Thai mushroom soup with crispy wontons recipe

Tantalising flavours of South-East Asia create a wonderful base for this Thai mushroom soup with crispy wontons recipe. The wontons are quite small and delicate so make sure all of your filling ingredients are finally chopped to get a good mix of flavours in each parcel.

Ingredients
(Serves 6)

For the soup

125g shiitake mushrooms

1½ litres vegetable stock

2 stalks lemon grass, finely chopped

4cm ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1½tbsp lime juice

4 kaffir lime leaves

1½tbsp shoyu sauce

100g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

2tbsp vegetable oil

1 large clove garlic, crushed

1½tbsp sweet chilli sauce

For the wontons

60g shiitake mushroom tops, diced (use stalks in soup stock)

75g pressed tofu (hazelnut or smoked with sesame seeds), finely diced

2 spring onions, finely chopped

1½tsp chopped red chilli

1tsp ginger, finely chopped

1tsp shoyu sauce

30g vegan margarine, melted

100g Jus-Rol filo pastry

For the garnish

Sprigs of coriander

Red chilli, chopped

To make the soup
Take stalks out of shiitake mushrooms and reserve caps. Put stock into a saucepan together with the shiitake stalks (add stalks from shiitake mushrooms used in wontons), lemon grass, ginger, lime juice, lime leaves and shoyu. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain, reserving liquid and discarding vegetables. Return liquid to pan and reheat.

Add sliced shiitake mushroom caps to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile sauté the garlic and sliced chestnut mushrooms in 2tbsp oil, stirring all the time, until the mushrooms are softened. Add mushrooms and garlic to the pan together with sweet chilli sauce.

To make the wontons
Preheat oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Mix first six wonton ingredients together. Melt the vegan margarine. Cut filo into 12 10cm squares. Make an 8-pointed filo star by placing one square of filo on your work surface brush with a little melted margarine then place a second square on top rotated 45 degrees to create your star. Brush with a little more margarine.

Put 1tbsp wonton mixture in the centre of the filo star and draw up edges and twist to make a money bag. Brush the outside with more margarine. Place on baking tray lined with baking parchment. Repeat until you have 6 wontons.

Bake in oven for about 7-10 minutes until golden and crisp.

To serve
Reheat soup and pour into 6 warmed small soup bowls. Just before eating, place a wonton in the centre of each and garnish with coriander sprigs and red chilli.

Recipe courtesy of The Vegetarian Society 2015.