What Are the Best Tips for Making Wonton Soup?

Wonton soup, which is made with Chinese dumplings called wontons, is one of the most popular Chinese food dishes. The most complicated aspect of making this soup at home is making the dumplings that give the dish it's name. To make a good wonton soup, cooks should practice making and folding wontons until the process becomes easy. Also, cooks should experiment with wonton stuffings, broths, and vegetable ingredients to find a combination he likes for his wonton soup recipe.

One of the appeals of wonton soup is that, unlike some other Chinese food dishes, it is easy to prepare by the home cook, and can be made with a few simple and inexpensive ingredients. After preparation, the wontons are cooked in a soup made of broth, water, and other ingredients of the cook's choosing, including green onions, soy sauce, spinach, cabbage, and ginger.

Wontons, a common component in Chinese cooking, are dumplings that can be stuffed with meat, fish, or vegetables. A cook can make the wontons completely from scratch or buy wontons that have already been filled and folded. Another option is for the cook to buy pre-made wrappers and stuff and fold them himself. Folding wontons can be intimidating to some people, but it is easier than most think, and those who do it often find it gets much easier with practice. Many Chinese food cooks have turned wonton folding into an art form, and might use very intricate and complex folding techniques, but the wonton soup will taste the same using a basic, two-fold technique.

The next step in making wonton soup is creating the actual soup. Wonton soup is a very versatile dish, and there are few limits to what can be used to stuff the wontons or create the broth. Any broth that can serve as the base for a soup can be used to make wonton soup, including chicken broth, beef broth, or vegetable broth for vegetarians. Other ingredients often added to the broth include green onions, garlic, ginger, mushrooms, and sesame oil.

To cook wonton soup, first prepare the wontons. In a saucepan, combine the broth with the other desired ingredients and bring to a boil. Next, reduce the heat and add the wontons, and let them cook thoroughly until they start to float, which means they are done. An alternate method is to cook the wontons separately in plain water and then add them to the soup.