Thanksgiving Dinner Soup

Originally from “eat feel fresh” cookbook titled Vegetable, Chickpeas, and Dumplings, I’ve entitled this Thanksgiving Dinner Soup as it combines all the great aspects of a Thanksgiving meal - a thick gravy type stew with dumplings that resemble stuffing and hearty root vegetables. While this is a vegetarian dish you could easily add precooked turkey and really kick up the Thanksgiving-ness a notch.

Ingredients

Stew

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 leeks, light-green and white parts only, chopped

1 Tbsp tomato paste

4 cloves garlic, minced

1.5 tsp smoked paprika

1 bay leaf

1 medium celery root, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch cubes (about 2 cups)

1 cup cooked chickpeas

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tsp white wine vinegar

1/3 cup whole spelt flour

5-6 cups veggie broth

Dumplings

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (or spelt but I didn’t have any)

1 tbsp dill (fresh is preferable)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

fresh ground pepper

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 tsp white wine vinegar

1/2 tsp olive oil

What To Do

Heat olive oil in dutch oven over medium heat. Make stew - add onions, carrots, celery, and leeks. Saute vegetables until translucent - about 4 minutes. Add tomato paste, garlic, rosemary, paprika, and bay leaf.Cook until spices are fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add celery root and chickpeas and stir. Season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle white wine vinegar into pot and gently scrape bottom of pot to release any accumulated brown bits. Sprinkle flour over the vegetables and stir until no dry flour spots remain.

Add 5 cups of vegetable stock into pot and stir. Bring to a boil then lower heat to a simmer. Cook uncovered for about 20-25 mins until cubes of celery root are tender when pierced with a paring knife and stew has thickened up slightly. If it still seems too thick and pasty, add remaining 1 cup of vegetable stock.

While stew is simmering, make dumpling batter: in medium bowl, whisk spelt flour, chopped dill, baking powder, sea salt, and pepper. Combine almond milk, white wine vinegar, and olive oil in measuring cup, and lightly whisk to combine. Add almond milk mixture to bowl and gently mix with small spoon until you have slightly sticky but fluid batter.

Make sure stew is at simmer before you drop dumplings in but there shouldn’t be any big bubbles coming up. Drop by spoonful and submerge into soup. There will be about 7-8 dumplings total. Put a tight-fitting lid on top and cook for 20-25 minutes. Dumplings should be firm and springy to touch when done.