Hot & Sour Soup and Pot Stickers (Vegan!)

Hot & sour soup is one of our favorites, but we don't eat it often since we don't have a very good Chinese restaurant close by. I was hesitant to try to make the vegan variety since it typically gets it's flavor from pork. Now, this is not AS good as the pork flavored stuff, but it is really, really good and a lot healthier to boot.

We used this recipe.

Since I don't know what bamboo 'fungus' is, we used bamboo shoots. You can get all of this stuff at an Asian grocery.



The pot stickers are something we've made a lot of. You can fill them with whatever you like, but we love using tofu or mock duck or something like that. Shrimp is also good and obviously pork would be delicious too.



Pot Stickers

Round wonton wrappers
1 block of tofu, diced VERY small
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 thumb of ginger, chopped
1 carrot, grated
half a cup of chopped cilantro
half a cup of green onions
a few drops of sesame oil
a splash of soy sauce

Saute everything except the cilantro and green onions together in a frying pan for about 5-10 minutes. Remove from eat and then add cilantro and onions. Put a small spoonful of the veggie/tofu mixture on top and to one side of a wonton, and then fold the other half over. Seal with a little water.

Once all of your wontons are made, heat a skillet (that has a lid) to medium high, and then add a little splash of olive oil or stir fry tea oil. Once your oil and pan are hot, add as many wontons as you can fit. Cook the wontons on that side until they start to brown a little on the bottoms. Now, carefully add about a quarter cup of water and cover your pan. Let the wontons steam for a minute or two or until they tops are transparent. Remove and eat immediately. These are great served with hoisin, sriracha, or just more soy sauce.