Stuffed with sweet kabocha squash and miso-glazed eggplant, these Oyaki Japanese dumplings are a popular snack in Nagano Prefecture in central Japan.
As the weather chills and you spend more time in the comfort of your home, I thought it would be nice to share a fun Japanese dumpling recipe that will keep you busy in the kitchen. You – and maybe your kids too – get to play with flour, making the dough from scratch, and stuffing the dumplings with your favorite fillings!
I love making Oyaki (おやき) – Japanese Stuffed Dumplings – this time of year. They are such delicious comfort food on cold days, so I just had to introduce them to you today.
What is Oyaki?
Oyaki (おやき) are stuffed dumplings that originated in Nagano Prefecture. The chewy oyaki dough is made from wheat flour or a mixture of wheat flour and buckwheat flour and stuffed with a variety of yummy fillings. The fillings are generally made from vegetarian ingredients such as fresh seasonal vegetables, mushrooms, beans, or pickles.
These rustic, homemade oyaki dumplings have played an important role in Nagano’s regional cuisine for generations. Located in central Japan, Nagano has steep mountains and a cold climate, so rice cultivation was very difficult. Instead, soba (buckwheat) became the main crop, with Nagano yielding the 2nd highest production by volume in Japan, only behind Hokkaido.
Oyaki may not be fancy food, but these humble treats from Nagano are a symbol of necessity, comfort, and sustainability.
How Oyaki is Cooked
Oyaki were traditionally cooked and charred in the ash of an open fire in an irori (囲炉裏) hearth. These days, oyaki at specialty stores are typically roasted on an iron pan, then either steamed or broiled before enjoying piping hot.
To cook oyaki at home, you can try one of these methods:
- Steamed
- Pan-fried then steamed
- Steamed and then pan-fried
- Deep-fried
Personally, I like to pan-fry oyaki first to give them a nice char, and then steam till they are cooked. But I encourage you to try a few methods to find your favorite way of preparing Japanese stuffed dumplings.
Popular Fillings for Oyaki
The type of fillings (or An 餡 in Japanese) for oyaki vary with region, with each area having its own local specialty. Today’s Oyaki recipe includes sweet and savory kabocha squash and miso-glazed eggplant fillings. They are very popular fillings for Japanese dumplings.
But there are endless choices of ingredients to stuff oyaki with. Here’s a list to give you some ideas to play with:
- Nozawana (a pickled leafy green famous in Nagano)
- Various mushrooms
- Kiriboshi Daikon (recipe coming soon!)
- Negimiso (leeks and miso)
- Walnut miso
- Hijiki seaweed dressed with walnut
- Sweet azuki read beans (anko)
- Sesame miso
- Potatoes
- Fukinoto (butterbur sprout)
- Fukinoto miso
- Warabi (bracken)
- Japanese sweet potatoes
- Gobo (burdock root)
- Kinpira Gobo
- Local Shinshu salmon
- Jidori chicken
- Apple
These ingredients are often seasoned with soy sauce or miso for savory dumplings and sweetened with sugar for sweet dumplings. The dough doesn’t have much taste, so make sure to add extra flavor to the fillings so the oyaki won’t taste bland.
There are so many creative fillings and seasonings to try. Have fun experimenting with new flavors!
How to Serve Oyaki
Oyaki is a great snack or side dish for a meal. Serve oyaki with a cold beer in the summer and hot tea in the winter. And when you have a chance to visit Nagano Prefecture, don’t forget to try these healthy and delicious snacks in specialty shops and food stalls!
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Oyaki (Japanese Stuffed Dumplings)
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 200 ml boiling water (1 cup minus 2½ Tbsp)
- 1 tsp neutral oil
- ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
For the Eggplant Filling
- 2 Japanese or Chinese eggplants
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp sugar (you can reduce if you‘d like; the dough tastes rather bland, so make sure the filling has a strong flavor)
- 1 Tbsp miso
- 2 shiso leaves (perilla/ooba) (julienned; optional)
For the Kabocha Filling
- 12 oz kabocha squash (¼ kabocha with seeds)
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
- ¼ cup water
- 1 Tbsp sugar (you can reduce if you‘d like; if you prefer a more savory taste, you can increase the amount of soy sauce but you will need to add some sugar to balance out the salty flavor and can‘t omit it completely)
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 pinch Diamond Crystal kosher salt
For Cooking
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
To Make Dough
- Using a fine-mesh strainer, sift 2½ cups all-purpose flour (plain flour) into a large bowl. Combine 200 ml boiling water (1 cup minus 2½ Tbsp), 1 tsp neutral oil, and ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
- Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients with chopsticks until you can pick up the dough with your hands.
