Wonton Soup is probably one of my favorite dishes to eat on a cold winter day. It's very comforting and takes minimal time to make. It's also a great starter when you go to the buffet. In this recipe, I used both shrimp and pork, but you could easily use one or the other.

If you like this recipe, you might also like my pork and leek dumplings!

bowl of wonton soup garnished with scallions.

This was actually my first time making wontons myself. The last time I made this was many years ago with my mom, but she did most of the work. I primarily just helped her with the wrapping part. I called her last night and she walked me through the entire process, from making the filling to the soup. Overall, not too difficult, but of course, in typical mom fashion, she did not give me exact amounts for any of the ingredients, so I had to guess for the most part. But luckily, I think my version came out tasting the same as hers.

How to make the filling

Assuming you have ground pork, the only prep you need to do is chop the shrimp and slice the scallions. Otherwise, you'll need to grind some pork as well (which is what I had to do, I used boneless pork shoulder). For the shrimp, I chopped it very roughly because I like to have bigger pieces of shrimp as they add a nice bite to the wontons. This is what mine looked like:

roughly chopped shrimp on cutting board.

P.S. I learned a fun technique from Culinary Class Wars on how to make the filling more firm and "bouncy." You can grab the filling with your hands and kind of slap it into the bowl. Doing this repeatedly will help the proteins bond better.

Technique for wrapping wontons

Just like the number of possible fillings, there are a number of ways you can go about wrapping the wontons. This is the method that I use since it's very simple.

tablespoon of filling added to center of wonton wrapper. — 1. Place about 2-3 teaspoons of filling in the center.

wonton being folded in half to form rectangle. — 2. Fold the wrapper in half to make a rectangle.

corners of wonton being pinched together. — 3. Apply a little water to one of the corners on the folded side, then bring the corners together and pinch to seal.

P.S. Don't worry if the area around the filling is not sealed. I was worried about this initially because I thought the wontons would either open up during cooking or water would leak in, but the wontons came out fine.

How to make the soup

There are a few different ways to make the soup. When my mom makes this, she actually does not add any seasoning. She just boils the wontons in the water and eats it as is because the starches on the wonton wrappers will flavor the soup.

For me, I added some additional ingredients that I saw from online recipes and in my cookbooks. I added soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, chicken bouillon powder, and MSG. You can also top it off with green onions and chili oil/crisp.

wontons rising to surface of boiling soup.

Wonton Soup

This is a simple wonton soup that my mom taught me. Check out the pictures in the blog post on how to fold the wontons!

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Prep Time 1

Cook Time 7

Total Time 1 7

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

For the wontons

6 ounces shrimp (peeled and deveined)
16 ounces ground pork
¼ cup sliced scallions
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons cornstarch
48 wonton wrappers (buy this from the refrigerated section of Asian grocery store)

For the soup

3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
⅛ teaspoon MSG (optional)

For serving

sliced scallions
chili oil

Instructions

Use a butcher's knife to roughly chop the shrimp (I like to leave some bigger pieces so you get pops of shrimp in each wonton). Transfer to a medium bowl.
Add the ground pork, scallions, oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, sugar, salt, white pepper, and cornstarch. Mix until combined and let marinate for 10 minutes.
Set up your workstation for folding the wontons. Get a nonstick baking sheet to hold the wrapped wontons, a little bowl of water for sealing the wontons, and of course the wonton wrappers.
To fold a wonton, place a wrapper flat on your hand. Add 2-3 teaspoons of filling to the center and fold the wrapper in half to form a rectangle. Wet one corner on the folded side with water. Bring the two folded corners together and pinch to seal. Place the wrapped wonton on the baking sheet.
To cook the wontons, bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, chicken bouillon powder, and MSG. Reduce the heat to medium, then add enough wontons to fill the pot. Cook for 5-6 minutes until the wontons float. Transfer into serving bowls and top with scallions and chili oil.

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