lisa’s place

After this horrible bout of the flu, I’ve been in the mood for serious comfort food. I’ve found that vegetarian food doesn’t often fill this need.  Luckily, mom to the rescue!  She reminded me of the dumpling-noodle thingies she adds to chicken noodle soup – they fit the bill perfectly.  Yummy, fragrant, filling, wholesome veggie soup!

Here’s the recipe:

Ginger-dumpling soup with arugula

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
2-3 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
2-3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1/4 cup (or more) finely chopped cilantro stems
2/3 cup coarsely chopped onion
2/3 cup carrots (diagonally sliced)
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
1 sweet potato cut into 3/4″ chunks
10 cups vegetarian vegetable broth (I use Knorr, best flavor)
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp water
2 cups flour (give or take a bit)
6-8 oz arugula (very roughly chopped works best)
salt
pepper
cilantro leaves (if desired for garnish)

1. Melt butter in olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat.

2. Add garlic, ginger, and cilantro stems to butter and oil mixture.  Cook until this mixture becomes quite aromatic and brightly colored (but not browned).

3. Add onion and saute for 2-3 minutes at medium-high heat.

4. Add carrot, celery, and sweet potato.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Saute just until mixture begins to brown.

5. Add broth, stir well, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to simmer.

6. Allow soup to simmer for 10-15 minutes.  During this time, make the dumplings.

6. Beat eggs with a fork until well mixed.  Add salt and water and beat until the eggs get slightly frothy.  Add flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well with each addition.  Continue to add flour until mixture is similar to biscuit dough (this may take slightly more or less than 2 cups of flour).

7. Using a spoon or kitchen scissors, add small bits of the dumpling mix to the simmered soup.  Dumplings that are approximately 1 tsp is size will require about 15 minutes of additional cooking time.

8. Return soup to a boil and cook dumplings for 12 minutes.  Add arugula and continue cooking for 3 minutes.

9. Serve immediately with crusty bread.  Garnish with cilantro leaves, if desired.

The garlic, ginger, and cilantro stems could be blended to a paste in a food processor to save a few minutes prep time.  I think the arugula is essential to the taste of the soup, but spinach could be substituted for arugula – the flavor would change pretty dramatically, but I think it would still be good.  Crimini mushrooms, potatoes, parsnips, and many other vegetables would also be very tasty in this soup.  I like to add the vegetables early so they are well cooked and softened.  If you prefer crunchier veggies, add them later during the cooking time.  This soup is really good (maybe even more flavorful) a few days after you make it – the consistency of the dumplings will hardly change at all.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 6:08 pm and is filed under cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.