Crispy Baked Wonton Cups

Wonton wrappers are such a quick and easy way to create visually appealing and tasty appetizers and sides.  I've tried a couple of different recipes for homemade baked wontons and while the effort is always worth it in the end, it does take a long time to seal each individual wonton, especially when making a bunch for a party.  Enter a muffin tin and you get the same textures and taste with a lot less work, plus they are pretty to look at!

Most wonton wrappers you find in the store are not vegan (the dough contains eggs) but a quick google search will net you a simple recipe for a veganized version, although you will need the kitchen space and right tools to get the desired result.  You could take this idea a million ways.  Fill up the wonton cups with your favorite vegan dip like spinach and artichoke or spicy buffalo chik'n, simple sautéed veggies, or asian inspired wontons.

       

Pictured above are my takes on cheese wontons and nachos.  For the cheese wontons I made a vegan cream cheese from silken tofu and cashews and mixed in some garlic powder and chopped chives.  For the nacho cups I used leftover walnut "taco meat" from a previous meal, a small spoonful of cowboy caviar, and topped it with a nut and diary free roasted jalapeño nacho sauce.

To make your wonton cups:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Spray a standard size muffin tin with cooking spray.  Use a pastry brush to make sure each muffin cup is lightly oiled all around.
3. Place one wonton wrapper in each cup and gently press down to form a cup shape.  Make sure you have some wrapper coming up each side to ensure a bowl shape to hold the fillings.  Spray each wonton again lightly with cooking spray.
4. Bake in the oven for about 5 minutes.  They should be beginning to look "dry" and just starting to be golden but not brown.  
5. Take out the muffin tin and add your fillings.  (A heaping teaspoon is usually enough.)
6. Return to the oven and cook for about another 5 minutes.  Keep a close eye on them, you want the wontons to be browned and crisp, but they go from browned to burnt very quickly!  Serve immediately.

Olympic Party Ideas

Baked wonton torches, Greek party food, and fun Olympic photo props!

The Olympics are AWESOME.  I've been watching for two days and I already feel like an expert on skiathlon and biathlon and feel really smart using new terms I've learned two seconds ago confidently in a sentence.  e.g. "Did you see that triple 'cork' that he just pulled out?!  AND he got a double hand grab!!"

We went to an opening ceremony potluck party at our friend Jen's and we wanted to bring all Olympic themed foods to share.  We went the Greek food route for our first two dishes to honor the Olympics origin.  David made a mini vegan gyro station a la these Vegan Gyros.  He made an awesome vegan tzatziki.  So easy to make just by combining plain soy yogurt, garlic, cucumber, and dill.  He set up a little station with pre cut pita, the gyro "meat", and sliced tomatoes and onions.

I made "tofu soulvaki".  I marinated some tofu in a mixture of soy sauce, oil, maple syrup, garlic powder, and cayenne then cut it into long stripes and baked for about 40 mins at 420, flipping over half way through.  After baking, skewer the strips on bamboo sticks to resemble the ubiquitous Greek street food, souvlaki.

But the dish I was most proud of was our baked wonton torches!  Take wonton wrappers and trim one corner into a round edge.  Fold one side over making a cone shape and seal with water.  Tear off a tiny piece of foil and place inside the open end to keep the shape while baking.  Spray with cooking spray and bake between 5-10 minutes at 425 degrees.  These babies crisp up quickly and vary by oven.  Check them after 5 minutes and keep a close eye on them after that.  You want them to be crisp and browned in spots, but not burnt.

You can fill them with all sorts of different dips or spreads.  I made my Microwave Vegan Buffalo Dip for the filling since it has a orange color so they looked like little lit torches after they were filled!

After the success of our Super Bowl photo booth we also crafted laurel victor's wreaths from green construction paper and paper plates, a torch from a paper towel tube, and some medals from mason jar lids and ribbon for fun photo shoots!  Even Sugar was an Olympian!