Easy Gyoza Dipping Sauce

Why You Will Love This Recipe

You will love this easy gyoza sauce recipe because:

• This quick homemade gyoza sauce is made with a few simple pantry staples
• You can customize this gyoza sauce recipe and adjust the ingredient quantities to suit your preference.
• This homemade sauce has more flavor than a basic dumpling dipping sauce made with four ingredients.
• It's cheaper to make your own than to buy a whole bottle of sauce that you may never finish.
• This dumpling dipping sauce is suitable for vegan and vegetarian diets and is gluten-free and dairy-free.

Ingredients

Please note that below is a guide for some of the ingredients we used in the recipe. The printable recipe further down the page has the complete list of ingredients, including quantities and step-by-step instructions.

Soya sauce - is a condiment made from fermented soybeans and some brands can contain wheat. It has a salty and savory flavor.

We used Japanese Kikkoman soy sauce because we like the flavor of this for dipping. However, you can use another soya sauce like light or dark or Tamari if you need gluten-free soy sauce.

Garlic and onion powder - powders are easy to mix into the sauce and give a good flavor without a raw taste. Grated fresh garlic can be used instead of garlic powder if desired.

Rice vinegar - is commonly used as an ingredient in Asian cooking for making marinades, sauces, and dressings. This adds a slightly sweet and sour taste to the sauce.

Sesame oil - This gives a nice nutty flavor to the dipping sauce but do be careful not to add too much of it because it can overpower the dipping sauce.

Grated ginger - gives a freshness to the sauce. Grate fresh or frozen ginger for the best-tasting sauce instead of a bottled ginger paste.

Brown sugar - or palm sugar will help balance out the flavors of the sauce and add these to taste.

Red chili - will add spiciness and heat to the dipping sauce and is optional.

Chives - is also optional and are used as a garnish more than anything else.

Instructions

In a small bowl, mix the soya sauce, powdered garlic, onion, rice vinegar, sesame oil, grated ginger, sugar, and chili.

Stir in the chopped chives.

Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking by adding more of any ingredient if needed.

Serve the sauce as a dip of gyoza or other dumplings.

Recipe Tips

Palm sugar - if using palm sugar, shave it very finely and dissolve it in hot water with the onion powder.

Adjust the strength - most dipping sauces for dumplings can be very salty to taste. In this recipe for gyoza sauce, we diluted it with two tablespoons of water.  

For us, this strength is ideal because foods dipped into this sauce have a saltiness level that we enjoy.

So feel free to adjust the strength of the sauce to your taste by adding a little more water to dilute and weaken the intensity, or use less water for a more intense flavor.

For the best flavor - this tastes great if you let it marinate for at least 30 minutes, but it gets even better if you leave it to marinate covered in the fridge for 24 - 48 hours. 

Serving Size

The serving size of this gyoza dipping sauce recipe is two teaspoons, which is sufficient to half-fill a small Asian-style dipping bowl.

Calories Per Serve

The serving size has about 10 calories and 168 mg of sodium.

Serving Suggestions

Separate dipping bowls - Our recipe for gyoza dipping sauce makes half a cup of sauce and can be doubled or tripled if you need more. 

However, it is best not to serve it in one big bowl for everyone to dip into. 

Instead, spoon some dipping sauce into small individual dipping bowls so that everyone has their own, and top the bowls up as required.

Unused sauce - If you make a big batch, store the remaining sauce in an air-tight container in the fridge to keep it fresh and make it last longer.

Variations

• For a spicier sauce, increase the amount of red chili.
• Don't like it spicy, leave out the chili.
• Don't have fresh chili use crushed chilli flakes, chili sauce, chili oil, chili paste, or sambal.
• Don't have rice vinegar substitute it with white vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
• Don't have brown sugar use white granulated sugar instead.
• Don't have chives; finely sliced spring onions or scallions can be good substitutes.
• If it is too salty, dilute it with some water.
• If you like a sweeter sauce mix in more sugar.
• Don't like garlic or ginger - leave them out.
• Don't have soy sauce, you could use ponzu sauce if you have it. This citrus-flavored Japanese sauce has soy sauce as one of its main ingredients.

How To Use

This easy gyoza sauce isn't just for dipping dumplings or for using as a potsticker sauce - try it on other dishes!

• Give spring rolls, Asian-style meatballs, and other appetizers a flavor with a quick dip in gyoza sauce.
• Use it as a marinade to add depth and savoriness to grilled or pan-fried meats such as chicken, beef, pork, or fish.
• Add a spoonful of gyoza sauce to stir-fries for an extra kick of flavor.
• Serve gyoza sauce as a topping for noodles or use it as a dip for savory pancakes like these spring onion okara pancakes.
• Use it to flavor fried rice dishes or as a condiment for sandwiches or burgers.
• Give sushi, hosomaki, or sushi bake a unique non-traditional twist by serving gyoza sauce as a dip.
• Add gyoza sauce to pan-fried soft tofu for a flavorful and easy snack similar to this sesame ginger tofu.
• You could even use it as a marinade to flavor eggs similar to these Korean marinated eggs.

Storage

Transfer the sauce to an airtight container with a lid and store it in the fridge. The sauce will keep for up to a week.

Note:  If you have served the sauce as a dip, it is not recommended to store and reuse any sauce that has come into contact with food. For hygiene purposes, it is best to discard any used dipping sauce.

FAQ

If you like this easy gyoza dipping sauce recipe, you might also like this recipe for TVP vegan bacon bits or this recipe for stir-fried kailan with miso butter.