Sweet Potato Wonton/Miso Soup
Now, don’t get me wrong here, cause I will stick some pork in a wonton wrapper any old day and call it dinner. I could literally just eat wontons for dinner, steamed, boiled or fried. But I wanted to make a nice meal for my veggie sister and the combination of sweet potato or squash and onion or leek is always one of my favs inside of wonton. I would have liked the crisp of some cabbage as well, maybe in the broth, next time.
Sweet Potato Wonton/Miso Soup
(serves 4)
For the broth:
4 cups water
1 6 inch piece kombu (seaweed you can find in chinatown or at any whole foods, asian grocery)
* 1 package bonito flakes
2 cups pea shoots
5 - 6 tablespoons miso (I used red but you can also use white, shiromiso)
4 - 5 scallions, sliced thin
For the wonton:
1 large sweet potato, cooked and mashed
1 tsp. sesame oil, 1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 lime
salt
20 square wonton wrappers
1. To make the dashi (as the kombu stock is called) just put water in a medium pot and add the piece of kombu, bring it to a boil. Add the package of bonito and let sit for 10 minutes off of the heat. Strain through a fine sieve.
2. Next add the pea shoots and bring to a slow simmer just to wilt the pea shoots a bit.
3. Empty about 1/2 cup of the hot broth into a separate bowl and mix in the miso. This way the miso is incorporated into the hot liquid and you can pour this back into the pot. Stir it in well and taste. Decide if you need to add more miso. You don’t want to bring miso to a boil so just let this sit on the stove while you work on the wontons.
4. In a skillet heat head sesame oil and olive oil. Add onion to the mixture and cook on a low heat til nice and golden brown.
5. In a small mixing bowl add mashed sweet potato, cooked onion and juice of one lime. Season with salt to taste.
6. Now the fun part! Wrapping up the wontons. There are so many ways to do this but for soup I like to start out with the wrapper diagonal to me… 
Next, take a little bit of water on your finger and run it alone the edges of the wonton. (You could also use egg white if you like) Then fold the wrapper in half to a triangle. 
Next, put a little more water or egg on the left and right corners and bring them up and press them together.
Next, dab a bit of water or egg on the pointy edge still sticking up and bring it around the wonton and stick it down.
7. In a medium saucepan bring salted water to a boil. Add the wontons and cook for 5 minutes.
8. In the meantime heat up the miso to not yet a boil, but a comfortable eating temperature.
9. Remove the cooked wontons into 4 serving bowls and spoon hot miso broth over them. Throw some thinly sliced scallion on top to serve.
* I like to buy the bonito flakes that come in one big package but inside are in little individual packages. Like this… http://www.amazon.com/Dried-Bonito-Flakes-Pack-ChefShop/dp/B000UWE6OY I always find that one package is just enough for 4 - 6 cups of dashi.
Also, on the wonton folding tip, this is something I just experiment with every time I use them. If you buy a package of wonton wrapper the best part is that there are like 50 of them and you can practice and the ones that aren’t perfect for you to serve you can throw in a pan with some HOT oil and fry for a delicious snack.
