Vegan "crab" rangoon

It’s recipe time!

Before I began my healthy eating journey, something I absolutely loved was eating way too much Chinese buffet food that included numerous crab rangoon. I know, scary! While we rarely ever eat fried foods anymore, once in a great while I occasionally crave it.

And since we love experimenting, we went with it and decided to make a vegan, healthier “crab” rangoon with dinner. The wonton dough is homemade using organic bread and white whole wheat flours and it’s fried in unrefined coconut oil. While I definitely wouldn’t suggest eating fried foods on a regular basis, unrefined coconut oil is a great option because it is the only oil stable enough to resist heat-induced damage while also helping to promote heart health and maintaining cholesterol levels.

Vegan Crab Rangoon
*makes about 24 – we made 12 and froze the rest of the dough for later use

Wonton dough

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups organic white bread flour
• 1/2 cup organic white whole wheat flour
• 1 egg replacer (we used Ener-G)
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 cup water

Instructions:

• Mix 1/4 cup water with egg replacer mixture. Stir in salt.
• Place flour in a bowl or on clean counter top. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, dump the water/egg replacer mixture into the hole and mix the liquid into the flour. Gradually add water until it reaches dough consistency. Knead for about five minutes. Let rest for 30 minutes covered.

Filling

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cashews
• Nori (we used the equivalent of about 5 one-inch squares
• 1/2 cup oat milk (other milks may work, but I would suggest unsweetened)
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• a punch of salt

Instructions:

• Place ingredients into a high powered blender or food processor and blend until smooth

Forming & Frying Rangoon

Instructions

• Place enough coconut oil (unrefined) into a small pan so that rangoon will be completely covered. Start by heating on low and gradually move the temperature of the oil up to medium (process takes about 30 minutes)
  • Do not put oil on high, and take caution when frying as it can be very dangerous.
• Roll out dough until very thin (we used a pasta machine)
• Cut into about 3 1/4 inch squares
• Add spoonful of the filling mixture to middle of dough and fold edges upward into rangoon shape
• Carefully place into hot oil making sure the tops are completely covered and let fry until golden brown and floating (about 3 minutes)

Voila!

We were really happy with the results, and it definitely gave me a crab rangoon fix in a much healthier way. With our rangoon, we had some buckwheat soba noodles and veggies. Yum!

What’s your favorite “junk food”??