Prawn and mushroom wonton soup with water spinach

This beautiful clear soup is full of delicious Asian flavours. Serve a small bowl for an entrée or a generous bowl for a soul warming meal.

Prawn and mushroom wonton soup with water spinach Credit: Petrina Tinslay

• serves

  4–6

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 2 litres good quality chicken stock
• ⅓ cup soy sauce
• 8 slices ginger
• 1 quantity prawn and mushroom wontons
• 1 bunch water spinach (kangkong), cut into 10 cm lengths and washed
• sesame oil, for serving
• 1 shallot, finely sliced on the diagonal

Prawn and mushroom wontons

• 4 medium, approximately 20 g dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water, drained and finely chopped
• 4 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp shao shin wine
• 1 pkt wonton wrappers
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 24 medium green prawns, shelled leaving the tails on and deveined

Makes 24 wontons

Instructions

To make the wontons, combine the first 5 ingredients in a small bowl.

Place 1 teaspoonful of mixture onto each wonton wrapper. Lightly brush the edges with egg. Place a prawn onto the mushroom mixture and gather up the edges of the wonton wrapper to form a bag shape leaving the prawn tail exposed. Seal tightly.

Place onto a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate until required.

Combine the stock, soy and ginger in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes.

Gently drop the wontons into the simmering soup and cook for 5 minutes. Add the water spinach and simmer for a further 2 minutes, being careful not to overcook the water spinach.

Carefully lift wontons and water spinach into serving bowls and ladle over the soup. Drizzle with a small amount of sesame oil and sprinkle with shallots, serve.

Note

• These can be steamed over simmering water for 5 minutes and served with a soy dipping sauce as an appetizer. For a crispy version, try deep frying them.

Photography by Petrina Tinslay, styling by David Morgan and art direction by Anne Marie Cummins.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.