Sweet Mango Rice Pouches

I should title this blog post, “An Ode to Trader Joe’s Sticky Rice and Mango Spring Rolls”, but that would be really wordy. And does it need some sort of copyright tagging? Not sure. 

I knew that I was planning a night of Lo Mein (recipe here) this week, so when I happened upon the package of Sticky Rice and Mango Spring Rolls while food shopping (YES, I do my weekly food shopping at Trader Joe’s), I paused, box in hand. “Should I get these for dessert?” I asked myself, probably out loud. “Everyone liked it last time. BUT, there are a lot of ingredients. There is more sugar than I would probably use. I’ll bet it’s white sugar. I’m sure I can make something similar. I’ve been dying to try out the new wonton wrappers sitting in my fridge. Plus, I have leftover brown rice and mangoes in the freezer.” I put the package back and decided to try on my own.

After assembling our main meal of Lo Mein in the Instapot (recipe), I decided to embark on the flavor/texture profile of the mango-rice filling.

Having made rice pudding out of leftover rice multiple times (though not lately; Hmm, maybe I should do that again…), I knew that the liquid needed to be thick and to be able to thicken a bit more when cooked with the rice. I mostly defrosted the mango, and added it to my bullet blender with some maple syrup, a few shakes of ginger powder and cornstarch. Once it was smooth, I added it and the leftover rice to a pot on the stove.

Thick liquids/soups require low and slow heat, so that’s what I did. It took about 10 minutes for the mango-rice mixture to thicken up to what I figured was the right consistency, sort of like rice pudding. (insert picture of mixture in the pot)

 I taste tested it, and it was on point with what I remembered the taste as. Yay!  I kept the pot covered and left it on the stove to cool and thicken a bit more.

About 20 minutes later, I was ready to assemble the wontons. I took (what I thought was one) wonton out, scooped a little more than a teaspoon of the mango-rice into the center, wet all the edges with water and then sealed into a triangle. 

I lined the finished ones up directly on the air fryer basket. When 8 pouches were complete, I liberally sprayed each side with olive oil and put the basket in the air fryer. I set the temp for 400F and the time for 10 minutes. About halfway through, I flipped the wontons.

Results:

These were amazing! The air fryer crisped up all the edges. Looking at the finished pouches, I also noticed I unintentionally used two wonton sheets, with the edges of the first wonton curling up. I might do that again, because they were pretty sturdy, and I’m not sure how flimsy one sheet might be.

Recipe 

Sweet Mango Rice Pouches 

1 cup frozen mango chunks

1-2 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp cornstarch

½ tsp ginger powder

1 ½ cups brown rice (pre-cooked)

Wonton wrappers

Oil spray

Defrost mango in the microwave. Puree mango with maple syrup, ginger and cornstarch in a blender. Put rice and mango mixture into a saucepan on the stove.  Cook on low for about 10 minutes, or until mixture thickens and rice softens (should be rice pudding consistency). Cover and let cool on the stove, 10-20 minutes.

Set wontons on a flat surface. Spoon about a teaspoon full of the mango mixture in the middle. Wet all edges of wonton with water. Bring opposite corners together to form a triangle and seal edges.

When all wontons have been made, spray generously with oil (or use a brush) on both sides. Place oiled wontons in your air fryer basket. Cook at 400F for about 10 minutes flipping at about 5 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*** Update ***

I also made these “egg roll” style, using the same filling. I kept it a little chunkier instead of pureeing it completely. Cooked the same in the air fryer. I think I liked them better this way!