This is an updated, streamlined take on our viral Chickpea and Dumplings recipe from our first book. We’ve changed the veggies and herbs, subbed in some new beans, and made the whole cooking process way @#$%&*! easier. But the taste? Hot damn. This is one of our favorite soups in this book. These dumplings would make even Michelle’s nana proud, and she was one tough customer.
White Bean Soup with Rolled Herb Dumplings
Ingredients
For herb dumplings:
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (nooch)
- 1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 cup minced fresh chives
- 1/4 cup minced fresh dill and/or parsley
- 1/2 cup nondairy milk
For bean soup:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 3 celery ribs, chopped
- 2 parsnips, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 cup dry white wine or vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 8 cups vegetable broth
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1-1/2 cups cooked small white beans, or 1 can (15 ounces), drained and rinsed
- 8 kale leaves, midribs removed, leaves roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup minced fresh chives
- 1/4 cup minced fresh dill and/or parsley
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Black pepper
Instructions
- First, make the dumplings: Add the flour to a medium bowl and whisk in the nooch, garlic powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour and dump in the oil, minced herbs, and milk. Slowly stir everything together until you get a shaggy ball of dough, then knead it a few times in the bowl until you get together a dough without huge dry spots. If the dough feels a little too dry, knead in more milk, a tablespoon at a time, until you get the right consistency.
- On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough about ⅛ inch thick. Think super-thin-crust pizza. Cut the dumplings into pieces about 1 inch wide and no longer than 1½ inches long. You want them to be able to fit in a spoon. Stack them up on a floured plate and stick them in the fridge, uncovered, while you make the rest of the soup.
- Now it’s time for the bean soup: In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until it starts to brown in some places, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the celery, parsnips, carrot, and salt and cook until the veggies start to soften, another 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic powder and oregano and cook for another minute.
- Splash in the wine and use it to scrape off whatever onions or seasonings have stuck to the bottom of the pot. Sprinkle with the flour, then start whisking it in with the veggies and oil still in the pot. It should look a little like clumps of paste forming in the pan. Keep whisking until it smells kinda nutty and looks a little toasted, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the veggie broth, 2 cups at a time, making sure everything is well incorporated and smooth before pouring in more. Basically, don’t allow any dough clumps to form from this point on and you’ll be good. Once all the broth is in the pot, add the garlic and let the soup come to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and scraping the bottom to make sure nothing is stuck. You’ll feel the broth sort of thicken up as it comes to a simmer.
- Once the pot is at a simmer, add the dumplings. Add a couple at time so they don’t get all stuck together in a giant glob of dough and ruin your whole night. Just take it slow—you’re almost done. Once the dumplings are all in, gently stir them around once so that the broth covers everybody. Let them simmer together for 3 minutes to give the pot a chance to warm back up. Add the white beans and kale and let that all simmer together for 8 to 10 minutes so that all the dumplings have time to cook through.
- Remove from the heat and throw in the fresh herbs, lemon juice, and some salt and pepper. Taste and see if you want more herbs, spices, or salt. Serve immediately. The dumplings will absorb a lot of the broth if you have leftovers, so just add a little water or extra broth as you reheat it. The taste remains perfection though.
Notes
Recipe reprinted with permission from Hungry as Hell by Bad Manners (Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway). Published by Rodale Books, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, 2023.