Soup's On!

After three decadent pasta posts in a row (here, here, and here), I figured it might be time to lighten up a little (because even though I'd absolutely love to, I probably shouldn't eat pasta for dinner every single night).

I grew up in a fairly small town which was your typical suburb on the outskirts of a big city.  It was full of strip malls, fast food chains, and mass market retailers.  Like most suburbs, it was hard to find local shops and even harder to find multi-cultural restaurants (a.k.a. anything but pizza and burgers and chain restaurants).  Because of this, there were a lot delicious foods that I never had the opportunity to try until I moved away to "the big city" for college (sushi, spanakopita, pho, and chana masala, just to name a few).

But there were a couple of hidden gems out there.  One was called the Great Wall (and served, as you may have guessed, Chinese food).  As a kid I loved getting to try all of the fun, exotic dishes that my parents never dared try to make at home - General Tso's chicken, Kung Pao shrimp, egg drop soup.

But far and away my favorite dish was always the wonton soup.  The other day I got a craving for some, and being 150 miles or so away from the Great Wall, I decided to try to whip some up myself.

I had these chicken gyoza/potstickers from Trader Joe's in the freezer, so I decided to use them instead of attempting to make my own from scratch:

Wonton Soup

5 cups chicken stock
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch green onions (use both the pale and dark green parts of the onions), chopped
8 oz shitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 16 oz package of frozen gyoza/potstickers (about 10 potstickers)
several tsps sesame oil (as a garnish)

Bring stock, minced garlic, and chopped green onions to a boil over medium heat.  Add mushrooms and cook until tender (about 5 minutes).  Add potstickers and cook for about 5 minutes (or until potstickers are tender and cooked through).  Ladle soup into bowls, garnish each bowl with 1 tsp sesame oil, and enjoy!