These Vegan Gyoza are packed with so much authentic flavour and cooked to perfection. Only 11 plant based ingredients needed to make these incredible homemade gyoza that you can enjoy with everyone!
The first time I attempted to make vegan gyoza after almost 7 years of not having it brought me straight back to my childhood. My mom would make gyoza every Thursday night growing up and I never appreciated gyoza until I grew a little older and realized how making dumplings is almost like a form of art. Although each gyoza or dumplings are folded and pleated with the same hands and technique, each come out slightly different. There are so many kinds of dumplings around the world but my heart goes to gyoza.
You only need a couple of simple ingredients to make super delicious, juicy and flavour packed gyoza. Gyoza commonly uses pork but it can easily be replaced with crumbled firm tofu. Common flavours include ginger, garlic and chives. To give it a meaty umami flavour I used shiitake mushrooms and for a little more texture I went with bamboo shoots. Feel free to play around with different vegetables though!
To make the filling, we want to make the veggies as fine as possible to that it’s almost like a meat ball mixture consisten
Now for the part I think puts off most people from making gyoza and dumplings at home: pleating them. I know they look so difficult but once you get the hang of it your hands just start moving naturally! I tried to explain it in words but honestly it’s so hard to type out. I think visuals are much more helpful so here is a video link of me explaining and showing you how to do it.
There are two ways you can prepare gyoza: pan searing or boiling. I much prefer the pan seared version because of the crispy bottom! Crispy and tender with a meaty filling… yum.
Once they’re done cooking, they’re ready to be enjoyed and you can dip them in your favourite dipping sauce but my favourite is to combine equal parts rice vinegar and soy sauce.
Ingredients (+ substitutions)
How to Make Vegan Gyoza
How to Cook Gyoza
Tips and Tricks to making Homemade Gyoza
- Cover gyoza: Keep gyoza wrappers covered to prevent them from drying out.
- Warm up the oil: Once the oil warms up, turn off the heat. This ensures even cooking and so that you don’t have to rush to place the gyoza in the pan.
- Boiling water for steaming: Use hot water and pour around and over the gyoza. If you use cold or room temperature the cooking temperature drops.
- Vinegar: Add a little vinegar to the steaming water so that when eating, they separate easily without the skins tearing.
- Rock the pan: Gently rock the frying pan side to side while steaming to prevent burning.
- Sesame oil: drizzle sesame oil at the end to get them extra crispy.
How to Store Homemade Vegetable Gyoza
While you can refrigerate the gyoza in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, I highly recommend freezing them. If the filling has too much moisture, it’ll cause the wrappers to potentially get soggy and tear.
To freeze, place the gyoza on a baking sheet with the surface dusted with flour. Keep some space between each gyoza to prevent them from sticking and then place them into the freezer, Once they’re completely frozen, transfer them into a freezer bag or container up to 1 month. To cook after freezing, do not let them defrost and cook them straight away (they will need an additional 1-2 minutes to cook)
If you recreate this Vegan Vegetable Gyoza recipe let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below or by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!
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Vegan Gyoza (Japanese Potstickers)
Ingredients
- 1/2 block (168 g) firm tofu*
- 1/4 (150 g) napa cabbage, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 (50 g) bamboo, finely chopped
- 1/4 (40 g) bunch garlic chives
- 2 (30 g) shiitake mushroom
- 2 (13 g) dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrate
- 2 garlic cloves (8 g)
- 2 tsp minced ginger (10 g)
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) mirin
- 1 1/2 tbsp (22 ml) soy sauce
- 2 tsp (10 ml) sesame oil
- 1 tbsp (10 g) potato starch
- 1/4 tsp salt, to taste
- 1/4 tsp white or black pepper, to taste
- 30–35 gyoza wrappers
Dipping sauce:
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/4 tsp ra-yu (Japanese chili oil)
Instructions
- Finely chop the napa cabbage and then message the salt in. Rest for 10 minutes and then squeeze out excess moisture. In the mean time, finely chop the bamboo, shiitake mushrooms and chives.
- Squeeze out excess moisture from the tofu and crumble into a bowl. You should have about 130g net weight. Season with mirin, soy sauce and sesame oil. Squeeze out excess liquid from the cabbage and add to the tofu bowl. Add the other chopped vegetables, minced ginger and garlic. Then add in potato starch, salt and pepper. Mix everything until well combined. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Take one wrapper and add one tablespoon of filling. Fold the edges until sealed (refer to photos/video). Place on a potato starch dusted tray or plate and keep covered. Repeat for remaining wrappers (makes about 30-35).
