Vegetarian Gyoza /Japanese Vegetarian Pot-Stickers

After finishing my doctoral studies, I went to Japan for my postdoctoral studies. It is the first country I visited. If you ask me how I survived in Japan, I don’t know how. You are leaving India for first time and not knowing where you going to stay, you don’t know language. I did it. Japan became close to heart during my stay. If you ask will you go again? I will say may be. At first there was only one dish that I could eat which was the salad and vegetarian kare (curry) rice. Slowly during my stay I got used to Japanese bento recipes, onigri, miso soup, tempura, Japanese omelet, Gyoza etc. I love it now. But at first my spicy tongue struggled to get used to the taste.

Getting vegetarian stuff in seafood rich country was a difficult task for me. Later when I started cooking I started using Japanese ingredients in my dishes. 

This Gyoza or Japanese Pot-stickers are usually filled with a blend of ground pork, cooked cabbage, garlic chives, sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger . Covering is made with noodle dough (we can use wonton wrappers here). Even though lots of variations exist, the pork and cabbage are pretty much standard ingredients. Usually these pot stickers are served with spicy sauce.

The cooking of these Goyza includes both pan frying and steaming, bottom part is pan fried where as the top part is steamed to get cooked completely. Even though Goyza has some similarities to Momos ( Sikim( East india) and Nepal dish). As ingredients in their outer covering and use of sauce to consume. However I think Goyza is tastier due to pan frying and steaming, where as moms are usually steamed dish.

Since I am making gyoza first time, I wanted it to be as authentic as possible, so I made wrappers from scratch. If you are in Japan you can get the Gyoza wrappers for super market. As I was not able to visit Hong Kong market, I used homemade wrappers. I used recipe adapted from The Japanese Kitchen, by Hiroko Shimbo via Lafujimama .

For the filling I used cabbage, carrot, green onion, onion, ginger, garlic, miso paste, soya sauce, Sriracha hot sauce. 

Made gyoza wrappers with all purpose flour , salt and hot water. As I don’t have perfect cookie cutter, shape of wrappers came little out. Stir fired filling until it retain the crunchiness but at same time gets cooked. Then pleated wrappers containing filling pan fried first and then steamed to get completely cooked. Then served along with spicy dipping sauce made of soy sauce, onion, ginger, green onions and hot sauce. Don’t get intimidate with steps, the taste you get is worth all efforts. Try it some time for a change. Here goes the recipe.

Print recipe from here
One year ago: Pane cassetta altamura/ Semolina bread

What you need

For Gyoza wrappers: yield 15 no
All purpose flour: ¾ cup
Salt: 1/8 teaspoon
Boiling water: 1/8 cup


For Gyoza filling

Cabbage: 1 cup (chopped finely)
Carrot: ½ cup (grated)
Onion:1/3 cup ( chopped finely)
Green onion: 1/3 cup ( chopped finely)
Ginger garlic paste: 1 tablespoon
Sesame oil: 2 tablespoon
Soy sauce: ½ teaspoon
Sriracha hot sauce: 1 teaspoon


For dipping sauce

Shallots: 1 teaspoon
Ginger garlic paste: 1 teaspoon
Soy sauce: 1/8 cup
Sugar: ½ teaspoon
Sriracha chili sauce: ½ teaspoon
Water: 1/3 cup


How I made

Goya wrapper

In medium bowl swift the all-purpose flour and salt and gradually add boiling water to form dough. Let rest the dough for about 1 hour in the bowl covered with a damp towel.

Transfer the dough to well floured surface and knead well for 5 minutes or until it become smooth. Shape them into long log. Then cut the log into 15 pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a 3-inch disk, making the outer edge thinner than the center, then dust it liberally with additional flour, and stack them (the flour will help keep them fresh and also prevent them from sticking to each other).

Initially the wrappers were of different shapes using a cookie cutter or lid cut them into thin circular rounds. If you are not planning to use immediately, you can freeze them for further use.

Gyoza filling

In a medium skillet add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and then add ginger garlic paste and fry for 1 minute then add chopped, cabbage, grated carrot, onion and green onion and cook for about 7 minutes or until they retain the crunchiness but at the same time cooked well. To this add soy sauce, miso paste,sirircha sauce and combine everything and remove from the fire.

Pleating and cooking the Gyoza

Take one Goyza wrapper and place 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of Gyoza skin and wet the edge of Gyoza wrappers with water and fold into two. Start pleating from the center out to one side, and then go back to the center and pleat out to the other edge. Make pleats in only one side.

Once you have done pleating place the gyoza on a flat surface to flatten the bottom of the dumpling. You also can press on the pleats to tighten up the seal you've created at this point. Continue the process until you finish the entire filling and wrappers. You can also freeze them at this point for future use if you are not using them immediately.

Cooking Gyoza

In a pre heated medium skillet add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and place the prepared gyozas in single layer.

Cook them for 2 minutes or until the bottom gets nice golden brown. At this point however top part is still cold and not cooked.

To this add ½ cup of water and cover the frying pan with lid and cook until the entire waters gets evaporated or 10 minutes. If need add more water and cook well.

Dipping sauce

In a bowl mix all the ingredients for dipping sauce.

Serve hot Gyoza with dipping sauce. ENJOY!!

Preparation time: Gyoza wrappers: 1 hour 10 minutes

Preparation of filling: 10 minutes

Cooking of Gyoza: 12 minutes
Yield: 15 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will

I am linking this to Hearth and soul hop#58