Vegetarian Stew with Dumplings

Sometimes you just need some comfort food, right?  I actually don’t remember having dumplings like this much as a kid, but it still screams comfort food to me.  To me, poultry seasoning is such a comforting flavor, and with soft, fluffy dumplings over top, that’s just perfect 😀  You could, of course, substitute 2 cups of chopped chicken for the chickpeas and use chicken stock if you’d like.  On the rare occasion that I roast a chicken all the leftovers get chopped up and frozen into 2 cup portions ready to be thrown into something like this.

I spent some time trying to write a short paragraph here on how I’m not vegetarian, but eat mostly vegetarian or vegan meals but then as I rambled on and on, I realized it would be better on my About page, so if you’d like to have a look and read about my food philosophy, feel free to check out my updated About page 🙂

Since I feel like I’ve rambled enough for one day I’m going to keep this post short and sweet.  I wish I could say something about this being perfect on a cold and snowy day, but sadly, we have no snow.  Like zero.  Yes, I live in Canada and have no snow and have only had snow for a week or two this year.  How sad is that?  Either way, even if it wasn’t winter time this would be delicious and comforting, so give it a try 😀

[print_this]Vegetarian Stew with Dumplings

Serves 6-8

Stew:

• 1/4 C butter
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 C whole wheat flour
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 2 large stalks of celery, diced
• 3 C water or vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 1/2 C frozen peas
• 2 C chickpeas or one can, drained and rinsed well
• 1/2 C fresh parsley, finely chopped

Dumplings:

• 1 C whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat
• 1/4 C fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 C + 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

Melt 1/4 C butter over medium heat in a medium to large sized pot.  Once hot, add the onion and saute for 6-7 minutes until softened.  Add the garlic and stir well before sprinkling the flour over and mixing it in.  Cook for a couple minutes, stirring frequently.  Add in the water or stock and mix well to dissolve all the flour.  Add the carrots and celery and all the seasonings, including the poultry seasoning, thyme, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Turn down to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes, depending on how big your pieces of vegetables are.  The stew should thicken once it comes to a boil.

Mix your dumpling ingredients, starting by mixing the flour with baking powder, salt and parsley.  Get your wet ingredients ready.  When the stew has cooked for a couple minutes, stir in the frozen peas, chickpeas and fresh parsley.  Bring back up to a boil and turn down to a simmer.  Mix in your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients for your dumplings, mixing quickly.  Do not over mix – a little bit of flour can even go unincorporated to prevent over mixing.  Drop small spoonfuls – about one tablespoon – into the simmering stew to cover the surface(I used a smaller pot and the dumplings covered the surface perfectly.  Using a larger pot there may not be enough).  Once done dropping the dumplings, cover the pot with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes.  Do not lift the lid as this will let the steam escape and the dumplings wont cook properly.  After the 15 minutes are up, remove the lid and remove the stew from the heat.  I suggest letting the stew cool for a couple minutes before serving so that it can thicken slightly.  Serve hot with extra fresh herbs over top if desired.[/print_this]