Vegetable Gyoza (Vegan) (2024)

Vegetable Gyoza (野菜餃子)

Gyoza are small Japanese potstickers that are most commonly made by filling a thin round wrapper with a mixture of pork and cabbage. The flavorful seasonings and umami-rich cabbage doesn't need meat to taste good, though. In this recipe, I want to show you how you can make Vegetable Gyoza flavorful enough that vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters can all enjoy.

Why This Recipe Works?

• Fresh shiitakes and quinoa create a texture that's very similar to meat, and by cooking these together with the cabbage first, it not only saves some time, it also infuses the quinoa with tons of flavor.
• Ingredients rich in amino acids such as shiitake, cabbage, konbu, and sake add a ton of umami to the filling giving these Vegan Gyoza a meaty flavor despite being plant-based.
• The pleats at the top of a folded Gyoza provide a curve to the potstickers, which helps them stand upright.
• Steaming and then frying the Vegetable Gyoza results in a crisp bottom and noodly top that provides a great textural contrast that makes these Japanese dumplings irresistibly good.

Key Ingredients for Vegetable Gyoza

• Fresh shiitake - shiitake mushrooms have a meaty flavor and loads of guanylates that make them a great meat substitute.
• Quinoa - Quinoa is loaded with protein, fiber, and minerals, which not only makes it a healthy addition to these Japanese dumplings, it also provides a texture that's similar to ground meat.
• Cabbage - Cabbage is a common ingredient in most Japanese Gyoza, and it's not unusual for store-bought dumplings to have more cabbage than meat. This was no doubt a cost-cutting business decision, but cabbage is rich in glutamates and provides juiciness to the potstickers that make them taste good as well.
• Garlic chives - Gyoza are typically made using garlic chives rather than garlic as it's a little more mellow while providing the flavor of green onions as well. If you can't find them in your area, you can replace an equal amount of scallions and add a clove or two of grated garlic as well.
• Ginger - Ginger is one of Gyoza's primary flavors, along with the garlic chives and sesame oil.
• Umami powder - The umami taste receptors in your mouth are triggered by amino acids such as glutamate, guanylate, and inosinate. These amino acids are essential building blocks of the human body, which is probably why we evolved taste receptors to detect them. Meat and seafood tend to be loaded with these compounds, but there are many plant-based sources as well. To boost my Vegetable Gyoza's umami, I like to add a powder made from dried shiitake mushrooms and konbu, which provide a one-two punch of guanylate and glutamate. If you can't find dried shiitakes, other mushrooms such as dried porcinis will work as well.
• Seasonings - Toasted sesame oil provides a deep nutty flavor that is one of Gyoza's main seasoning ingredients. I've also added sake and soy sauce to provide an additional umami boost to the filling.
• Binder - Without something to bind the ingredients together, the filling will be very crumbly and difficult to work with. The binding power comes from the potato starch, as well as the konbu in the umami powder.
• Wrappers - Gyoza wrappers tend to be thinner than their Chinese counterparts, which gives these Japanese dumplings a more delicate texture. You should be able to find them along with other fresh wrappers and noodles in the refrigerated section of supermarkets with a decent selection of Asian foods.
• Sauce - Gyoza sauce is made with soy sauce and rice vinegar. If you want a spicy sauce, you can add chili oil, such as rayu.

How to Make Vegetable Gyoza

Gyoza wrappers are typically plant-based, so we're going to focus on a vegetable and mushroom filling that will work for vegan, vegetarians, and meat-eaters alike!

The first thing you want to do is sautee the fresh shiitake in vegetable oil. This helps bring out more complexity in the mushrooms' flavor while pre-shrinking them, so your filling doesn't shrink after you stuff your gyoza.

After the mushrooms have started to brown, add the chopped cabbage, washed quinoa, water, sake, and salt and cover the pan with a lid. Turn down the heat to low and let this cook for 15 minutes, or until there is no excess water remaining at the bottom of the pan.

