Easy Vegan Vegetable Wontons
Comforting bowl of vegan wontons stuffed with crunchy napa cabbage, carrots, and wood ear mushrooms.
Every winter I crave a bowl of simple vegetable wonton soup. I’ve experimented a lot with different vegan friendly wonton fillings over the years and my favorite is one filled with crunchy vegetables. They are just so fun to eat! The filling for these wontons is pretty simple: just napa cabbage, carrots, and wood ear mushrooms. You can find napa cabbage in most stores these days but if not you can substitute with regular cabbage. Wood ear mushrooms are a common item in most asian supermarkets but if you’re unable to locate this you can substitute with another mushroom, the flavor will be great but it won’t be as crunchy. You should also double check that your wonton wrapper is vegan, 9/10 most will contain egg but there is typically one that has no eggs!
Folding wontons is ten times easier than wrapping dumplings, even my boyfriend who makes dinosaur looking dumplings can make these! I like to do what I call the “fold and hug method”, it’s what my mom uses and leaves a lot of room for just the wrappers so it feels like you’re eating a dumpling and noodles at the same time.
This article has a step by step guide on how I wrap my wontons. Enjoy!
Easy Vegan Vegetable Wontons
Pin this RecipeEquipment
- medium or large pot
- 1 medium skillet
Ingredients
- 1 cup shaved carrots 1 large carrot
- ⅓ cup rehydrated wood ear mushrooms
- 1½ cup napa cabbage
- 1 package vegan wonton wrappers 1 package typically contains 40-50 wrappers
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp vegan oyster sauce
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 stalks green onions
Instructions
Prep the vegetables and filling
- Rehydrate about 5-6 dry wood ear mushrooms overnight or for 4 hours. Depending on the size of the mushrooms they should grow to equal about ⅓ cup.
- Slice the rehydrated wood ear mushroom into thin slices
- Shave the carrots using a cheese grater
- Slice the napa cabbage into thin slices
- Slice the green onions into thin rounds
- Heat a medium pan over medium heat and add the sesame oil. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic, ginger, and white part of the green onions and stir well, about 1 minute
- Add in the sliced cabbage, carrots, and wood wear mushrooms. Stir occasionally as the vegetables cook, making sure the bottom doesn't burn. This should take about 5 minutes and the napa cabbage will wilt down significantly
- Add in the soy sauce and oyster sauce, mix well and let the vegetables cook for another 5 minutes
- Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the rest of the green onions, and let the vegetable medley cool before using it as a filling
Wrap the wontons
- Place a wrapper in one hand so that you have a diamond shape in front of you and wet the top edges of the wrapper
- Add a tsp of the vegetable filling in the center of the wrapper. Pro tip: less is always best, I always find that people tend to overfill their dumplings
- Fold the wrapper over the filling, aligning the edges together so you have a triangle shape wrapper with filling inside. Firmly press the edges together so that the filling is sealed inside. Pro tip: as you press the edges together make sure to press out all the air from inside the filling, this helps the wrappers stick to the shape of the filling and also prevents water from seeping into the wonton when it cooks
- Wet one of the bottom points of the triangle and fold the other point on top of the wet point and press down together like a hug, this creates the wonton shape.
- Repeat this process until you're out of wrappers.
Cook the wontons
- Fill a medium to large pot halfway with water and let it boil. Once the water is boiling, add the wontons in one at a time, making sure the wontons do not stick to each other
- Boil the wontons for about 2-3 minutes on high heat. Since the vegetables are already cooked, you want to just cook the wontons enough so that the wrappers are cooked
- Serve the wontons with your favorite vegetable soup or my preference is to use the starchy stock from the cooked wontons and throw in some blanched vegetables. Garnish with fresh green onions and an optional drizzle of sesame oil or chili oil.
