How to Make Vegan Potstickers Completely From Scratch
Chinese take-out who??? Make these vegan potstickers in the comfort of your own home instead! These are steam-fried dumplings made with homemade wrappers and stuffed with a very flavorful tofu, vegetable, and edamame filling. They’re soft, slightly chewy, and even crispy if you choose to pan-fry them. These vegan potstickers are probably easier to make than you think and incredibly delicious!
These genuinely aren’t as difficult to make as you may think!
If you take a peep down at the written recipe, you may feel overwhelmed by the hefty instructions. Making these is not rocket science, though. The instructions look intimidating, sure, because I wanted to give as much detail as possible to ensure you have recipe success.
The most “difficult” part of this vegan potsticker recipe is forming the actual potstickers into their shape. So, I’ve filmed a SHORT VIDEO demonstrating exactly how to form the vegan potstickers, as I know the technique can seem confusing if you’re only reading the instructions. Watch my YouTube video as many times as you need to to get the method down. With that all being said, read my “TIPAROOSKIS” section of this post, located below the recipe, for some awesome tips I think you may find handy!
What should I eat with these potstickers?
Whenever I make these potstickers, I think to myself… “If I was ordering Chinese take-out, what other side dishes would I order with these potstickers!?” My answer is most definitely (vegan) lo mein, fried rice, egg rolls/spring rolls, orange chicken, and beef and broccoli. Yeah, that’s a lot of food, but I love take-out, okay!? If you’re up to making it, I have a REALISTIC VEGAN MONGOLIAN BEEF AND BROCCOLI recipe. It’s not Chinese, but it’s a great take-out inspired recipe that I think would still pair perfectly with these vegan potstickers.
I totally understand not wanting to put effort into making any additional dishes to go alongside these vegan potstickers, so I also recommend taking a walk through Trader Joe’s or Whole Food’s frozen aisle if you live near one! They’ve got a few great sides that would go awesome with these potstickers. For example, I LOVE Trader Joes’ vegetable spring rolls, kung pao tempura cauliflower, and vegetable fried rice!
If you give these homemade vegan potstickers a try, don’t forget to post a picture to Instagram, tag me @chefsummerstorm, and #gardengrub so I can see your recreation!
WATCH THIS QUICK VIDEO ON HOW TO FORM THE POTSTICKERS
How to Make Vegan Potstickers Completely From Scratch
Ingredients
- Cornstarch, to prevent the pieces of dough from sticking to eachother
Dough
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the counter as needed
- 1/2 cup boiling hot water
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
Filling
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 cup extra firm tofu, cut into 1/4th inch cubed pieces (Before cutting, drain and rinse off the tofu. Wrap it in pieces of paper towel several times and gently press down on the tofu to squeeze out as much of the water as you can.)
- 2 cup green cabbage, thinly chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 1 cup shelled edamame, cooked according to package directons
- 1/2 cup green onions, small chopped
- 2 tbsp garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 2 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Instructions
Dough
- Add the flour and salt into a medium-sized mixing bowl and stir to combine.
- Gradually add the boiling hot water into the flour, stirring continuously, until all of the water has been added. Now using your hands, form the potsticker dough into a ball. At first, the dough mixture will look and feel dry, but it comes together once you work it with your hands, I promise!
- Place the dough onto the countertop and knead it for 2 minutes. If the dough begins to stick to the counter, lightly dust the counter with flour.
- Form the dough into a ball again, pinch the ends together, and tightly wrap it in plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rest for at least 20 minutes at room temperature.
- Move on and make the potsticker's filling. When ready to assemble, see directions below for "How to Assemble the Potstickers."
Filling
- Place a large non-stick saute pan over medium heat. Once hot, add in the vegetable oil, followed by the diced tofu. Cook the tofu for 6 minutes or until lightly golden brown and crispy. Try to avoid stirring the tofu around too much to prevent it from tearing and sticking to the pan. Stir only as necessary to brown all sides.
