Pour Over Wontons
My mother is in visiting from Winnipeg, so last night I decided to make shrimp wonton soup for her (she is huge shrimp lover).
Before attempting the soup, I decided to do some research and it seems as though many shrimp wonton soup recipes had pork in it. Hmmn, I wonder why? Was it for the taste or was it being used as a filler? Not sure, but for my soup I wanted to use 100% shrimp. I consider pork a filler ingredient as I am not a huge fan of pork.
The Verdict? At first, I thought substituting vegetable stock for chicken stock may not give this soup that much depth, but I was wrong. The ginger, fish sauce and sesame oil should not be left out though – as they are the true superstars of this soup! I was very happy to hear that this soup was two thumbs up for my mom and she wanted to have the left over soup again today!
Since I used 100% shrimp paste, I found there was no need what-so-ever for cornstarch (which many recipes call for) – shrimp forms very well in the wonton when cooked.
Wonton Ingredients:
- 16 wonton wrappers
- 1/2 pound shrimp
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
- ½ bunch chives
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Soup Broth Ingredients:
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- ½ teaspoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon splash of fish sauce
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 1 carrot thinly peeled or sliced
- 6 shrimp sliced in half (for garnish)
- ½ bunch chives, finely chopped
- dash of salt and pepper to taste
Shrimp Wonton Soup Instructions:
- Place the shrimp on paper towels and squeeze out as much moisture as possible.
- Keeping 6 halved shrimp aside, chop the rest of shrimp to a paste in a food processor or by hand with sharp knife.
- In a large bowl, mix shrimp paste, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, chives, ginger and sesame oil. Blend well, and let stand for 25 to 30 minutes in fridge.
- Place about one teaspoon of the filling at the center of each wonton skin.
- Spray all wontons with fine mist of water, and then pull the top corner down to the bottom, folding the wrapper over the filling to make a triangle.
- Heat 3 quarts of water to boiling in a large pot. Drop wontons in and cook for about 4 minutes or until they rise to the surface. Strain and distribute wontons to serving bowls
- Heat the stock, soy sauce, fish sauce to boiling. Add halved shrimp pieces, spinach and carrots, turn down heat to medium low, cook 1 minute until shrimp is cooked and spinach is wilted.
- Ladle soup over wontons in serving bowls, add chives, salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Original Recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/wonton-soup/
What I changed from original recipe:
- omitted pork and used more shrimp
- omitted brown sugar
- replaced chinese rice wine with red wine vinegar
- used less soy sauce
- used chives instead of green onion
- added sesame oil
- added carrot
- added full shrimp as garnish
- used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock
- used more stock
Soup Mistress Rating for Shrimp Wonton Soup:
Healthy (+ slimming + low sodium): (4/5) 
Presentation: (4.5/5) 
Taste: (4.5/5)
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