- Use the dough to pick up the crumbs in the bowl.
- Knead on a lightly floured surface for about 3 minutes, until a smooth dough forms. In Japan, we say “knead until the texture is like your earlobe.”
- Form the dough into a ball, put it back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or longer. Letting the dough rest increases its elasticity making it easier to work with later, so please don‘t skip.
To Make the Eggplant Filling
- While the dough rests, make the fillings. Remove the stems of 2 Japanese or Chinese eggplants and cut it half lengthwise. Then, slice into half circles. Soak in water for 5–10 minutes. (Meanwhile, you can cut the kabocha). Drain well and set aside.
- Heat 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil in a large frying pan and sauté the eggplant until it is coated with oil. Cover the lid and cook on low heat for 5 minutes.
- When tender, add 1 Tbsp sugar and combine well.
- Add 1 Tbsp miso. Add 2 shiso leaves (perilla/ooba) that you‘ve julienned into thin strips. Mix well together. Transfer to a dish to let cool.
To Make the Kabocha Filling
- Cut 12 oz kabocha squash into smaller wedges and remove the skin. (See my post on How To Cut a Kabocha Squash.)
- Cut each wedge into thin slices and then cut into thin strips.
- Heat 1 Tbsp neutral oil in the frying pan and sauté the kabocha. When it’s coated with oil, add ¼ cup water and cook covered for 5 minutes on low heat.
- Add 1 Tbsp sugar and combine well.
- Add 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 pinch Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Mix well together.
- Transfer to the dish to let cool.
To Shape into Oyaki
- Roll out the rested dough into a rectangular or circle shape and divide it into 12 pieces.
- Make each dough into a ball then press down with your hand.
- Stretch the dough to 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter. The important trick is to keep the center thicker than the edges. Using your fingers, stretch the outer edges by rotating the dough. This way, when you pinch the dough to seal, the dough won’t be too thick/too much.
- Place about 1 Tbsp of the filling in the center of each piece of dough. Close the oyaki by bringing the dough up over the filling, pinching at the top to seal.
- After pinching the dough, put the pinched-side down on a lightly floured surface and twist a few times. Then press the top of the oyaki a little bit into a slightly flat ball.
To Cook the Oyaki
- Set up a steamer by placing a steamer basket on top of a wok/pot filled with enough boiling water. Tip: If you don’t have a steamer, after cooking the oyaki in a frying pan, add ¼ cup water to the pan. Cover with a lid and steam it until the water evaporates.
- Heat 1 Tbsp neutral oil in a frying pan (12 inch) and cook the oyaki, pinched-side down.
- Pan-fry for 3–4 minutes each side, or until golden brown.
- Transfer the oyaki to a steamer basket and cover to cook on high heat for 15–20 minutes (depending on the size of the oyaki and filling—a small one should take about 10 minutes). Make sure the lid is covered with a kitchen towel so the condensation on the lid doesn’t fall onto the oyaki.
- When they are done steaming, transfer to a wire rack (I use a bamboo strainer) where the heat can escape from the bottom.
To Serve and Store
- Enjoy the Oyaki immediately. As soon as they become warm, not hot, cover the leftovers with plastic wrap (I wrap individually). Don’t wait until completely cooled down. You can freeze to store for up to a month, and re-steam to enjoy later.
This is so good! I made the eggplant one yesterday and it’s one of the best things I’ve made in a while. Thanks Nami! And happy holidays 🙂
Hi Logan,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Have a wonderful Holiday!☺️
Nice.!
Hi HotelcomfortInn!
Thank you very much for your feedback! We hope you enjoy this Oyaki.🙂
I just tried these with pumpkin and they were extremely delicious!! Thank you for this amazing recipe.
Hi Laura!
Aww. We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the Pumpkin Oyaki!
