Featured Comment:
“I made gyoza for my family but my mother in law is vegetarian so I decided to try your recipe. I used vegetarian miso and she really loved them! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes 🙂”
– Bella
What is Tofu Gyoza (Vegetable Gyoza)?
Gyoza, derived from the Chinese “jiǎozi,” are dumplings traditionally prepared by creating a thin dough from flour and water. This dough serves as a gyoza wrapper to house various fillings. Depending on the cooking method, the resulting gyoza is usually dipped in some variation of gyoza dipping sauce.
In Japan, pan-fried gyoza has notably carved out a niche for themselves. Niku gyoza for those filled with ground pork, shrimp gyoza for those packed with shrimp, and vegetable gyoza for the vegetable-loaded variants, denote the primary constituents of their respective fillings.
Despite the popularity of meat-based gyoza, the adaptability of these dumplings allows for considerable creativity. Gyoza can be tailored to cater to various preferences by simply substituting traditional ingredients with vegetarian alternatives. This recipe uses tofu as a meat substitute, resulting in an equally appealing, plant-based version of traditional gyoza.
If you want to know more about gyoza, please check out my pork gyoza post.
Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Tofu and Vegetable Gyoza at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
Roughly dice the shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms, and garlic chives, and grate the garlic and ginger. Add them to a bowl along with the firm tofu, black pepper, sake, mirin, cornstarch, sesame oil, soy sauce, and miso paste.
Mix thoroughly until the tofu has broken up and all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Hold the wrapper flat in your hands and add between 1/2 and 1 tbsp of filling to the center, making sure to leave a border around the edge.
Lightly wet half of the border and then gently fold the wrapper in half without letting the sides touch yet.
Pinch the corner and make pleats on one side, pressing them down on the other side to seal as you go.
Continue until the wrapper is completely sealed and press all the way around to secure it (make sure there aren’t any gaps!).
Your completed gyoza should look something like this:
Add cooking oil to a large, cold frying pan. The frying pan should be big enough to fit all of your gyoza in a single layer. (If you don’t have a big enough pan to do this, fry the gyoza in batches.) As you place the gyoza inside, spread the oil around evenly.
Heat on medium and fry until crispy and golden underneath. While you wait for them to cook, mix flour and warm water in a bowl to make a slurry. Once the gyoza are crispy underneath, pour the slurry into the pan and place a lid on.
Steam the gyoza until the water is almost gone and then remove the lid. Continue to cook until the slurry has completely evaporated and created a crispy layer underneath the gyoza.
Take a small bowl and mix rice vinegar, soy sauce, chili oil and black pepper.
Use a spatula to carefully loosen the gyoza from the pan and then flip them onto a plate.
Serve with your dipping sauce and enjoy!
I hope you enjoy this Tofu Gyoza recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Plant-based Recipes
- Plant-Based Mabo Nasu (Japanese Mapo Eggplant)
- Kenchin Jiru (Traditional Japanese Vegetable Soup)
- Ginger Miso Soup (Plant-based)
Want more inspiration? Explore my Plant-Based Recipe Roundup Post for a carefully selected collection of tasty recipe ideas to spark your next meal!
Pan-Fried Vegetarian Tofu Gyoza (Plant-Based Potstickers)
Ingredients
Gyoza Filling
- 100 g firm tofu
- 50 g fresh shiitake mushroom (fresh, not dried) roughly diced
- 50 g canned bamboo shoots roughly diced
- 30 g boiled wood ear mushroom roughly diced
- 30 g garlic chives roughly cut
- ½ tbsp grated garlic
- 1 tsp grated ginger root
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp sake
- 1 tsp mirin
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- ½ tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 1 tbsp yellow miso paste (awase) (yellow)
Assembly and Cooking
- 20 gyoza wrappers (large size)
- 50 ml warm water
- ½ tsp all-purpose flour
- ½ tbsp cooking oil
Gyoza Dipping Sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- ½ tsp chili oil (rayu)
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
My recommended brands of ingredients and seasonings can be found in my Japanese pantry guide.
Can’t find certain Japanese ingredients? See my substitution guide here.
Instructions
Filling and Assembling
- Prepare the ingredients for the filling according to the list above and place them in a large mixing bowl.
- Mix until the tofu has broken up and all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Hold the gyoza wrapper flat and add ½-1 tbsp of filling to the center. Make sure to leave a border around the edge.
- Wet the edge lightly with water, then gently fold the wrapper in half without letting the edges touch and pinch one corner.
- Make pleats on one side of the wrapper, pressing them on the flat side to seal.
- Repeat until the whole gyoza is sealed and tap the base to flatten.
Cooking
- Drizzle the cooking oil into a cold pan and place the gyoza in your preferred formation, using the base of the gyoza to help spread the oil.Turn on the heat to medium and cook until the bottom becomes brown and crispy.
- Make a slurry by mixing 50 ml warm water and ½ tsp all-purpose flour in a small bowl. Pour the slurry into the pan and place a lid on top. Steam until the liquid is almost gone, then remove the lid to allow it to evaporate completely.
- Mix 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 2 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), ½ tsp chili oil (rayu) and ¼ tsp ground black pepper in a small bowl for your dipping sauce.
- Plate up and enjoy!
Notes
- I used large (9.5cm/3.75inches in diameter) gyoza wrappers for this recipe. If using smaller wrappers, the recipe will make more than the number stated.
- Freeze uncooked tofu gyoza for later meals rather than refrigerating to prevent sogginess.
- Cook frozen gyoza directly without thawing to maintain flavor and texture, perfect for quick meals or spontaneous cooking.
- Store frozen gyoza for up to 1 month; avoid room temperature or refrigerated storage for uncooked gyoza.
- Refrigerate cooked gyoza leftovers for up to 24 hours and re-fry to restore crispiness; do not freeze cooked gyoza as it deteriorates texture.
- Serving suggestions: freshly cooked rice, plant-based miso soup, cucumber pickles.
Hi, looks delish!
Just letting you know that the link to making the gyoza is broken.
Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for your comment and letting us know!
It’s fixed now, thanks again!
Hi, these look good. Have you got a substitute for those allergic to mushrooms? I’ve tried several of your recipes and they always work well.
Thank you Esca! I’m sorry to hear about your allergy. I think bamboo shoots would be a good substitute, but otherwise you can just omit the mushrooms and add more of one of the other ingredients if you prefer. Hope this helps, I’m happy you’re enjoying my recipes!
I made gyoza for my family but my mother in law is vegetarian so I decided to try your recipe. I used vegetarian miso and she really loved them! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes 🙂
Hi Bella,
Really happy it worked out for everyone! Can’t wait for you to try more recipes!
Yuto