Friday, December 10, 2010

Vegan Dumplings

As often happens when I browse the bulk section at Good Earth, I found a food I had to try but had no plan for.  My lovely guinea pigs - I mean children, put up with these experiments fairly well and they usually work out.  This time it was the TVP "chunklets" that caught my eye.  A winter favorite from seasons past is Chicken and Dumplings and I thought maybe these would work for a veggie version.

"chunklets"

This is one of those 'accidental vegan' recipes because as I've mentioned I'm in love with the Better Than Bullion vegan chicken and beef flavors and I use them a lot, and all the veggie versions of homemade soups and stuff are just becoming vegan as my pantry changes over time.  

Get out:
chicken bullion
veggie bullion
1/2 Cup diced carrots
1/2 Cup diced onion
2 tsp celery salt
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 pkg frozen peas
1 pkg frozen corn
two handfuls TVP chunklets

For the dumplings:
2 cups Bisquick
3/4 cup unflavored plant milk (I've been using Better than Milk from powdered for cooking)


I toss the baby carrots and onion chunks in the food processor and pulse away till it's diced and set aside while the hot water dissolves the bullion.  I did equal parts veggie broth and chicken broth for a deeper flavor.  Get 2 Tbsp oil heating in a big pot (pick one you have a lid for you'll need it).  Sauté the carrots and onion with the spices until you have a nice aromatic smell and pour in the broths.  Add salt and pepper to taste as the broth gets hot.  Once the broth is bubbling dump in your frozen veg (we also sometimes drop in brocolli, lima beans etc depending on mood and freezer stock just stick to dense small pieces for even cooking).  

Let that come up to a boil and mix your dumpling dough.  Add the milk to the mix and stir until just mixed it will be dense.  Since I had no idea how to do the TVP chunklets I decided to drop them in just before the dumplings.  Pinch off small sections of the dough and drop into the boiling liquid.  After all your dough is in turn down the heat to keep it from boiling over.  Let it go for 10 minutes uncovered and then pop on the lid for another 10.
  before lid     
 after cooked


The TVP cooked up great and may have been a bit too like chicken actually, but it kept in the fridge great and reheated well the next day for lunch.  :)

 



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to do mini-biscuits, and bake them, pouring the broth/veg/meat (or meat sub) over the top, for "reverse dumplings." Have you noticed that steamed dumplings are notoriously sneaky, and attempt to escape on a shockingly regular basis?

Kat said...

I have! That's why I use my cast iron deep pot with lid but even then a double batch of dumplings tend to work together and lift the heavy lid.

Loraine said...

I cook in cast iron as much as possible, it seems to help deter my predisposition to anemia. I've been hoping to find an excuse to experiment with TVP, so I just might try this one! Thanks!