Back in March, when the weather pretty consistently called for soup, I posted a recipe for Chickpea Noodle Soup. It’s vegetarian yet meets all the requirements of my family’s meat eaters – a warm, satisfying combination of noodles, nutty, toothsome chickpeas, and broth flavored with vegetables and nutritional yeast. The only thing I’ve thought might improve the soup is dumplings. I love dumplings.
Now, although it’s mid-May, some of us have been under the weather, so I made good on my promise to try the soup with dumplings. I used a favorite recipe from the 1974 edition of Joy of Cooking, a book we’ve used to the point that it’s loose-leaf.
My worry was that, even though the vegetarian version of chicken soup is a success, dumplings in the vegetarian version might lack a certain chicken je ne sais quoi.
So, how did they turn out? Delicious! In fact, they were so good that I’m dreaming
of turning the dumpling recipe into a dessert – adding berries to the dough and
boiling them in fruit juice. Maybe a combination of blueberries and
blackberries? Or cherries? It that works, you’ll see a dessert dumpling post
sometime this summer.
Soup Dumplings
Based on the recipe “Soup or Stew
Nockerln” in Joy of Cooking
Ingredients
¼ cup unsalted butter softened
1 egg
1 cup all-purposes flour
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons milk
Directions
Beat butter and egg until creamy.
Stir in flour and salt. Gradually add up to 6 tablespoons until a firm batter
is formed.
Bring soup to a boil.
Drop tablespoonfuls of batter into the boiling soup, dipping spoon into soup as you go. Reduce soup to a simmer. Cover and continue simmering for about 10 minutes.
Serve with a dumpling or two in each bowl.
About
Argyles and Arsenic – book 5 in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries:
After
93 well-lived years, Violet MacAskill is ready to simplify her life. Her
eccentric solution? She’ll throw a decanting and decluttering party at her
family home—a Scottish Baronial manor near the seaside town of Inversgail,
Scotland. Violet sets aside everything she wants or needs, then she invites her
many friends in to sip sherry and help themselves to whatever they want from
all that’s left.
But
a murder during Violet’s party leads to a poisonous game of cat and mouse –
with the women of Yon Bonnie Books playing to win.
Available in hardback and e-book from your locally owned independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Or ask your public library to consider ordering it.
The Boston
Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of
the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the
Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s
Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery
Magazine since 1990 and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for
Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter or Instagram.
I'm intrigued that there is no seasoning like herbs or spices in these. Do they get their flavor from the broth they cook in?
ReplyDeleteMy Joy of Cooking (along with several other cookbooks) looks the same! I have a recipe from my mother-in-law for similar dumplings (with instructions like add half an eggshell of this or that ingredient.). She served them with chicken paprikash.
ReplyDeleteMy original Joy of Cooking resembled yours! I bought an updated version, but some of my favorite recipes weren't in it. I ended up buying an earlier version, in better shape than mine had been, at a used book shop. Thanks for the dumpling recipe. I've never made dumplings but you make it look easy enough that I'll give it a try.
ReplyDeleteWe eat chicken and dumplings quite often, in the cooler months or whenever someone feels under the weather, yum! My Joy of Cooking is from my bridal shower in Jan. 1973, and has its second brown paper bag cover (like we did in grade school) because it was/is so used up and tattered. Also succumbed to one of those new anniversary revivals, but still prefer the old one. I like your idea of making dessert dumplings, Molly!
ReplyDelete