While you wait for the quinoa to cook, prepare the remaining ingredients. To make the umami powder, trim the ends off of the dried shiitake stems and crumble the mushrooms into a spice grinder along with the konbu. Spin the mushrooms and kombu until you have a fine powder. If you don't have a spice grinder, you can use a grater or Microplane as well.

If, after 15 minutes, you still have water at the bottom of the pan of quinoa, remove the lid and turn up the heat to let it evaporate. You want the mixture to still be very wet, so don't overdo this.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl to cool.

When the mixture has cooled enough to handle, add the chopped garlic chives, ginger, umami powder, sesame oil, white pepper, potato starch, and soy sauce.

Use a clean hand to knead the mixture together thoroughly. This is important because the starch and konbu need to be hydrated to start binding the filling together. The mixture will still be more crumbly than a meat-based mixture, but it should be fairly sticky.

Now you just need to fold the filling into the Gyoza wrappers.

How to fold Gyoza

Although they add a decorative touch, the folds in Gyoza have a functional purpose. By pleating one side of the wrapper as you fold them in half, it causes the base of the dumpling to curve. This provides a stable base, which allows the potstickers to stand up in the pan so you can brown the bottom and steam the top.

It's worth noting that Gyoza presses will mimic the decorative folds in the dumplings, but they don't actually pleat them, so they will not stand up properly in the pan.

Before you start to fold the Vegetable Gyoza, prepare a bowl of water, a parchment-lined sheet pan, as well as a clean dish towel. Be sure you keep the wrappers covered to keep them from drying out. The following folding directions are for right-handed people, and you may want to reverse them if you are left-handed.

1. Place a wrapper in the palm of your left hand.
2. Dip the index and middle fingers of your right hand into a bowl of water and use them to wet the entire rim of the wrapper. This makes the wrapper sticky so it can be sealed shut.
3. Place about a tablespoon of filling into the center of the wrapper. Gyoza are best when they're packed with filling, but the more filling you add, the harder they are to fold, so I recommend starting with about a tablespoon and working up from there.
4. Fold the wrapper over the filling like a taco but don't seal it shut yet.
5. Use the index finger and thumb of your right hand to fold a pleat in the upper half of the wrapper about a ½-inch from the left side.
6. Move your right thumb and index finger over about a ½-inch and then pinch the pleat shut with the thumb and index finger of your left hand.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 three or four more times until you've reached the right side of the wrapper and seal it shut. Be sure to press out any air in the wrapper before you seal it shut as this will expand while cooking and could cause your potstickers to burst.
8. Place the folded Gyoza on the parchment-lined pan with enough space between them, so they don't stick together. You will also want to cover them with a clean dish towel to keep them from drying out.

How to cook Gyoza

Gyoza are typically prepared by steaming and frying them, but they can also be boiled, in which case they're called Suigyoza (水餃子). For this recipe, I'm going to show you how to cook these Gyoza using the traditional three-step process.

1. Place a non-stick frying pan over high heat and add a generous tablespoon of vegetable oil. Line up the gyoza in the pan, so they're close together, but not touching. I usually add about 12 in a circular pattern to a 9-inch pan.
2. With a lid in one hand and ¼ cup of water in another, dump the water in and quickly cover it with the lid. The oil will spatter when you add the water, so it's important to do this quickly, so you don't burn yourself. Adjust the heat down so you don't have steam escaping from all sides of the lid and let this cook until there is almost no water remaining in the pan (this should take about 3 minutes).
3. Remove the lid and fry the gyoza until they're golden brown and crisp on the bottom. If there's not enough oil in the pan, the potstickers will not brown evenly, so add more oil if the pan is looking dry.

How to Make Gyoza Sauce

Making the sauce for Gyoza is as simple as mixing soy sauce and rice vinegar together. I usually use a 1:1 ratio, but depending on your preference, you can add more of one ingredient or the other for a sauce that's more salty or tangy. I've done a post with a trio of dumpling dipping sauces that go great with Gyoza so check that out for more ideas.

Other Vegan/Vegetarian Asian Recipes

• Mapo Tofu
• Tempura Mushrooms
• Kung Pao Tofu
• Okonomiyaki
• Yaki Udon

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