BEAN STEW WITH HERB DUMPLINGS

 

  • 750g Carrots sliced
  • 750g Leeks chopped
  • 500g Button mushrooms washed
  • 400g Tin of Red Kidney Beans
  • 2x 400g Tins Chopped Tomatoes
  • 2 tablespoons fresh Parsley
  • 200mls vegetable stock
  • Tablespoon vegetarian Worcester Sauce
  • 75g Vegetarian suet(butter or sunflower spread can be used instead)
  • 150g. Self raising flour
  • Teaspoon of mixed dried herbs

 

Cover the base of a large saucepan (at least 4 litre) with a thin covering of olive oil and sauté the sliced carrots over a low heat with the lid on until cooked giving the carrots a shake now and then. Add the leeks and cook further until the leeks are softened tender. Meanwhile cook the button mushrooms in a separate saucepan over a moderate to high heat in a little olive oil until slightly browned.

Add the mushrooms to the cooked leeks and carrots. Add the chopped tomatoes, beans and stock, fresh parsley and a tablespoon of Worcester sauce and bring to the boil. Make the dumplings by mixing the flour with the suet and the dried herbs. Mix a little water with the suet and flour to make it stick together. Make 8 dumplings about the size of golf balls.

Drop them onto the top of the stew, clamp the lid on to the saucepan and simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes.

THE HISTORY OF THE DUMPLING

The dumpling is a simple but satisfying food which can be traced back to ancient Rome, where they were called isicia, and China, where they were called jiaozi. The first time the word dumpling was used in print in this country was in the 17th Century. Dumplings as accompaniment to a stew flourished throughout England and Ireland and Central Europe and in Italy as gnocchi. They were a useful way of extending a peasant meal of meat or vegetables. The thought of dumplings soaked in thickened vegetable stock accompanied by fresh carrots, leeks, kidney beans and button mushrooms is difficult to resist during cold January days.