Gyoza are one of my most favourite dishes to eat at a Japanese restaurant however, most of the time they are made with pork. Now that I am eating a plant-based diet, I thought I'd try my hand at a Vegan alternative! Holy shit you guys, these were so good. My husband said he wasn't even hungry and he helped me eat half the plate haha.
2 cups kale
2 cups mushrooms
1/2 brick smoked tofu (you could just use plain extra firm, but the smoked has such a nice flavor)
1 tbsp soy sauce
5-6 shakes of sesame oil
2 tsp garlic powder
1 thumb length ginger root, grated
2-3 stalks of green onion
24 wonton wrappers (careful, some are made with egg and some are not, check the ingredients)
1/2 cup of water mixed with 1 tbsp flour (this will be your wonton glue)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Dipping sauce:
1/2 cup ponzu sauce (I used store bought, but you could totally make your own)
1 tbsp sriracha
2-3 shakes of sesame oil
Roughly chop the kale, mushrooms and tofu. (I actually spent the time neatly dicing them all into tiny pieces only to discover it still wasn't small enough, so I ended up putting it in the food processor. Basically what I'm saying is DON'T BOTHER NICELY CUTTING THEM) Saute your veggies and tofu over medium heat until soft, adding the soy sauce to braise the kale. Near the end, add the sesame oil, garlic powder and grated ginger. Once the veggies are soft, transfer to your food processor. Add the green onions at this point. I just ripped them up with my let the food processor chop them up. Pulse the mixture until you have a texture kind of like ground meat. You don't want to over mix it and get a paste, just a fine ground.
Now comes the kind of lame part, filling the wonton wrappers. Its not hard, but it takes a little while. Make your mixture of water and a little flour. Lay out one wrapper, dip your finger in the water mix, and paint it around the edge of the wrapper, the entire way around. You don't need alot, but just enough to moisten the edge. Place a spoon of mixture, about 1 tbsp in the middle of the wrapper. Gently fold it in half and pinch the wrapper all the way around to seal it up. The dough is pretty sticky, and stays sealed easily. Set aside and make the rest! I made about 24 dumplings with this amount of filling.
Once you're all done building the gyozas, its time to cook them. I took a medium frying pan, on medium heat and put a 1/2 cup of water and 1 tbsp of olive oil in the pan. Then I laid about half the gyozas in the pan and covered them with a lid. The water steams up and cooks the dough, then once it evaporates, the oil makes the bottom side all crispy. You don't need to flip them, but I did because I wanted lots of crispy goodness.
The dipping sauce is easy, just combine all the ingredients and whisk together. Then serve it up with your gyoza and enjoy!
These were so freaking tasty. One of my favourite parts of cooking without meat is that I get to taste and season my food the whole way through and make sure everything is yummy! And also, not having to worry if something is cooked all the way through is pretty nice too.
If you try these, I'd love to know what you think! Also, don't be afraid to put other ingredients in your filling. I will be trying out some different combos too!
