Wonton Soup or “Little Brain” Soup

So throw back to 3 weeks ago… before life got a little crazy busy!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Day used to mean spending most of the day racing around like a crazy woman doing all the finishing touches… or even the starting touches of Bryson and Lochlan’s Halloween costumes.

By the time evening time came neither boy wanted to eat dinner. All they cared about was getting out the door and hitting as many houses as possible to load up on the candy haul. Being creative was the only way to get them to eat dinner BEFORE trick or treating!

That is why one of our family’s favorite soups (Wonton Soup) became known as “Little Brain” soup and was always on the menu for Halloween night. The round little pork dumplings, when cooked, would become all wrinkly with wavy noodles hanging off the back. If you squinted just so it wasn’t hard to imagine a bowl of little brains floating in your soup. Which made it the perfect dinner to serve two little boys on All Hallows Eve!

I liked it because it was a “fast prep the day before and a 20 minute cook time from pot to bowl” kind of soup. It tastes great, is filling and was perfect to warm little bodies up before the long walk house to house.

I like to make a double batch of wontons and freeze them on a cookie sheet. Once they are frozen I transfer the little dumplings to a freezer-safe container and keep them on hand for a fast lunch or dinner any time (not just Halloween).

Halloween now means all of our kids off doing their own thing with their friends, and Joel and I sitting in front of the house with a fire waiting for all the neighborhood kids to come by for some candy.

Luckily we still have dogs who are willing to suffer through being dressed up, and Little Brain soup!

Soups On!

Wonton Soup or "Little Brain" Soup

Little pork and wonton noodle dumplings in a Asian chicken broth.

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Course Dinner, How-To, Main Dish, Soup

Cuisine Asian, Canadian

Ingredients

  

Wontons

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 green onion finely minced white and green parts
• 1 large garlic clove grated
• 1 tbsp Tamari sauce (you can use soy sauce)
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes optional
• 1/2 tsp salt the tamari sauce has salt so you only need a bit.
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1 tbsp potato starch (you can use corn starch)
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 pkg pre-made wonton wrappers you can find these in the produce section of most grocery stores
• 1 large pot of salted boiling water to cook the dumplings in first.

Broth

• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 whole green onions (white and green parts) sliced
• 1 cube chicken bouillon

Instructions

 

• Assemble ingredients.
  
• Create a slurry out of the potato starch and the water in a small prep bowl.
• In a bowl, combine ground pork, grated garlic, minced green onion, tamari sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, potato starch slurry and salt and pepper. Mix well.
  
• Brush a little water onto a wonton wrapper.
• Add a small ball of pork to center of wonton wrapper.
  
• Pinch two corners together over the meat.
  
• Fold and pinch the two sides, creating a fan-like shape.
  
• Drop the wontons in a deep pot of lightly salted boiling water.
  
• Only cook the number of wontons you want to eat. I find between 5 and 7 is perfect for a single serving. Lay the rest on a cookie sheet and freeze! Once they are frozen, pop them into a freezer bag and only pull out what you need.
  
• In a separate soup pot, add 1 tsp of sesame oil and the chicken bouillon to the 6 cups of chicken broth. Bring to a simmer.
  
• As the wontons float to the top of of the salted water, move them to the chicken broth. Simmer in chicken broth for 10 minutes. Just before serving, add the green onions!
  
• Enjoy!