Cathy Katin-Grazzini
Cathy’s Kitchen Prescription LLC
www.cathyskitchenprescription.com
 
Veggie Soup with Dumplings
 
Who can resist, fluffy dumplings in a steaming hot bowl of rich, vegetable soup?  The best supper on a cold evening to warm the cockles of your heart!
 
This recipe makes about 40 teaspoon dumplings. They expand in size poached in the soup, so use a wide shallow soup or steamer pot if you have one to take advantage. But no worries if you don’t; you can bake tasty drop biscuits with any excess batter that exceeds the size of your soup pot!
 
Prep time 1 hour     Cook time 20 minutes       Serves 4-6
 
Ingredients
Soup
1 large yellow or white onion, medium dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, large dice
3 stalks celery, large dice
1 large leek, white section only, quartered lengthwise and cut into ¼” slices
1 large potato, peeled and diced
2 bay leaves
Handful of mixed fresh herbs (e.g. marjoram, tarragon, thyme leaves), destemmed, or ½ teaspoon of each dry
¼ pound fresh spinach leaves or ½ pound frozen spinach, defrosted
1 cup frozen peas
2- 2½ quarts no-sodium veggie broth or veggie liquor from steaming
Sea salt (optional)
½ teaspoon white pepper
4 Tablespoons white whole wheat flour
 
Dumplings
1 ½ cups unsweetened soymilk        
4 ½ teaspoons lemon juice              
 
2 cups white whole wheat flour
4 Tablespoons nutritional yeast       
1 Tablespoon baking powder           
½ teaspoon sea salt (optional) or to taste
Pinch white pepper
Pinch freshly ground nutmeg          
2 Tablespoons potato starch            
2 Tablespoons tapioca starch          
2 scallions, sliced thinly                    
3 Tablespoons Italian parsley, minced        
 
Directions
Soup
In a wide soup pot sweat the onion, carrots, celery on low heat until they become fragrant, soft and translucent, around 10 minutes. Add a tablespoon or two of heated broth to deglaze pan, as needed.  Add garlic, leek, potato, and herbs. Cook for 5 minutes.
 
Add broth and bring to a low simmer. Cook for 15 minutes.  Add spinach and peas. Cook an addition 5 minutes.
 
Remove ½ cup of the broth and create a smooth roux with the flour, adding a little liquid at a time until you smooth and lump-free.  Add to the soup, stirring to combine. Cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt, if using, and pepper to taste. Set aside, 
 
Dumplings
Combine the soymilk with lemon juice. Set aside for about 10 minutes to clabber and thicken.
 
In a bowl combine the dry ingredients. Mix in the scallion and parsley.  Fold in your clabbered soymilk. This is your dumpling batter.
 
To cook, using two teaspoons (or tablespoons if you prefer larger dumplings), drop full spoonfuls of dumpling batter into the simmering soup. Don’t crowd the dumplings excessively, as they will expand. Cover and poach the dumplings in the soup over a low flame for about 10-15 minutes until dumplings are fluffy and firm to the touch.  If the diameter of your soup pot isn’t wide enough to accommodate all the dumpling batter, cook them in the soup in batches.
 
To serve, ladle soup with 3-4 dumplings (or 2 dumplings if you used tablespoons) into warmed bowls and dig in!