The Ultimate Guide to Wonton Soup

Autumn is here and it is always pleasuring to have bowls of warm wonton soup in cooler days. This is my ultimate guide to the prefect homemade Chinese wonton soup with several common ways to make it.

Wontons and dumplings are two specialties from China. They can be served among meals or as meals. Wonton can be deep-fried but the most common serving way is with a broth. Wonton soup can be mild in chicken stock, or hot and sour in a spicy Sichuan broth or even hotter with larger amount of chili oil. In this post, I will guide you to make paper thin wrapper, fluffy and well flavored filling and easy method to prepare the broth, plus how to wrap wonton in 6 different ways.

Make the perfect wonton filling at home

Since there is no extra vegetable added in wonton fillings, it is quite important to keep the filling juicy and fluffy, otherwise the meat get dried out after cooking. The process of wonton filling shares some commons with meatballs. Instead of adding water in the meat, I use egg in most of my daily cooking because egg liquid holds the filling better while moisten it to avoid drying out.

The key technique for a fluffy and tender filling is to stir the filling in one direction at least for 3-4 minutes until the filling becomes quite sticky. When the filling is well stirred, you can feel a strong resistance if you want to continue mixing. Refrigerating the filling for 15 to 20 minutes before wrapping if you are not in a hurry can improve the taste greatly.

About the wrappers

If you purchase wonton wrappers in an Asian market, you may find white larger ones and yellow small ones. The yellow wonton wrapper comes from Cantonese cuisine. But in other areas like Sichuan, wonton wrappers usually present in yellowish white. Both types are ok. In addition to store-bought wrappers, we can make wonton wrappers at home. Handmade wonton wrappers can be paper thin, usually much thinner than store-bought ones.

Tips for starting wrapping wontons at home

• Always keep the wonton skin covered so they will not dry out in the air.
• Mind the size of your filling and avoid big wontons. I recommend around 1 teaspoon of filling for each wonton.

Place around 1 teaspoon of filling at 1/3 of the wrapper. Moisten the edges with your fingers. Fold the wrap in the middle to form a rectangular shape in the center part of the wrapper. Fold up the filling again. Moisten one corner and at last overlay the two corners.

If you need picture tutorial or learn other ways, check how to wrap wontons.

How to store or freeze wonton

We usually make a large batch of wonton, sometimes they are leftover so we need to freeze them for the next meal. Lots of guys destroyed their wontons in this freezing process. Following is my method of keeping the raw wonton well kept after frozen.

1. Firstly take a large pan, line with paper.  Place the filled wonton and keep some space among each one and make sure they don’t touch. Place the pan to your freezer, wait  until they’re frozen and become firm.
2. Transfer the wontons to a bag and move the air by pinching. Otherwise, they sticky to each other and you are not able to separate them after frozen, which further destroy the wrappers completely.

How to serve wonton in soups

The easiest way to make a wonton soup is to use light soy sauce, sesame oil, dried seaweed  and baby dried shrimp to give a pot of boiling water a seafood kind flavor. This version is easy, quick and the most frequently one used in my kitchen.

Or with a hot and sour sauce. In my hometown Chongqing, wontons are usually served in this way.

If you get any stock like pork stock or chicken stock at home. Simply add salt, white pepper and stock to make a light wonton soup.

The Ultimate Guide to Wonton Soup

An ultimate guide to wonton soup, with easy stock broth, Szechuan hot and sour broth and a seafood like flavor seaweed stock.

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Course: Soup

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: wonton

Prep Time: 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 704kcal

Author: Elaine

Ingredients

• 60 wonton wrappers
• 2-3 Bok Choy

Wonton Filling

• 1 and 1/2 cup ground pork
• 1/2 cup minced shrimp
• 1/4 tsp. white pepper
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. ginger
• 2 tbsp. chopped scallion
• 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 egg

Sauce for hot and sour wonton soup (2 servings)

• 2 tbsp. chili oil or to taste
• 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. black vinegar
• 1 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 2 tsp. chopped scallion
• salt to taste
• a small pinch of white pepper

Stock version

• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tbsp. white pepper
• 1 tbsp. chopped scallion
• 1 cup hot stock

Seaweed wonton soup

• 3 cups of water
• 5 g dried seaweed you can use pieces
• 2 tbsp. papery dried baby shrimp
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. white pepper
• 1/2 tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp. sesame oil
• chopped scallion

Instructions

Wonton filling

• Add all the ingredients for the filling in a larger bowl. Then stir it with chopsticks or fork in one direction for 3-4 minutes until the filling get sticky. When the filling is well stirred, you can feel the strong resistance when stirring.
• Covered and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes if you are not in a hurry.

Wrapper wonton

• Place around 1 teaspoon of filling at 1/3 of the wrapper.
• Moisten the edges with your fingers.
• Fold the wrap in the middle to form a rectangular shape in the center part of the wrapper. Fold up the filling again.
• Moisten one corner and at last overlay the two corners. Repeat to finish all of those wrappers.

Spicy broth

• Mix all the ingredients, chili oil, sesame oil, light soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and scallion well in a small bowl. And then divide into two portions and transfer to two serving bowls. Add salt and pepper separately so you can slightly adjust the saltiness.
• Boil water in a pot, add 10 to 20 wontons each time. Continue cooking 2 minutes after they float on the surface. In the last minute, add your Bok Choy or other green vegetables to blanch. Transfer out and serve with chopped scallion.

Cook wontons for the pre-pared broth

• Add salt, white pepper and chopped scallion in a serving bowl, then pour around 1 cup to 2 cups of hot stock in
• Boil water in a pot, add 10 to 20 wontons each time. Continue cooking 2 minutes after they float on the surface. In the last minute, add your Bok Choy or other green vegetables to blanch. Transfer out and serve with chopped scallion.

Cook wontons with seaweed

• Boil water in a small pot (holds 3 cups of water in my video), add 12 wontons. When the wonton float on the surface, place seaweed, dried baby shrimp, garlic and Bok Choy. Then turn off fire and salt, white pepper, light soy sauce, sesame oil and chopped scallion. Serve directly with the pot.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 704kcal | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 31g | Fat: 35g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 169mg | Sodium: 2513mg | Potassium: 410mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 555IU | Vitamin C: 7.1mg | Calcium: 112mg | Iron: 5.3mg