Roasted Garlic, Spinach & Bacon Rangoon

With the holidays around the corner, appetizers are a much needed item at any get together, so why not spend a little extra time and make some delicious homemade ones? Better yet, get some friends together, make a large batch, have some drinks and have yourself an appie making party! As part of our holiday inspired cooking segment on CTV Morning Live – Saskatoon, tomorrow morning (December 18th – 8:30AM), I tossed around a few different ideas, but ultimately decided on creating these Roasted Garlic, Spinach & Bacon Rangoon appetizers, and boy am I glad I did! They are DEELISH!

Watch us prepare this holiday treat on CTV Morning Live – Saskatoon here!

Roasted Garlic, Spinach & Bacon Rangoon

• 50 Wonton wrappers
• 1 Cup Diced Mushrooms
• 1/4 Cup Diced Bacon
• 250g Cream Cheese
• 2 Cups (Packed) Spinach
• 2 Small Heads of Roasted Garlic
• 1/4 Cup of Diced Green Onions
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 Cup of Water for forming wontons

Refer to my previous post to make your roasted garlic. You will want to roast the garlic while you are preparing everything else.

Start off by pan frying your bacon on medium heat, until desired crispness. Then in the same pan, saute your mushrooms until tender, then with a little olive oil, saute your spinach until wilted. Once you have cooked everything, in a large bowl, mix together your cream cheese, mushrooms, bacon, spinach, garlic, and green onions, adding salt & pepper and tasting until you reach the desired flavour.

Watch this video to see how the dumplings are formed.

Next, you will begin forming your wonton dumplings. I like to set out about 10 wrappers at a time on my counter, then place a heaping teaspoon of the filling in the center of each wonton. Once the filling is placed, have your cup of water nearby, dip your finger in, spreading water on each edge of the wonton. Next, fold one side of the wonton, a little more than half way over the filling, rub the new exposed side of the wonton with some water, folder the other side over, it should overlap a bit. Then, rub a little more water on top and fold the last two sides so they meet in the middle. Repeat this until you have used up all your filling! There should be enough for about 40-50 dumplings.

Once you have made all your dumplings, layer them on paper towel, and place them in the fridge for about 30 minutes, allowing them to dry before frying. You can definitely make them immediately after, if you want to test some out, but they will stay together better when frying, if you allow them to dry first.

When frying, cook them in your preferred oil (I used canola oil) on medium heat until crisp and browned on each side! If you don’t plan on using them all right away, you can definitely freeze them as well!

Enjoy!

Bob