Description
These delicious baked Vegan Crab Rangoon are a healthy and easy twist on a traditional take out appetizer. Bake or fry them!
Ingredients
Scale
Wrapping
- 12 oz package vegan wonton wrappers (Nasoya makes a good one)
- Canned coconut milk/oil/melted vegan butter for brushing, optional
Filling
- 1 batch homemade tofu cream cheese (or store bought, use 1 - 1 ½ cups)
- 14 oz can hearts of palm, drained and roughly chopped (see note 1)
- ¾ cup cooked chickpeas
- 4 green onions, chopped finely
- Juice of 1 medium lemon
- 1 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce (or No-Soy)
- 1 tbsp dulse flakes (see note 2)
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tsp ume plum vinegar (see note 3)
- 1 ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 ½ tsp onion powder
Optional Vegan Duck Sauce
- ½ cup sugar-free apricot jam
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
- 2 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce (or No-Soy)
- 2 tbsp fresh orange or pineapple juice
- ½ tsp ground ginger, optional
Instructions
- Make the Filling: Either pulse the hearts of palm (give them a rough chop if yours are whole, some stores sell “whole” or “salad cut”) and chickpeas in a food processor or you can mash them by hand with a fork or potato masher. You don’t want it to be finely pureed, but it should come together as you mash or pulse. Add the mixture to a medium bowl if it’s not already, and add the lemon juice, vegan cream cheese, spices, vinegar, and dulse flakes. Mix it well, then gently stir through the chopped green onions.
- Note: This recipe makes 42-46 vegan crab rangoon. That’s a lot. If you don’t want to make that many you have a few options: freeze whatever part of the mixture you don’t use; use that mixture throughout the week on crackers, sandwiches, or as a dip; or halve the recipe. I didn’t want to give a recipe that left you with half a can of unused hearts of palm, so that’s why I wrote it this way. And because I’m a pig and wanted a lot of crab rangoon lol.
- Assemble the Vegan Crab Rangoon: This does go faster with another person, but once you get into a rhythm it’s not so bad. On a large plate, lay out 3 of the wonton wrappers. Place around 1-2 teaspoons of filling in each one. After you fill a few, you’ll learn the perfect amount of filling for you and shouldn’t need to measure each time. Dip your fingers in a small bowl of water and wet each of the 4 corners on the first wonton wrapper. Now fold up opposite corners of the square and pinch them at the top. I like to pinch all the edges closed--this is not traditional, but I find they stay better that way in the oven and it doesn’t change the flavor. If you prefer to leave the edges open, just pinch it at the top and make sure it stays while you assemble the rest. Place each completed piece on a silicone or parchment lined baking sheet.
- Preheat the oven: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit or 218 degrees Celsius.
- Coat the outsides: Using a pastry brush, a spoon, or your fingers, apply canned coconut milk, oil, or melted vegan butter to the outsides of each vegan crab rangoon. This helps the outside brown and stay moist and not dry out. It also gives everything a nice light crunch.
- Bake: Bake for 16-20 minutes, switching or rotating the trays part way through. We also tried airfrying these and had success--375 degrees F (or 191 degrees C) for about 5-7 minutes, but don’t crowd them in the air fryer basket.
- Make the sauce: While they’re cooking, assemble the vegan duck sauce by adding everything to a small bowl or jar and stirring. That’s it! You could alternatively use sweet and sour sauce -- I have a recipe for that on my vegan meatballs recipe.
- Serve: Serve with extra green onion and some sesame seeds. Enjoy!
- Store: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days. I haven’t tried freezing these yet but I’d venture to guess you could wrap them in saran wrap and freezer paper and they could last in the freezer up to 3 months.
Notes
- Note 1: If you don’t like or can’t find hearts of palm (note, usually in the pickles or canned vegetables section of the grocery store), just use more of the chickpeas, it will still taste good. The hearts of palm just gives a more soft and crab-like texture (as well as a bit more seafood-flavor).
- Note 2: If you do not like seaweed I promise this recipe does not taste like seaweed, nor is there much of a texture of seaweed since the flakes are so small. To replace them, you can use kelp seasoning, torn up nori sheets, capers (I'd mash them up), or yellow/white miso paste.
- Note 3: This magically delicious vinegar is made from Japanese umeboshi plums. It's so good but if you can't find it, you can add a little salt to white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar. If you don't like seafood, omit these items and use any spices you like.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Snack, Appetizer
- Method: Baking, Fryer
- Cuisine: American, Chinese
Keywords: Vegan, Oil-Free, Nut-Free, Sugar-Free, Can Be Soy-Free, Vegan Crab Rangoon