Mini Caesar Salad in Baked Wonton Cups
August 3, 2010 by Culinary Cory
Filed under Entertaining, Salads
Everything tastes better when it’s served in cute individual portions. While planning my menu for the Buitoni Pasta Party, I knew I wanted to serve a leafy salad to complement the rich pasta. A Caesar salad was the most logical choice. But I wanted to do something creative with the display and serving of the salad for this extra special party. That’s when it hit me. I’ll serve it in individual baked wonton cups.
I learned a valuable lesson while testing this recipe before the party. My original plan was to coat the insides of my jumbo muffin pans with cooking spray and then gently press the eggroll wrappers along the inside of each muffin cavity. However, I discovered the walls kept caving in during the baking process and left me with a crispy wonton mess.
Eureka! It took a few minutes of intense thought to realize the solution to the problem could be solved by simply turning the pans upside down. I also discovered this step created a much more wide-mouthed bowl that was perfect for holding the leafy fillings.
My guests loved the idea and they ate every last cup. I’m looking forward to using this new technique on even more fun creations.
Mini Caesar Salad in Baked Wonton Cups
Baked Wonton Cups
6 eggroll wrappers (thaw if frozen)
cooking spray
jumbo muffin panPreheat the oven to 350 degrees. Turn the muffin tin upside down and coat the pan with cooking spray. Gently mold a single eggroll wrapper each muffin bump-out to form a wonton cup. Lightly spray the tops of the eggroll wrappers with cooking spray.
Bake the cups at 350 degrees for about 6 minutes, or until the wontons are crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before removing the wonton cups from the muffin pan molds.
Caesar Salad
6 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
1/3 cup bottled caesar dressing
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1/4 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
salt and pepperGently toss the romaine lettuce and Caesar dressing in a large mixing bowl until leaves are completely coated. Add parmesan cheese and toss until evenly distributed. Fill each wonton cup with about 1 cup of dressed salad. Top each cup with tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Makes 6 mini salads.
Authors Note: This salad recipe can be scaled to fit a party. A package of eggroll wrappers typically come in quantities of 18 – 20. I have found them in either the Asian freezer section or the natural foods coolers in a standard grocery store.
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Just had a version of these delights at an open house. They were done with wonton wrappers in mini-muffin pans. No tomatoes but crispy bacon bits instead. Just lovely. Thanks for the tip about using the underside of the tin…makes way more sense! We also concurred that spraying the unbaked wonton cups with something like Pam Butter-flavored was way less work and less fat than trying to brush with butter.
Vivian: I love the idea of using the mini-muffin pans for a more appetizer portion. And the crispy bacon bits is such a great idea. Thanks so much for sharing.
Wow, how awesome! I love Caesar salad as is, but this makes is so much more lovely
Elegant, simple appetizer. You can buy those little prebaked cups for about $6 a box, or you can grab a pack of wonton wrappers for much less. Makes sense!