut them up in equal portions. Finally into the oven they go while you wait impatiently for them to cook…

 

Spring Onion Buns
Recipe Type: Snack
Cuisine: Vegan
Author: Keren
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Easy savoury and sweet bun for morning or afternoon snack
Ingredients
  • 4 cup bread flour (white or wholemeal)
  • 1 packet (5g) of Instant yeast
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp egg replacer mixed in 4 tbsp water
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp non-dairy butter or Nuttelex
  • 1/2 cup of spring onion, sliced thinly
  • 1/4 cup of non-dairy milk
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line pan with baking paper.
  2. Mix sugar and water in a bowl or in a small pot. Microwave for 30 seconds or heat on the stove until just warm (not hot to touch).
  3. Sift flour and baking powder into the cuisine companion bowl. Add yeast mixture and press Pastry Program 1.
  4. For manual method: Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add yeast mixture. Knead gently until just smooth. Leave in warm temperature covered with kitchen towel until almost double in size, about 30-60 min (depending on your weather condition)
  5. Roll out dough to a rectangle using a lightly floured rolling pin. Brush with Nuttilex.
  6. Sprinkle over onion, leaving a 1cm border on 1 long side. Starting at opposite end, roll up dough.
  7. Cut into 8 even slices. Brush with non-dairy milk.
  8. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Serve warm.
  9. These breads are good for freezing too. Just pop in the microwave for 30-40 second to heat up when you’re hungry.

vegan spring onion bun

Did you make this recipe?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and/or share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #littlegreenhabits.

Love and greens, 

Keren

3 replies
  1. Jenny Williams
    Jenny Williams says:

    The recipe doesn’t mention where the egg replacer in the ingredients list is added. I am guessing that the salt is added at the same time as the flour?

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