Spicy Sichuan Vegan Potstickers (2024)

Spicy Sichuan Vegan Potstickers: Spiced with bright Sichuan peppercorns, these simple vegetarian potstickers are anything but ordinary!

Having spent the last three months as a vegetarian, my recent trip to China was a bit surprising.

This was my first time ever traveling as a vegetarian and I was a bit nervous that I’d go hungry for most of the trip.

Before I left, I informed my two meat-eating travel companions that I had taken the following pre-cautions:

1. I saved an image on my phone which contains the Mandarin Chinese characters for “I do not eat meat. I only eat vegetables.” I’d been told ahead of time that there isn’t a true translation for the word “vegetarian,” so I wanted to make myself clear.
2. I made a deal with myself that I would try my very best to avoid meat, but that I wasn’t going to cause a stink or ruin anyone’s good time because of it. More than once on the trip I found myself eating around a few pieces of pork.
3. If all else fails, eat lots and lots of rice.

As it turned out, nearly everywhere I went had vegetarian options, or at least plenty of options for vegetable side dishes that I could order together to make a meal.

My two friends who went on the trip with me almost always preferred my vegetable dishes over whatever they were having, with the exception of a few pork dumplings that we walked FOUR HOURS to get to.

Becoming wildly jealous of the amazing dumpling and potsticker options my friends were wolfing down, I did my best to order some vegetarian options which were always a bit… underwhelming. Not *bad*, but nothing to write home about.

I knew that as soon as I got home, I was going to make my own version of vegetarian potstickers that would satisfy my craving for authentic Chinese food.

The first time I tried out my new vegetarian potstickers recipe, I added an egg to the filling mixture because I was worried that the cabbage and mushrooms wouldn’t stick together very well. This resulted in… let’s say “unusually interesting” veggie potstickers.

I nixed the egg, and they came outjustlike I dreamed they would.

No egg = vegan potstickers recipe! YAY!

In a recipe with so few ingredients, the use of fresh and high quality products is of the utmost importance.

I opted for baby bella mushrooms and Chinese (aka “Napa”)cabbage, then seasoned the filling with hoisin sauce and a few herbs and spices.

As I’ve mentioned in about a thousand posts by now, high quality spices make ALL the difference, which is why I love to get mine from FrontierCo-op. This love affair must be getting serious, because they offered to sponsor this recipe and I’m expecting a marriage proposal any day now.

Just like my recipes, every spice sold by Frontier has a story behind it. Whenever we work together, we talk about cooking with purpose, which for me is about opening up to and appreciating different cultures.

For so many people, the very first thing that gets them interested in a new culture or destination is the food.

Some of you might recall that when I started traveling, I chose my first destination (Thailand) entirely because I liked Thai food.

I love to bring new cuisines and cultural stories into my own kitchen, and I hope that my recipes inspire you to do the same in yours!

I typically start my recipe development process by raiding my spice cabinet for inspiration, and this time it was no different.

To satisfy my need for ALL FLAVOR ALL THE TIME, I spiced the filling for the vegetable potstickers with dried scallions, onion flakes, garlic powder, and freshly ground Sichuan peppercorns.

Sichuan peppercorns are my latest addiction; the spice is subtle and almost has a citrus vibe to it. You don’t really notice the spice until you’re done eating and the tip of your tongue is a littletingly. I’m now keeping my grinder on the dinner table next to the salt and pepper. It’s good on everything but pancakes.

The potsticker dipping sauce is a really simple concoction of soy sauce, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes, and more dried scallions. Salty and tangy, with a hint of heat and greenery for color.

One final note about the recipe: make sure you’re using “gyoza” wrappers and not “wonton” wrappers for the potstickers. “Gyoza” wrappers are thicker, like pasta, while “wonton” wrappers are thinner, like phyllo dough. If you want to call this a vegan gyoza recipe, a veggie gyoza recipe, vegetable gyoza recipe or even a vegetarian gyoza recipe, I’m okay with it – no matter what you call it, you will call it DELICIOUS!!!

Here’s the Recipe!

My good friends over at Frontier Co-op compensated me for my time to create this recipe. As always, all content and opinions are my own!