Vegan Spicy Wontons (Din Tai Fung Copycat)

Din Tai Fung’s vegan spicy wontons are filled with bean curd, baby bok choy, shiitake and wood ear mushrooms, glass noodles and jicama, then served in their house spicy sauce with garlic and spring onion. This is a home version of that filling and that sauce. It makes about 30 wontons, and the sauce takes five minutes.

It is an inspired copycat rather than the restaurant’s recipe. Din Tai Fung has not published theirs.

If you have made our Din Tai Fung cucumber salad, the logic here will feel familiar. The trick is getting water out of the vegetables before they go anywhere near the wrapper.

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Why the vegan version works

Most vegan wontons fall down in one of two ways. The filling is wet, so the wrappers tear and go gluey. Or it is all tofu, so every bite tastes the same.

Din Tai Fung got around both. Wood ear mushroom and jicama give you crunch that survives boiling. Glass noodles soak up any spare liquid, so the filling stays tight. Shiitake does the savoury work pork would normally do.

The other half is the sauce, and that is what people are really after. It is garlic, Sichuan pepper and chilli with hot oil poured over the top so it all sizzles, then loosened with soy and vinegar. It is closer to a dressing than a dipping sauce, and it pools in the bottom of the bowl.

On the restaurant’s menu the wrappers are green, made with spinach juice. That is a nice touch, but bought egg-free wrappers taste the same once they are sitting in chilli sauce.

Vegan Spicy Wontons Recipe

• Prep time: 45 minutes (most of it is soaking and folding)
• Cook time: 10 minutes
• Total time: 55 minutes
• Serves: 4 as a main, or 6 with sides. Makes about 30 wontons

Ingredients

For the filling

• 200 g firm tofu, pressed
• 2 heads baby bok choy (about 150 g), finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt, for the bok choy
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms
• A small handful (about 5 g) dried wood ear mushroom
• 30 g dried glass noodles (mung bean vermicelli)
• 80 g jicama (sold as yam bean at Asian grocers) or tinned water chestnuts, finely diced
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon white pepper
• About 30 egg-free wonton wrappers

For the spicy sauce

• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• ½ teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper
• A pinch of Chinese five-spice
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon mushroom stock powder (optional, it stands in for the chicken powder most copycat versions use)
• 2 tablespoons chilli oil
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Chinkiang black vinegar or rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons hot water, or water from the wonton pot

To serve

• 1 spring onion, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced (optional, if you like it sharp)

Instructions

1. Soak. Put the shiitake and wood ear in one bowl and the glass noodles in another. Cover both with just-boiled water. Noodles need about 10 minutes, the mushrooms 20 to 30. While they soak, sprinkle the chopped bok choy with the ½ teaspoon of salt and leave it in a sieve.
2. Squeeze everything. Drain the noodles and cut them into short lengths. Drain the mushrooms, cut the stems off the shiitake, and chop both finely. Squeeze the bok choy hard in a clean tea towel until no more water comes out. Crumble the pressed tofu with your fingers into small pieces. Do not skip the squeezing. Wet filling is the number one reason wontons split.
3. Mix the filling. Combine the tofu, bok choy, mushrooms, noodles, jicama, spring onion and ginger in a bowl. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, cornflour, sugar and white pepper and mix well. It should hold together when you press a spoonful. Taste it and add a pinch of salt if it needs it.
4. Fold. Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre of a wrapper. Wet two edges with water, fold into a triangle and press out the air. Then bring the two bottom corners together, dab with water and press. Keep folded wontons under a damp tea towel while you do the rest.
5. Make the sauce. Put the garlic, chilli flakes, Sichuan pepper, five-spice, sugar and stock powder in a heatproof bowl. Heat the chilli oil and neutral oil in a small pan until shimmering, then pour it straight over the garlic. It will sizzle. Stir in the soy sauce, vinegar and hot water.
6. Cook and serve. Bring a big pot of water to the boil. Cook the wontons in batches for 3 to 4 minutes, until they float and the wrappers look glossy. Lift them out with a slotted spoon, straight into shallow bowls. Spoon the sauce over and scatter with spring onion and the raw garlic if you are using it.