Thank you for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback.😊
I cannot praise these enough, they are so addicting! I used oven-roasted butternut squash because I can’t find kabocha where I live. They’re good fresh or in your lunch the next day!
Hi Kristine,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. We’re glad to hear you enjoyed this Oyaki!
I think that the oven-roasted butternut squash is an excellent choice for a substitute for Kabocha.
Thank you for sharing the cooking tip with us!
Can you make a large batch of kabocha/anko ones and freeze the excess? I know that eggplant doesn’t like to play nice in the freezer, but I was hoping that you thought the dough would behave if I made a large batch so I could have them whenever I want a snack.
Hi Erin! Sure you can freeze well for anko and kabocha. Keep me posted on the freezing batch!
I love discovering new foods. Thank you for this delicious recipe. I ended up using a mixture of buckwheat and all-purpose flour. However, since I’ve never had this dish before I don’t know if it came close to the original are not. Also, I only tried the eggplant option, using the Japanese eggplant I picked from my garden (in fact, searching for something new to do with them, led me to this site.) I may try the squash recipe another time but substitute it with sweet potato instead. Tomorrow, I’m going to make some more dough for my leftover filling, but this time using only spelt. Thanks again.
Hi L! Thank you for trying this recipe with wheat and buckwheat flour! I’ve never made one with buckwheat so I am curious how it is like too.
How wonderful that you grow your own Japanese eggplant. I’m jealous! Make sure to try Eggplant Donburi, it’s ours and many JOC readres’ favorite!
https://www.justonecookbook.com/soy-glazed-eggplant-donburi/
I want to make this however I was interested in the buckwheat mixture version. Do you have a the dough recipe for that option? Thanks
Hi L! So sorry I couldn’t catch your comment quickly enough. No, I’m not sure about the buckwheat version. Knowing the buckwheat dishes, I assume it’s drier in the final result?
I made oyaki just last night, and they were quite delicious. The dough was simple, easy to make, and the fillings were very tasty. I had to stop myself from just eating all the kabocha filling by itself! My whole family enjoyed them, and they have been requested again. I look forward to trying new fillings. Thank you!
Hi Lilly! Aww I’m so happy to hear your family enjoyed this dish! Thank you for your kind feedback!
Just made these dumplings but with a different filling. They are fantastic, so easy to make, easy to cook, great texture and taste.
I made Chinese pulled pork to fill them with a sticky hoisin style dip. Delicious! The dough held all the juice from the pork so when we bit into them we got so much flavour.
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Catherine! I’m so happy you enjoyed making Oyaki! I love your filling… that sounds delicious! Thank you for your kind feedback!
Made this over the weekend and they came out delicious. I did the eggplant and if updating I would probably cut the eggplant much smaller than I did and add some extra seasoning–the dough was really easy to work with. All around great.
Hi Nicole! Thank you for your tip and feedback! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it! 🙂
Hello Nami,
I’m sorry for writing like every day, but I’m totally fixed to your recipes (again).
Did you try the kabocha filling sweet or for christmas? Like with cinnamon? I got a recipe for hokkaido kabocha waffles and that is so tasty! I love it in autumn. But I always omit every sugar, because hokkaido pumpkin feels like already sweet enough, for my taste.
I’m going to try this recipe next sunday, because I still got frozen hokkaido and after I loved your Nikkuman so much this recipe is on top for trying and liking. And I’m sure I’m going to like it a lot! Like all your recipes
Hi Anna! Not at all! You can omit the sugar. As the dough is pretty simple, you will find the filling to be saltier or sweeter or spicier taste. But it’s really up to you. 🙂 Hope you like this recipe!
Like you described it it really tastes plain without the sugar. Gods, why did I omit it? For all Comment readers: Don’t omit it! Nami is so right
Hahaha. Well, it’s up to people’s preferences, but I like to stay classic and authentic when I share the Japanese recipes on the blog. 🙂
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Just whipped these up with eggplant and japanese sweet potato. They were so good and much easier than I thought they would be!
Hi Christine! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
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I just love Japanese food, since coming back from Japan I really miss the food and especially the people.
Hi Toni! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed your trip/stay in Japan! Hope cooking your favorite Japanese food at home will give you comfort when you miss Japan… that’s what I do… 🙂