Vietnamese sweet potato and water chestnut wontons recipe
There’s something wonderfully satisfying about dipping a perfectly made wonton into a savoury, spicy dipping sauce – and you can recreate that magic at home with this recipe from Vietnamese-born food photographer and author Uyen Luu.
Her new cookbook, Vietnamese Vegetarian: Simple Vegetarian Recipes from a Vietnamese Home Kitchen, explores the country's meat-free cuisine through a mix of traditional and more modern dishes.
Plump with vegetables and packed with the bright flavours of herbs, ginger and garlic, this recipe for homemade sweet potato and water chestnut wontons is not just a must-try, but a therapeutic joy to prepare, says Uyen. “There is nothing better than making a batch of wontons with a loved one and having a good old natter about everything and nothing at all,” she explains. “The tranquillity and comfort usually seep into the pleats and folds.”
When it comes to cooking, the wontons can be poached or fried before being doused in a zippy black vinegar and perilla dipping sauce. Serve with blanched greens, or slip them into a bowl of fragrant noodle soup. They’ll freeze well, too.
Things to note:
To freeze your wontons, arrange the uncooked wontons on a tray lined with baking paper (parchment), ensuring they’re not touching. Place the tray in the freezer for a few hours. Once set, transfer the wontons into containers or bags and freeze for up to 2 months. Cook directly from frozen, adding 1-2 minutes to the cooking time.
Frozen wontons are also great air fried. Simply spray or brush them with oil and air fry them in batches at 185°C (370°F) for 8-10 minutes, turning halfway, until golden brown.
For US ingredients and measurements, use the drop-down menu and select ‘Cups’.
Ingredients
For the perilla and black vinegar sauce:- 1.5 tbsp black vinegar
- 3 tbsp perilla sauce or 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp shop-bought crispy chilli oil
- 200 g cauliflower, broken into 1 cm florets
- 300 g sweet potato or pumpkin, peeled and sliced into 1 cm pieces
- 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
- 80 g edamame beans, asparagus or green beans, sliced into 5 mm pieces
- 80 g water chestnuts, chopped into 5 mm cubes
- 1 tbsp sushi ginger, finely chopped
- 3 spring onions, finely sliced
- 0.8 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp cornflour, for dusting
- 1 pack of shop-bought 8 cm x 8 cm wonton wrappers
- 1 l vegetable oil, enough to fill a 5 cm depth in a wok
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 spring onion, sliced
Details
- Cuisine: Vietnamese
- Recipe Type: Vegetarian
- Difficulty: Medium
- Preparation Time: 40 mins
- Cooking Time: 40 mins
- Serves: 24
Step-by-step
- Preheat your oven to 220°C/200°C fan/425°F/gas mark 7.
- Make the sauce by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Place the cauliflower and sweet potato on a baking tray (sheet). Drizzle with the oil, toss together and bake for 25-25 minutes.
- When the vegetables are cooked, let them cool slightly before roughly mashing the sweet potato in a mixing bowl. Add the cauliflower, edamame, water chestnuts, sushi ginger and spring onions (scallions). Sprinkle with the sea salt and gently mix in the sesame oil.
- To make the dumplings, sprinkle a little cornflour (cornstarch) onto a tray. Place a wonton wrapper in the palm of your hand and put 1 tbsp of the filling in the middle.
- If you’re planning to deep-fry the wontons, fold into a triangle and roughly pleat together, then arrange on the prepared tray and repeat with the remaining wrappers and mix. If you want to poach the wontons, pleat them into gold sacks by folding them into a triangle, then pinching them inwards until the wrappers gather at the top. Again, arrange on the prepared tray and repeat with the remaining wrappers and mix.
To deep-fry:
- Heat the oil to 160°C (320°F) and fry the wontons in batches for about 3 minutes on each side, or until blistered and golden. Drain on paper towels.
To poach:
- Place in a pan of boiling water and cook, in batches, for 4 minutes, at which point they should float to the top.
- Leave to poach for another minute before draining, then gently toss in sesame oil.
To serve:
- Place the wontons on a platter and pour the perilla and black vinegar sauce over the top. Garnish with the sliced spring onions (scallions).
Recipe adapted from Vietnamese Vegetarian: Simple Vegetarian Recipes from a Vietnamese Home Kitchen by Uyen Luu (Hardie Grant, £25). Photography by Uyen Luu.
Vietnamese Vegetarian by Uyen Luu
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