Wonton soup: silky prawn and pork dumplings in a clear broth
The Cantonese way of writing wonton reads as "swallowing clouds", which describes well what you are aiming for: a tight little filling with a thin, rippling tail of wrapper that moves like silk in the broth. Two things decide it: the filling is stirred in one direction until it turns sticky, and the dumplings are boiled in separate water, never in the broth.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Filling 15 min
- Folding 25 min
- Broth 20 min
- Boiling 8 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneChop the prawns unevenly
Chop the prawns by knife: half finely, half into larger pieces. The fine half binds the filling, the larger pieces give you prawn you can feel in the bite. Blitzed in a processor they give a uniform, rubbery paste.
Ingredients: 250 g prawns · 250 g minced pork · 15 g ginger · 3 pcs spring onions · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 1 tsp sesame oil · 1 tbsp potato starch · 3 tbsp water
Stir the filling in one direction
Combine the prawns, pork, ginger, spring onion, soy sauce, sesame oil and starch and stir hard, always the same way, for 3 minutes, adding the ice water as you go. The filling should turn sticky and start pulling away from the bowl — the sign that the proteins have bound and the wonton will not fall apart in the water.
Ingredients: 250 g prawns · 250 g minced pork · 15 g ginger · 3 pcs spring onions · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 1 tsp sesame oil · 1 tbsp potato starch · 3 tbsp water
Sticky filling pulling away from the bowl.Use less filling than you think
Put a heaped teaspoon of filling (about 12 g, enough for 40 wontons) in the centre of each square — less than instinct suggests. A wonton is mostly wrapper; overfilled it bursts as it cooks and its tail has no way to ripple.
Ingredients: 40 pcs wonton wrappers
Fold into a triangle and pinch the corners
Wet two edges, fold the square into a triangle and push the air out, pressing around the filling. Then wrap the two lower corners around a finger and pinch them together. Trapped air tears the wrapper during boiling.
Ingredients: 40 pcs wonton wrappers
Corners wrapped around a finger and pinched.Simmer the broth with ginger
Warm the stock with the ginger slices and light soy sauce and simmer 15 minutes over low heat, then remove the ginger. Add the Chinese cabbage for the last 3 minutes — it should soften but stay green.
Ingredients: 1500 ml chicken stock · 20 g ginger · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 200 g Chinese cabbage · 1 tsp sesame oil
Boil the wontons in separate water
Bring a second pan of water to the boil and cook the wontons in batches for 4 minutes, until they float and the wrapper turns translucent; two batches take about 8 minutes in total. Cut one open to check: the filling should be firm with no trace of pink. Never cook them in the broth — flour from the wrappers clouds it within a minute, and clarity is half the dish.
Ingredients: 40 pcs wonton wrappers
Floating and translucent — they are done.Build the bowls and finish with sesame oil
Lift the cooked wontons into bowls with a slotted spoon, ladle over the hot broth with the cabbage, and add a few drops of sesame oil. The oil goes in last, uncooked — heated for long, it loses most of its aroma.
Ingredients: 1500 ml chicken stock · 20 g ginger · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 200 g Chinese cabbage · 1 tsp sesame oil
Before you start
Freezing raw wontons
Lay the folded dumplings on a floured tray, freeze, then bag them. Cook straight from frozen with an extra minute. It is the best route to this soup in fifteen minutes on any weeknight.
Thin wrappers, not dumpling dough
Wonton wrappers are far thinner than pierogi or gyoza dough. Thicker ones will not ripple, and the soup becomes broth with dumplings in it — a different, also good dish, but not this one.
The broth must be clear
This soup has nothing to disguise a cloudy stock. If you make your own, do not stir it and never let it bubble — slow, still simmering is the surest route to clarity.