Vegan Gyoza

A lot of vegan gyoza recipes use tempeh, seitan or tofu. I wanted a simple vegetable only filling.  I found this recipe and riffed on it a bit.

If you have a large steamer set up in your kitchen, you could make gyoza ahead and then steam at the last minute for a party.


First, cut all the veggies
The point here is to cut each thing pretty finely. You are imitating ground meat, so make it small. That also helps when filling them (big clumps don't fit that well in dumpling wrappers).

Dice 1 small white onion (or use Japanese negi or green onions)

Mince 3 cloves garlic
Grate 1 TB ginger using a microplane
Dice approx 1 C cleaned shiitake mushrooms
Shred then dice 1.5 - 2 C napa cabbage (or regular cabbage or a green like collards)

Finely dice approx 1 C carrot.  I used my julienne peeler, then chopped the strands.

Stir fry the veggies
In a hot pan, add TB oil. Then add the onion and ginger and garlic and stir.   Add salt, pinch black pepper, and 1/4 tsp white pepper.

Add incrementally each cut vegetable from above and stir a little bit. Cook until softened.
Turn off heat, then stir in 1-2 tsp toasted sesame oil.

Assembly
Get a friend (or hubby) to help with this step.  One person keeps the wonton (square) or gyoza/dumpling (round) wrappers and places two out on a cutting board at a time. Then put a spoonful of filling in the center of each wrapper.

Pass to the next person. Next person has a small bowl of water. Dip the pointer finger of both hands into water. Dribble the water on two sides of the gyoza (from top right corner down and top right corner across to the left)-- you will use this to seal it to the other side.  Fold over diagonally and seal by pressing the edges. Now crimp and place on a rimmed cookie sheet.

Repeat for all the filling/wrappers, or until you run out.

Freeze
This is optional. I like to make the gyoza and freeze so I can use them later. You can steam directly from frozen, which makes a super fast dinner!

Cook & enjoy
You can cook up gyoza from fresh or frozen.  Two methods:

1) Steam over hot water until soft and warm (5 minutes?). This is the simplest and cleanest method
2) Fry in oil until crispy/browned on the bottom. Then add a tablespoon or two of water to the pan (it will sizzle), cover and let steam in the liquid. This method gets good crispy/steamy-d texture but is more messy.

Serve with dipping sauce- usually it's a mixture of rice vinegar (komezu), soy sauce and something spicy like chili oil, sriracha or sambal.

To make it a meal: I like to serve with a salad (like daikon, cucumber and or spinach), pickled lotus root, miso soup and or soba noodles with dipping sauce.