Tips

• Read the wrapper label. A lot of wonton wrappers, especially the yellow Hong Kong style ones, have egg in them. The white Shanghai style ones and most gyoza wrappers usually do not.
• Chop everything small. Big pieces of mushroom or jicama poke through the wrapper.
• Do not crowd the pot. Ten at a time is plenty in a large pot, or they stick together.
• Make the sauce first if you want it milder. It mellows as it sits.
• Use the wonton cooking water in the sauce. The bit of starch helps it cling.

What to serve them with

At the restaurant this lands on the table with a few cold and green things. You can build most of that spread at home.

• Din Tai Fung cucumber salad. Cold, sharp and crunchy, it is what you want between spoonfuls of chilli sauce. Make it the day before and it is ready when the wontons are.
• Din Tai Fung garlic green beans, for something hot and green that is not fighting the sauce.
• Steamed rice, to soak up what is left in the bowl.
• Vegan Thai peanut noodles if you want a bigger feed.

Freezing and making ahead

Wontons freeze well raw. Lay them on a lined tray, not touching, and freeze until hard, then bag them. They keep for up to 3 months. Cook straight from frozen and add a minute or two to the boiling time.

The sauce keeps in a jar in the fridge for up to a week. The garlic gets stronger, so you may want less of it next time.

Cooked wontons do not keep well. The wrappers go soft in the fridge, so only cook what you will eat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Din Tai Fung spicy wontons vegan?

The original spicy wontons are not. They are filled with shrimp and pork. Din Tai Fung’s US restaurants have a separate Vegan Spicy Wontons dish on the menu, with a tofu and vegetable filling in a spinach wrapper. Menus differ between countries, so check with your local Din Tai Fung before you order.

Are wonton wrappers vegan?

Some are and some are not. Many contain egg, especially the thicker yellow ones. Check the ingredients list for egg. Plain wrappers made from wheat flour, water and salt are vegan.

What is in the Din Tai Fung spicy sauce?

It is built on garlic, chilli, Sichuan pepper and a little sugar, with hot oil poured over to bloom it, then soy sauce and vinegar. Most copycat versions use chicken stock powder. This one uses mushroom stock powder instead, which keeps it vegan and gives the same savoury depth.

What can I use instead of jicama?

Tinned water chestnuts are the easiest swap and most supermarkets stock them. Finely diced nashi pear also works in a pinch. You are after crunch, not flavour.

Can I air fry these instead of boiling?

You can, but they become a different dish. Brush them with oil and air fry at 190°C/375°F for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once. You will get crisp wontons rather than soft, slippery ones, and the sauce works better as a dip than poured over.

How spicy are they?

Medium. The heat comes from the chilli oil and chilli flakes, and the Sichuan pepper adds a tingle more than a burn. For milder, halve the chilli flakes and use more neutral oil and less chilli oil. For hotter, add more chilli flakes, not more oil.

Why did my wontons fall apart?

Almost always wet filling or air trapped inside. Squeeze the bok choy and mushrooms properly, and press the air out as you fold. A pot at a rolling boil can also tear them, so turn it down to a strong simmer once they are in.

The short version

Salt and squeeze the bok choy, soak and chop the mushrooms and noodles, fold, boil for four minutes and pour sizzling garlic chilli oil over the top. Serve with the cucumber salad on the side.

Folding thirty wontons is slow work, and it is the kind of kitchen job where your head goes quiet for a while. If the noise upstairs is the thing you would rather sort out, why healthy eating doesn’t stick is the other half of this site. Rob Edmonds, co-founder of MindShift Mentors, works on the pattern underneath it.

• Din Tai Fung
• Copycat Recipes
• Vegan Wontons
• Vegan Dumplings