- Add in the cabbage and cooked edamame. Cook for 4 minutes, occasionally stirring.
- Add in the green onions, garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper. Stir and cook for 1 more minute.
- Add in the soy sauce and rice vinegar, cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly. Place the potsticker filling in a bowl and set it in the fridge until it is completely cooled down.
- Lastly, stir the sesame oil and cilantro into the filling.
- Move on to the next sets of instructions to assemble and cook the potstickers!
How to Assemble the Potstickers
- Line a large sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper and then lightly dust it with cornstarch. Set aside.
- Lightly dust the counter with flour and roll the dough into a thin sheet that is almost see-through. I ended up rolling mine into an oval shape that was about 18 inches by 14 inches to give you a rough idea of the size it should be.
- Cut circles out of the dough using a ring mold. Alternatively, you can turn a cup upside down and use it as a cookie-cutter. If the cup isn't "sharp" enough, you may have to cut the dough around it with a small knife. *I used a cup, and it gave me 3 1/2 inch circles, which was the perfect size.
- Set the circles of dough onto the sheet pan that is dusted with cornstarch. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on top to prevent them from dry out.
- Take the dough scraps and knead them together to form a new ball. Re-roll it out and cut out as many more circles as you can.
- Now, working with one dough circle at a time, place it in the middle of one of your non-dominant hand and place about 1 tablespoon of filling into the dough's center. Lightly wet one-half side of the dough's edge with water and then form the dough into a taco-like shape. Before sealing the two edges together, form ONE side's edge into a ribbon-like pattern while pressing it up against the other half side at the same time. So, the dough's edges should be sealed together now, but one edge should have a ribbon-like pattern, and the other edge should be flat. ALTERNATIVELY, you can press the outer edges together and skip making the ribbon-like pattern to avoid the hassle. I HAVE PROVIDED A SHORT DEMONSTRATION VIDEO ON THIS TECHNIQUE ABOVE THE RECIPE.
- Place the sealed potsticker back onto the sheet pan. Fill and shape all of the dough before moving on to the next step.
How to Cook the Potstickers
- Place a large non-stick saute pan over medium/medium-high heat. Once hot, add in 3/4 cup of water followed by about 6 potstickers. When placing the potstickers into the pan, I like to gently drag them around in the water for a few seconds. I find this helps them not stick while cooking. Cover the pan and allow the potstickers to steam for 3 minutes, gently flipping them over halfway through. *You will probably need to add a splash of water here and there if the water completely cooks off before the potstickers have cooked for the full 3 minutes. Ensure the pan NEVER runs out of water; otherwise, the potstickers will stick to the pan!
- The potstickers are now ready to eat! However, if you want to make them crispy, you can directly add a splash of vegetable oil and cook them until golden brown and crisp on both sides.
- Serve the potstickers with your desired dipping sauce. I typically dip these in soy sauce seasoned with chili pepper flakes.
TIPAROOSKIS
Welcome to my tip section of the vegan potstickers recipe! Here I provide my top tips to help you perfect the recipe. Sometimes, I also give substitute suggestions that I think you may find helpful.
- Don’t want to bother with making the potsticker dough from scratch!? The brand ‘Nasoya’ changed the recipe of their wonton wrappers recently, and they’re now vegan! These are square, so if you choose to use these instead of making my recipe, the potstickers will look a bit different. Simply place the filling in the center and then pull two opposite corners together and seal the edges. The potstickers will have a triangular shape, but that’s fine!
- Feel free to change up the filling a bit! I chose to keep it simple by having the base be the tofu, cabbage, and edamame, but you can add or swap whatever veggie ingredients you’d like best. I also think adding in diced mushrooms would be super tasty!
- Depending on whether you use all of your dough scraps or not, you may have a bit of the filling leftover. I usually get 20 potstickers out of the dough and have about 1/4 cup of the filling left. I typically end up eating it with a spoon because it’s delicious, but I think tossing it with some lo mein noodles would be tasty too!
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