Healthy Pot Stickers Recipe

My family loves Won Tons and Pot stickers, but we are trying to cut down on fat. So I came up with this recipe which uses no calorie Butter spray. My home made frozen pot stickers are fast snack or addition to any Chinese meal. You can make pork pot stickers, chicken pot stickers or vegetarian pot stickers. Better yet, I also include directions on how to make Low Fat Won Tons and Crab Ragoons. Yummy!

What I especially love about Pot Stickers and Won Tons is that they are something you can make from whatever leftover meat and vegetables you happen to have. Generally, I just look around at what I have left over and mix it together. It takes about 2 cups of minced vegetables and meat to make one package of pot sticker skins. If I don't have enough, then I make the rest of the wrappers with cream cheese for cream cheese won tons. Because I can freeze these, I usually have enough for a second meal later, which saves even more time.

My family loves won tons as well as pot stickers. You can use the same batch of pot stickers, fresh or frozen to make won tons. The difference is that you don't use any broth and you use a little more cooking spray. Here is how to do it:

1. Make Won Tons with meat as in the recipe, or else use 1 teaspoon of cream cheese (low or non fat cream cheese has fewer calories). For Crab Ragoons, mix the cream cheese with an equal mixture of crab meat (real or imitation).
2. Heat fry pan on medium and spray generously with cooking spray. Put Won Tons on pan not quite touching. Spray the tops of the Won tons with cooking spray.
3. Fry until the Won Tons are lightly brown. Turn and fry the other side. You can spray one more time with cooking spray for a crispier outside.
4. Drain on paper towels and serve warm with dipping sauce.

Frozen Pot stickers are great for a quick appetizer or snack. Usually, I have at least one tray to freeze for later when I make a recipe. Here are the steps to freeze pot stickers:

1. Place the pot stickers on a plastic cutting board or cookie tray covered with foil or parchment paper. You can place them close together but not touching.
2. Put in freezer for about 20 minutes or until frozen solid.
3. Take them out of the freezer and pop them off the cutting board or foil. Put them in a plastic bag and seal it.
4. To use, cook as above. You can make these into fried won tons or pot stickers. They take just a little longer to cook and you may want to cover the pot stickers with a lid to make sure they do cook through inside.

Making your own home made dipping sauce is easy. Mix together the following:

1. 1/4 cup soy sauce
2. 1/4 cup rice vinegar
3. 1 TB brown sugar
4. 1 tea. sesame oil
5. optional: 1 TB chopped green onions and 1 tea. sesame seeds.

If you don't have time to make your own sauce, or want a variety of tastes, try one of our other favorite dipping sauces:

1. Sweet and Sour Sauce.
2. Panda Express Orange Sauce.
3. Teriyaki Sauce
4. Soy Sauce
5. Mustard (or wasabi) with Soy Sauce

While I usually make my Pot Stickers with leftover meat, you don't have to use meat. To make vegetarian pot stickers

1. Mince in a food processor up about 2-3 cups of the following:

• cabbage
• onion
• zucchini
• red bell pepper
• bean sprouts
• mushrooms
• celery
• carrots (not too many of these since they tend to overpower the flavor)
• water chestnuts
• bamboo shoots
• bok choy
• eggplant

2. To help the vegetables stay together better and have better flavor add:

• 2 Tb. corn starch
• 1 tea. soy sauce
• 1 tea. dry bouillon
• 1/2 tea. sesame oil (optional)

3. Put on the pot sticker skins, seal and fry as described in recipe. These also can be made into won tons, and can be frozen.

My kids have learned to make these Pot Stickers. I usually use the chopper to mince everything together and then my kids make the pot stickers while I'm cooking the rest of dinner. That not only saves time but teaches them valuable cooking skills!