To cook (steamed and pan fried):
- Heat oil over medium. Once heated, turn off the heat and line up 10-12 gyoza. Turn heat back up to medium low to medium, and cook until lightly golden brown. In the meantime, mix together 2 tsp of rice vinegar and 90ml of water. Once golden brown, pour the rice vinegar water mixture to the pan (pouring over the gyoza). Once it starts to boil, cover and cook for 5-6 minutes, or until water is mostly evaporated.
- Remove cover and drizzle in sesame oil. Continue to cook until all water is evaporated. Remove from heat.
- Serve immediately with dipping sauce and enjoy!
To cook (boiled):
- Being a medium pot to a boil then add in the gyoza. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until they start floating to the top.
- Serve with rice vinegar sauce, soy sauce, chili sauce or dipping sauce of your choice.
Notes
- Helpful Equipment: mixing bowl, cooking tray, turner
- Nutritional Information Disclaimer: Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated on an online tool (Cronometer).
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So good, the filling was tasty even before cooking (couldn’t resist lol) Great recipe, will definitely do again, thanks Lisa <3
We made the gyozas for Lunar New Year and it was so goooood !! Even my non-vegan friends liked it and were surprised it turned out so tasty 🙂
We cooked it 3 ways, steamed, boiled and pan-fried, all of them were delicious, even with only a little bit of vinegar.
Thanks a lot Lisa, I can’t wait to try more of your recipes <3
We made this recipe for the lunar new year and it was so gooood !!! Even my non-vegan friends liked it and were surprised it turned out so tasty !
We cooked the gyoza in 3 different ways, steamed, pan-fried and boiled, all of them were delicious, even with just a little bit of vinegar for dipping.
Thanks Lisa, I’m so excited to try more of your recipes <3
This recipe was delicious!!! I used all dried shiitakes, used carrots instead of bamboo, and it turned out great. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for this amazing recipe ! It was easy to do and crispy as hell ! 😀
Thank you so much for your recipes! My hubby and I are absolutely inlove with Japanese food, we tried out this recipe and let me tell everyone who might read this comment, un favorite all other gyoza recipes and fav this one !! Its legit and super easy to make ! We made our first batch they were DELICIOUS (dont think i even chewed, devoured them all 😂😂😂 ) the next day we made another batch !! YES THATS HOW GOOD !!! ( and dont worry your wrapping skills WILL get better jejeje ) thank you so much Lisa !! Deliciously Devoured 😉
Save this recipe and you or friends and family wont regret! Eating from OKONOMI LISA KITCHEN, is eating from the heart of vegan japenese food !! We love this ! Lisa BRAVO sista 👏👏👏👏
Any subs for the mushroom? I unfortunately hate them.
You could use more tofu or a meaty substitute of your choice 🙂 The mushrooms really do add umami to it too, though!
I thought I hated mushrooms when I was younger, but realized that my issue was really just disliking them raw and that a lot of people/restaurants don’t know how to cook mushrooms properly. If you hate mushrooms in dumplings, consider trying using something cheaper like a cremini (baby bella), chopping them small, and cooking them before putting them in your filling; sweat out their water in a hot pan and then add 2-3 tsp of white miso and some water and cook them down (if they are rubbery in any way, splash more water in and cook them down longer)… they will taste savory and meaty and maybe change your mind about mushrooms.
If you really aren’t willing to try that, I would replace them with tofu and then mix about 1Tbsp each of white miso, Muso from Japan black garlic sauce, tamari, and nutritional yeast and use it to replace the soy sauce in the recipe… that with a little sesame oil is my go-to dumpling filling seasoning and it will give them a wonderfully addictive umami flavor.
Mouth watering, juicy, plump – every bite was seriously heavenly. The pictures for the technique on how to properly fold these babies was SUPER HELPFUL for the first time ever making gyoza. I’ll never buy store bought frozen gyoza ever again. I also purposely set aside some to make Lisa’s gyoza fried rice tomorrow. SO EXCITED!
Hi, would I be able to use rice paper sheets instead of wraps ?
Tia
What about beansprouts or carrot or are those too watery I may try making some with apple in as I love sweet n savoury
Fantastic recipe and great results! My whole family loved these, and the dough was really easy to work with. I expected to have some left over to freeze but my kids kept asking for more to be cooked up until they were all gone! High praise indeed! This will become a family favourite for years to come. ありがとうございます！おいしいね！
These were very flavorful and delicious! I used soy curls instead of tofu and it came out great! They definitely reminded me of gyoza I had as a kid (and ones we used to serve at obon!). Thanks for the great recipe, I will definitely be making these again.