A Winter Vegetable Stew with vegan dumplings is a great one pot dish and perfect comfort food for colder days. Seasonal vegetables cooked in a delicious thick tomato sauce and topped off with fluffy vegan dumplings is just what you need. Check out my tips for adding extra flavour to your dumplings!
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Vegan Dumplings
Vegan dumplings are a great addition to this vegetable casserole and very easy to make. These dumplings are made with flour and suet and are not what some also call potstickers or asian dumplings which are stuffed with vegetables. These dumpings are baked and have a soft fluffy texture. Instead of a beef suet, use a vegan suet which is made from vegetable oil and wheat flour.
How to make Vegan Dumplings
For a simple dumpling, all you need is self raising / self rising flour, vegetable suet and cold water. You can either keep the dumplings simple or add in some flavours. My favourite is pesto as it gives a nice flavour and colour too. The self raising flour will make nice fluffy dumplings. If you don't have self raising flour, mix 1 teaspoon of baking powder with every 100g of plain flour. Give it a good stir to make sure the baking powder is evenly distributed. The baking powder is the raising agent and will ensure the dumplings are light and airy.
Mix the dumpling ingredients together with a little cold water (a few tablespoons) until you can mould the mixture into small balls about the size of ping pong balls.
If you want to add any flavours (see below) add this in before you form the dough into balls.
Additional Flavours
The following can be added to your dumpling mixture to bring extra flavour to your dish.
- Vegan Cheddar Cheese. Grate the cheese and add around 100g for every 125g of flour. Some cheeses are stronger than others so you may wish to add a little less if you have a stronger cheese.
- Chives Freshly chopped chives can be added and go particularly well with cheese.
- Thyme As well as adding thyme to the stew, you can add a couple of teaspoons of fresh leaves to the dumpling mixture before bringing the dough together. Dried thyme won't work as well as there is not enough moisture in the dumplings to hydrate the dried leaves.
- Pesto Green basil or red sun dried tomato pesto can also be added to spice the dumplings up a little. Add four teaspoons of the pesto to the dumpling mixture before bringing the dough together.
Stew Recipe Tips and Variations
Vegetables. Root vegetables are in season in autumn and winter and go well in a vegetarian stew as they benefit from slightly longer cooking without turning mushy. In this recipe I've used onions, leeks, carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes. There are no hard and fast rules about which winter vegetables you can include and it's a good way to use up any leftover bits. Some root vegetables such as butternut squash and swede will need slighter longer cooking as they are a bit denser. They are still great to use if you have some lying around but may need longer to cook in the oven. Test them with a fork to check if they are soft enough at the end of the cooking time. You could also add in some mushrooms.
Sauce I've used a tomato sauce as the base for this vegetable stew as it brings lots of flavour and is nice and thick. The tomato flavour goes well with the sweetness of the root vegetables and of course is one more vegetable, making this a great nutritional dish.
Herbs I've used thyme in this vegetable stew as it has an earthy flavour but is also slightly sweet and peppery. Fresh thyme leaves are best but you can also used dried. In the image below, I've topped the stew with fresh parsley. Parsley has a lighter crisper flavour.
How to make it
Fry leeks & onion Add vegetables Add liquid and herbs Place dumplings on top of stew
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Heat the oil in a large casserole pan and fry the onion and leek for around 5 minutes until soft.
- Add the carrots, parsnips and sweet potato and cook for 5 minutes until soft.
- Add the tinned tomatoes, passata, vegetable stock, worcestshire sauce, thyme and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Make sure the liquid covers the vegetables. Bring to a boil then cover it and place in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Make the dumplings (see above) then carefully place them on top of the stew for the last 20 minutes of cooking and leave the stew uncovered.
What to serve with stew?
A stew is a great one pot dish, especially if you add dumplings so from a 'will it fill me up' point of view, you don't need to serve anything extra. Sometimes, people like to add something green on the side, just to brighten up the plate. I recommend peas but anything green such as cabbage or broccoli will do. This vegetable stew already contains potato. If your stew doesn't have potato in it, you might like to serve some mash on the side. Mash is also great for mopping up the gravy or sauce.
Sustainability
A stew is great for using vegetables in season. Try to buy your vegetables loose, free from plastic packaging and from local sources which will help minimise the carbon footprint as well as supporting your local economy. Buying loose also means you can buy exactly what you need which will avoid food waste. As with many things now, you may also be able to buy organic vegetables. Organic produce has a lower environmental impact. For more information, check out my Eating Sustainably page.
Storing Vegetable Stew
You can keep this stew in the fridge for 3 - 4 days. You can also freeze it although root vegetables can go a bit mushy when they've been frozen.
