Here is my recipe that was featured in my Hungry Husky column in the Daily Campus this week…

In the mood for Asian food? Try making wontons! Think crab ragoon meets potstickers. This is more or less a combination of the two. Take the fried crunchy wrap on the outside of the crab ragoon and combine it with the inside of your meaty potsticker. And then you have a meaty delicious wonton!

I found this recipe from the cookbook “Totally Vegetarian” by Toni Fiore who is the host of the TV show, “Delicious TV’s Totally Vegetarian”. (Side note: If you are looking for more recipes or need a new cookbook, this one is a keeper. She has so many great recipes, and I have yet to be disappointed with any of them.)

This is relatively quick to make and requires few ingredients. It can fried, as I made it, or even baked. If baking, place wontons on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Lightly spray the tops of the wontons with the cooking spray and then bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.

These wontons can be made as an appetizer to be shared with friends or for dinner. If having it as an appetizer, you could serve it with homemade sushi, stir fry vegetables or even fried rice. If having it as a main dish, miso soup would go well with it.

Wonton Recipe

Time: 35 minutes

Here’s what you’ll need:

24 wonton wrappers (**contains egg)

6 vegetable sausage patties (**contains egg)

1 cup of finely chopped scallions (about 6 scallions)

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil (to taste)

1/4 to 1/2 cup of canola oil or vegetable oil (for frying)

A couple of things to note about the above mentioned ingredients…

Wonton wrappers can be found at any grocery store in the refrigerated produce section. I personally found them at Grand Union just off campus.

For the sausage patties, you can choose to have them as they are or use the alternative which I used: vegetarian “sausage patties”. I bought the brand Morningstar.

These patties look and smell the same but instead are made of a combination of vegetables instead of meat. Either one will work well in this recipe.

So start by washing and chopping your scallions. Then toss your scallions into a medium mixing bowl. Crumble the sausage patties into the bowl with the scallions. Add in your three tablespoons of soy sauce and your toasted sesame oil. Once everything is in your bowl, mix well. The actual recipe said to wait thirty minutes for the sauce to settle in with the scallions and sausage, but I only waited ten and it didn’t seem to affect the taste, which was quite delicious.

Now it’s time to get your wonton wrappers out. I was confused about how to fold wonton wrappers until I looked it up, so I’ve included a picture with each step in case any of you have this same problem.

Take a spoonful of your sausage and scallion mixture and place it onto the center of the square wonton wrapper. Then wet the edges of the wonton wrapper with your choice of either water or an egg white. I personally just used water, and that worked well for me. Fold the wrapper in half, then take the edges and fold them into the center where your meat and onion mixture is. Repeat for the other 23 wrappers.

Then place your canola or vegetable oil in a large, heavy skillet. You should have enough oil to cover almost half an inch of your pan. Set this on high heat and when hot, gently place in your wontons to fry. After about two to three minutes, your wontons should be golden brown. Take them out and place them on a dry paper towel to cool and let some of the oil drain off. Then enjoy warm as an appetizer or as your main dish!

Nutrition Facts

I calculated the nutrition facts based on this recipe making six servings of four wontons each. I wasn’t sure how many people would have based on whether it’s simply an appetizer or a main dish. I personally set them out as an appetizer and only had two. But the next time I made them, I ate four with a bowl of miso soup and called it lunch. Regardless, I’ll tell you the nutrition facts for a serving four wontons and you can then see more of less what the nutrition facts will be based on what you decide what your serving size will be.

One serving of four wontons has 189 calories and 4 grams of fat. It also has 24 grams of carbohydrates, two grams from dietary fiber and one gram from sugar. You are also getting almost 260 grams of potassium and almost 12 grams of protein.

There are 876 milligrams of sodium in one wonton. My recipe calculator didn’t have an option for low sodium soy sauce so this should actually be lower. I would recommend using low sodium soy sauce to reduce overall sodium content in this recipe. I did not choose to dip these in any sauce although you certainly could. Just be aware of the sodium in the sauce you choose to use so as not to overdo it on the sodium.

Also if you are further looking to reduce sodium, making these wonton wrappers yourself will save you some. I tried doing this originally but found it very labor and time intensive though the recipe itself doesn’t require many ingredients.

To make the same 24 wrappers, you take one egg and mix it with 1/3 cup of water. In a separate bowl, add two cups of flour and a dash of salt.

Then make a small well in the center of your flour and salt mixture and pour your egg mixture into that well. Knead this until it becomes dough. Separate dough in half into two separate balls and cover with a wet cloth or towel for ten minutes. Then set to work rolling your dough out.

This is the tough part because you have to get the dough so thin and then have to cut it into three and a half by three and a half squares. If you have the time and are willing to spend it rolling this dough out to reduce your sodium intake, by all means go for it! Another nice thing about this was that I was able to use wheat flour instead of all purpose flour that is used in the pre made wrappers. At the end of the day, I decided the time saved by buying the ready made wrappers trumped those benefits but if you feel differently, make the wrappers yourself!

In terms of vitamins and minerals, one serving of four wontons gives you almost 4% of your daily vitamin A, 11% of your daily vitamin B-6, 24% of your daily vitamin B-12, and 5% of your daily vitamin C. You are also getting almost 10% of your daily folate, almost 19% of your daily iron, and a whopping 370% of your daily thiamin.

Complete nutrition can be seen in the images above and were calculated using Sparks Recipe Calculator.