The dough can be based on bread, wheat or other flours, or potatoes, and it may be filled with meat, fish, tofu, cheese, vegetables, or a combination.

Empanadas, whose stuffing, manufacture and types are numerous and varied, differ from traditional dumplings in that they are deep fried, steamed, or baked, and excess dough is not cut off.

Pastéis are made of a thin dough that can be stuffed with a variety of fillings, such as condimented ground beef, chicken, shrimp, mixed vegetables, cheese, or even sweets, and they are typically fried or baked.

In Chiloé, a Chilean southern archipelago where potatoes are native, several traditional dumplings are potato-based, including chapalele, milcao, chuchoca, chuhuañe, and vaeme.

The pastel, a dumpling made from a masa of grated root vegetables, squash, plantains, and unripe bananas, is greatly beloved, especially around Christmas.

Pupusas, a thick griddle cake or flatbread from El Salvador and Honduras, are made with cornmeal or rice flour, similar to the Venezuelan and Colombian arepa.

These dumplings are popular throughout Central Asia, including in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the Xinjiang region in China and the Caucasus.

Zongzi (粽子), are triangular or cone-shaped, and they can be filled with red bean paste, Chinese dates, or cured meat, depending on the region.

Tangyuan (湯圓) are smaller dumplings made with glutinous rice flour and filled with sweet sesame, peanut, or red bean paste.

The first record of dumplings in Korea are seen in the Hyowooyeoljeon (효우열전/孝友列傳) in Goryeosa (고려사, 高麗史), and it is said that they were made by a naturalized Khitan during the reign of King Myeongjong of Goryeo.

[32] They are typically filled with a mixture of ingredients, including ground pork, kimchi, galbi, bulgogi, vegetables, or cellophane noodles, but there are many variations.

[36] Often used in haute cuisine as a garnish,[37] this spoon-shaped dish consists of a mousse-like paste made from diced pike and a mixture of milk, flour, butter, and egg that is poached and served with a creamy seafood-based sauce that refers to one of its hometowns in Nantua.

Germany, Poland, Romania, Austria, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia boast a large variety of dumplings, both sweet and savoury.

Maultaschen are a Swabian (Baden-Württemberg) specialty food, consisting of an outer layer of pasta dough with a filling traditionally made of sausage meat, spinach, bread crumbs and onions and flavored with various spices.

Halušky are a traditional variety of dumplings cooked in the Central and Eastern European cuisines (Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine).

These are small lumps cut from a thick flour and egg batter and dropped into boiling water, similar to the German Spätzle, Knöpfle, or Knödel.

Sweet varieties called gombóc are made with flour and potato dough, which is wrapped around whole plums or apricots, and then boiled and rolled in hot buttered bread crumbs.

Bryndzové halušky, considered the Slovak national dish, are small potato dumplings without a filling, served with salty sheep's cheese on top.

"Little ears", variously called uszka in Poland, ushki (ушки) in Russia, vushka (вушка) in Ukraine, and vushki (вушкі) in Belarus, are folded ring-shaped dumplings similar in shape to Italian tortellini or Jewish kreplach.

One theory suggests pelmeni, or stuffed boiled dumplings in general, originated in Siberia, possibly a simplified adaptation of the Chinese Wonton (in some dialect is called Bāomiàn "包面").

In Siberia, especially popular with the Buryat peoples are steamed dumplings called pozi (buuz in Mongolian, from Chinese: 包子; pinyin: bāozi).

The word gnocchi literally means "lumps", and they are rolled and shaped from a mixture of egg with potato, semolina, flour, or ricotta cheese (with or without spinach).

Names include potetball, klubb, kløbb, raspeball, komle, kumle, kompe, kumpe, kodla, kudle, klot, kams, ball, baill, komperdøse, kumperdøse, kompadøs, ruter, ruta, raskekako, risk, klotremat, krumme and kromme.

[43] When the potato is mixed with barley flour, which is traditional in northern Sweden, it is known as palt in Lapland, Västerbotten and Norrbotten,[43] and as kams in Jämtland, Ångermanland and Medelpad.

[45] The filled kroppkaka, palt or kams ball – as well as the flatter, unfilled flatpalt, flatkams and klabbe – is dropped into boiling salted water and cooked until it floats.

They typically consist of a spiced meat mixture, usually lamb or ground beef, with greens and onions, put in a dough wrapper, either boiled or steamed.

The original recipe consists of only minced meat (lamb or beef and pork mixed), onions, chili pepper, salt and cumin.

Though they have existed around the world much longer,[54] it's believed that one of the reasons dumplings were popularized in the United States was because of the rise of urbanization during the 1800s[55] that led to immigration from places like China and Germany that already had some form of the food.

Precursors include savory, cornmeal dumplings with turnip greens as well as Indigenous pone (in English, meaning ‘baked’) that dates back as early as the Woodland Period and fruit-based ‘slump’.

[58] Thus American dumplings can either be of the filled pastry type (which are usually baked), or they may be little pieces of dough added to a savory or sweet dish, in which case they are usually boiled.