Food: Wonton Soup

I love wonton soup. It is one of my favourite meals, but for some reason I have not made this soup for years – I don’t know why… I made it last night and my family LOVED it – which is always a relief…

This is a delicious soup made up of soft parcels of pasta filled with tasty meat served in a salty tasty broth with tender and tasty vegetables. It is hot, hearty, filling meal which is easy to whip up when you don’t have a lot of time {or mince!}

Difficulty: Pretty easy
Preparation Time: 30mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Serves: 4 hungry people or 8 entree sizes

Ingredients

For the Soup:
2 litres of Chicken Stock
4 tbs soy sauce
1/2 clove of garlic
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tbs dry sherry
1 tsp sesame oil
1 carrot finely sliced
1 small head of brocoli, cut into small florets
1 handful of green beans, cut into 3cm lengths
2 shallots {green onions}, finely sliced

For the wontons
1 packet of wonton wrappers
200g mince {use either chicken or pork or a combination}
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs dry sherry
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp sesame oil
salt and pepper

Method

1. Wontons: Bring a big pot of salted water to boil
2. In a bowl combine all the ingredients for the wonton filling.
3. Lay the wonton wrappers on a work surface and place a small teaspoon of the filling on to each one.
4. Use a little water to dampen the edges of the wonton wrappers and start bringing up the sides of each of the wrappers and pinching them to seal off the meat filling. You should use a whole packet of wonton wrappers which is about 30.

5. Soup: Heat the stock in a large saucepan. Add the soy, garlic, ginger and sesame oil and bring to a boil.
6. Add the sliced and diced vegetables.

7. Wontons: While the vegetables are cooking in the soup, start cooking the wontons. Place about 10 at a time into the boiling salted water and cook for 4-5 mins until the pasta is cooked and soft. Place in a bowl with a little water to stop then sticking and cover to keep them warm.

8. Once all the wontons are cooked, separate them into bowls and fill them with the soup and then…. SERVE!

Variations:

• You can add any vegetables you like to this recipe: pak choy, peas, snowpeas, capsicum, corn etc …
• You may like to add some more asian inspired ingredients like shitake mushrooms and sliced chesnuts

Notes

• You can buy wonton wrappers in the fridge section of your local supermarket now, they are usually with the other fresh pastas. If you can’t get them at your big supermarket chain, find an asian grocer
• The sauces I added were to my taste, if you need to add more soy or garlic – just adjust as you need to
• You may or may not need to add more cornflour depending on the consistency – you don’t want the mixture too dry or it will go hard inside the parcels.

This is a great Sunday night dinner… what sorts of things do you make on Sunday nights?