Leftover Stew
As an alternative to freezing any leftover stew, I think a much better idea is to turn any leftover stew into a soup. Just add some vegetable stock and blitz the vegetables and you will have a lovely thick vegetable soup. Adding milk will make it a little creamier. If you've got any other vegetables leftover, this is a great opportunity to use them up. Chop them into small pieces and add in. Once they are soft enough, you can mash them up or put the soup through a food processor.
📖 Recipe
Winter Vegetable Stew with Vegan Dumplings
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 onion organic, diced
- 1 leek organic, diced about 500g
- 1 carrot organic, diced about 2cm cubes
- 1 parsnip organic, diced about 2cm cubes
- 500 g sweet potato organic, diced about 2cm cubes
- 400 g chopped tomatoes organic, tinned
- 500 g passata organic
- 300 ml vegetable stock organic
- 2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce organic
- 2 tablespoon fresh thyme organic, leaves only
- 1 dash salt
- 1 dash black pepper organic, fairtrade
Vegan Dumplings
- 125 g self raising flour organic
- 60 g vegetable suet
- 3-4 tablespoon cold water
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Heat the oil in a large casserole pan and fry the onion and leek for around 5 minutes until soft2 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 onion, 1 leek
- Add the carrots, parsnips and sweet potato and cook for 5 minutes until soft1 carrot, 1 parsnip, 500 g sweet potato
- Add the tinned tomatoes, passata, vegetable stock, worcestshire sauce, thyme and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Make sure the liquid covers the vegetables. Bring to a boil then cover with a lid and place in the oven for 30 minutes400 g chopped tomatoes, 500 g passata, 300 ml vegetable stock, 2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoon fresh thyme, 1 dash salt, 1 dash black pepper
Vegan Dumplings
- Mix the dumpling ingredients together with a little cold water until you can mould the mixture into small balls about the size of ping pong balls. If you want to add in extra flavours, add these to the mixture before you form the dough together into balls125 g self raising flour, 60 g vegetable suet, 3-4 tablespoon cold water
- Carefully place on top of the stew for the last 20 minutes of cooking and leave the stew uncovered.
- When the dumpling are cooked and slightly browned, serve everything together
Notes
Vegan Dumplings
For a simple dumpling, all you need is self raising / self rising flour, vegetable suet and cold water. You can either keep the dumplings simple or add in some flavours. If you don't have self raising flour, mix 1 teaspoon of baking powder with every 100g of plain flour. Give it a good stir to make sure the baking powder is evenly distributed. The baking powder is the raising agent and will ensure the dumplings are light and airy.Additional Flavours for Dumplings
The following can be added to your dumpling mixture to bring extra flavour to your dish.- Vegan Cheddar Cheese. Grate the cheese and add around 100g for every 125g of flour. Some cheeses are stronger than others so you may wish to add a little less if you have a stronger cheese.
- Chives Freshly chopped chives can be added and go particularly well with cheese.
- Thyme As well as adding thyme to the stew, you can add a couple of teaspoons of fresh leaves to the dumpling mixture before bringing the dough together. Dried thyme won't work as well as there is not enough moisture in the dumplings to hydrate the dried leaves.
- Pesto Green basil or red sun dried tomato pesto can also be added to spice the dumplings up a little. Add four teaspoons of the pesto to the dumpling mixture before bringing the dough together.
Serving Suggestion
A stew is a great one pot dish, especially if you add dumplings so you don't need to serve anything extra. Sometimes, people like to add something green on the side. I recommend peas but anything green such as cabbage or broccoli will do. This vegetable stew already contains potato. If your stew doesn't have potato in it, you might like to serve some mash on the side. Mash is also great for mopping up the gravy or sauce.Storage
You can keep this stew in the fridge for 3 - 4 days. You can also freeze it although root vegetables can go a bit mushy when they've been frozen.Leftover Stew
As an alternative to freezing any leftover stew, I think a much better idea is to turn any leftover stew into a soup. Just add some vegetable stock and blitz the vegetables and you will have a lovely thick vegetable soup. Adding milk will make it a little creamier. If you've got any other vegetables leftover, this is a great opportunity to use them up. Chop them into small pieces and add in. Once they are soft enough, you can mash them up or put the soup through a food processor.Nutrition per serving
The Nutritional Values are computer generated estimates based on industry standards and are provided as a helpful guide only.
Average Carbon Emissions
Catherine Horrigan
This is super tasty, I have made this a few times and love it every time. The cheese in the dumplings is perfect.
Ann Bower
The Winter Vegetable Stew with Cheesy Dumplings was really delicious: the sauce was surprisingly rich, going very well with the slightly cheesy flavour of the dumplings. I made it on the spur of the moment when I happened to see the recipe and my husband an I both enjoyed it very much. Nice to have a recipe where I could vary the ingredients to fit what I happen to have in, if necessary.
REALMEALDEAL
So pleased you enjoyed it. It's always good to be able to make use of what you already have in rather than let it go to waste.