Wonton or Wantan is a type of dumpling made out of thin square wrappers filled commonly with pork, shrimps and vegetables. It can be consumed on its own by boiling, pan frying or deep frying, it can also be a part of a dish like soups and noodle dishes.
The history of wonton is closely related to the history of stuffed dumplings in fact the name Wonton if translated to English means “small dumpling”. This dish have been existing for many centuries now and it served as an inspiration of a lot of dishes around the world like the Italian stuffed pastas, the Russian pelmeni and Jewish kreplach. It originated in China and it all started perhaps during the Wei dynasty when steaming was the most common method of cooking buns and small breads, these breads were stuffed with some kind of fillings and cooked in a bamboo steamer of these ancient breads there was a stuffed dumpling called lao wan. Lao wan is made out of wheat flour that is blended with a meat stock, it is then filled with minced lamb, pork, ginger, and onions flavoured with cinnamon, fagara, thoroughwort, salt, and bean relish. This is then served with an ancient meat sauce called ai, a sauce made out of fermented mixture of meat, millet yeast, ale and salt. The size is larger than today’s dumpling but definitely this is the descendant of the wontons we know now due to its close similarity to each other. As time progresses ingredients were simplified to what we know of now.
For today’s recipe we will be making some wonton soup and this is just one of the many ways this wonderful food item can be consumed.
Ingredients (Wonton)
150g minced pork
150g minced shrimp meat
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
freshly ground white pepper
wonton wrappers
Ingredients (Wonton Soup)
4-5 cups chicken stock
spring onions, chopped
sesame oil
ground white pepper
Method (Wonton)
1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Place a teaspoon of meat mixture in the middle of the wonton wrapper then seal edges while forming a triangle shape. Bring the two sides together to seal then set aside, do it with the remaining meat mixture.
Method (Wonton Soup)
1. In a pot add chicken stock and bring it to a boil.
2. Drop wontons in then cook for 5 minutes
3. Season with salt and white pepper
4. Garnish with green onion and serve
I’ve actually been craving a good wonton soup for some time, slightly over Tom yum and laksa at present. Nice and simple, love your wontons from scratch!
Bro…… Andami mOng mangkok…. Hheheeh
It’s so cold at night lately and all I think about is warm food, especially I’m scared of getting sick again! Kids especially love wontons. I definitely need to prepare it soon!
This is perfect with the rainy weather here….
Soups can be so magicaland even more so when they look as delicious as yours. Nothing beats a good wonton mein, especially as we near the end of the cold season.
I think that this is a soup that both young and old alike enjoy.
I would love to make something like that once at home. I hope I’ll manage to find all the ingredients!
I once worked near a shop where we could purchase take-out wonton that was just the best! It was the perfect lunch, just filling enough and the flavor was amazing. I’m going to have to try making these.. maybe even tonight! Do you think you could just mince using a food processor?
Yup you can use a food processor, I do sometimes use that method if I dont have any available mince from the freezer
I sure wouldn’t mind a bowl of that steaming wonton soup right now. The temperature has just dived and autumn is definitely upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere.
LOVE wonton soups! We order it all the time whenever eating it. Must make soon
Definitely has chilled off enough for me to be craving a hot bowl of this soup! Love wonton soup and this looks like a deliciously easy recipe! Thanks!
Truly something to make one feel good! Am having a laugh at pelmeni being related to wonton [of course there is a connection
!], as I can’t see too many of my birth countrymen [ 
!] believing that their Estonian ‘pelmeni’ have anything to do with Asian cooking !!!!! Delightful offering I love to eat anyways!!
My Chinese Malaysian friend taught me how to make wontons, and I tried the soup as well as fried, I liked it, but I’m afraid that the fried ones had me addicted so I used to opt for them most of the time.
Good stuff. I’ve eaten wonton soup many times, but have never bothered to make it. Stupid, because it’s pretty simple. Very nice recipe – thank you.
oh wow Raymund! I love that you made your wonton from scratch! That’s amaaaazing! What can’t you do? lol
I’ve been on a wonton/dumpling kick
We just had a dim sum brunch and I’ve got the fever again. Nice, simply but tasty soup.