Traditional Vegetable Stew and Dumplings

A brown bowl filled with vegetable stew and dumplings, brown salt mill to background with blue stew pot, and plate of bread.

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: British

Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 1

Total Time: 1 30

Servings: -6 [depending on appetites and portion sizes!]

Calories: 436kcal

Author: Jacq

This homely traditional Vegetable Stew and Dumplings recipe is easy to prepare and is packed with tasty every-day vegetables, potatoes, and barley, and delicious fluffy, dumplings.

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US Customary - Metric

Equipment

Large non-stick soup or stew pot / Dutch oven pot with a lid
Mixing bowl
cutlery knife or spoon

Ingredients

Vegetable broth:

1 teaspoon marmite [or vege-mite, yeast extract]
1.5 litres vegetable stock [prepared with 2-3 vegetable stock cubes]
1 small bunch of fresh herbs [such as parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary, lovage, a mix is nice,] or replace with a few teaspoons of dried herbs
2 bay leaf

Stew:

100 grams pearl barley washed and drained
2 medium carrots [about 240grams prepared carrots sliced into 1 inch chunks]
2 sticks celery [about 140grams prepared celery sliced into 1 inch chunks]
2 medium potatoes [about 410grams prepared potatoes sliced into 1-1½ inch chunks] keep the skins on if unblemished
1 small swede [about 350grams prepared swede sliced into 1-1½ inch chunks]
1 medium onions [about 240grams onion sliced into thick pieces]
80 grams green beans [sliced into 1-2 inch pieces]
90 grams mushrooms [sliced into thick pieces, cut the stalks in half]
150 grams white cabbage [shredded and rough sliced] any type of cabbage can be used
70 grams sweetcorn [either fresh, frozen or canned] we removed the kernels from 1 corncob

Dumplings:

100 grams self-raising flour
50 grams vegetable suet
¼ teaspoon salt plus a few pinches of black pepper
5 tablespoons water [to bind the doughballs] may require a little less or more water

Optional:

fresh chopped parsley

Instructions

Prepare the stock and pre-cook the barley:

Add the pearl barley to the stew pot along with the vegetable stock, marmite, and bay leaf. If using fresh herbs add these too, or a few teaspoons of dried herbs can be used instead.
1 teaspoon marmite, 1.5 litres vegetable stock, 1 small bunch of fresh herbs, 2 bay leaf, 100 grams pearl barley
Over a medium heat, bring to a gentle boil, pop the lid over the pan covering about ¾ of the pot, and cook for 20 minutes.
Remove the fresh herbs, and you can either remove the bay leaf or keep them in the broth.

Prepare the stew:

Add the carrots, potatoes, onions, swede, and cabbage to the vegetable broth, and bring back to the boil and cook for 10 minutes. Place the lid over the pot so that it just covers about half of the pot.
2 medium carrots, 2 sticks celery, 2 medium potatoes, 1 small swede, 1 medium onions, 150 grams white cabbage
Give the stew a good stir, and add the mushrooms, green beans, and sweetcorn, and cook for another 3 minutes.
80 grams green beans, 90 grams mushrooms, 70 grams sweetcorn

Prepare the doughballs:

While the vegetables are cooking prepare the doughballs.
Add the flour, suet, salt, and pepper to a mixing bowl and stir together.
**[If using chilled or semi-frozen vegan butter instead of suet, use a cheese grater and shred the butter into small pieces directly into the flour mixture, if the butter pieces are large just use a cutlery knife or clean scissors to slice them up smaller being careful not to squash the pieces too much or rub them into the dry ingredients]**
100 grams self-raising flour, 50 grams vegetable suet, ¼ teaspoon salt
Pour in 5 tablespoons of water and using a cutlery knife or spoon stir the water through the flour mixture until it begins to look scraggly and is clumping together.
**[ If you used vegan butter instead of suet you will likely need less water as the butter is more moist compared to suet, so just add 4 tablespoons and if too moist simply add a little extra flour]
5 tablespoons water
Dust your hands with flour, and form 8-9 doughballs [we usually prepare 9] using a few extra drops of water if necessary or a little extra flour if the dumpling mix is too wet.
Its important to not overwork the dumpling dough so don't knead it on your work surface, rather just use your hands to form the dumplings - the dumplings do not have to be perfectly smooth balls, a few cracks are fine]

Finish the stew:

After the mushrooms, sweetcorn, and green beans have had 3 minutes of cooking, give the stew a good stir and taste the stew, adding salt and pepper to taste. Also remove any bay leafs that may still be in the stew.
Next, pop the dumplings into the stew and place a lid completely over the pot, and over a medium heat simmer [gently boil] for 20 minutes.
Serve sprinkled with fresh chopped parsley if liked, and slices of bread to soak up the veggie stew juices for those with extra hungry appetites!
fresh chopped parsley

Notes

Nutritional information is provided for guidance only and is not intended to be an exact calculation as ingredients vary.
Nutritional data is for 4 servings, but the stew may feed 6 if smaller appetites or smaller bowls are dished up.
Prepare extra dumplings if liked [everyone always wants more!], and if necessary use a larger stew pot so that the extra dumplings fit!
If half the stew was eaten on the first day along with all the dumplings, simply bring the rest of the stew to a gentle boil, adding extra vegetable broth to thin down the thick stew, and prepare a new batch of dumplings, and cook these in the pot on top of the leftovers. A cheap and easy meal, but totally delicious!
The stew will become thick as it is stored as the barley will continue to absorb the liquid, so add extra broth or stock, and gently boil until piping hot.
Store leftovers within the refrigerator for 3 days.
Or freeze for 2-3 months.
The dumplings will be at their best soon after cooking but can be reheated or frozen along with the stew.
We sourced our dumpling recipe from the back of the Atora Vegetable suet packaging, but we added black pepper and stated an exact amount of salt.
The suet can be replaced with chilled or semi-frozen block of vegan butter, see the recipe above for directions.
For useful suet dumpling tips to help you prepare the best dumplings, check out the recipe notes and FAQ section above the recipe.
The vegetables do not have to be perfectly cut so just go with rough chopped into chunks.
Add more veggies if liked, the quantities are for guidance only, often when I make a stew I just chuck anything and everything in without weighing! That's the beauty of stews!
Gluten-Free Vegetable Stew and Dumplings:
For a gluten-free dumpling recipe see the celiac.org.uk recipe. For gluten-free vegetable stew use a gluten-free vegetable stock, broth, powder, or cubes. We used Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon powder which is labelled vegan and gluten-free, also replace the barley with rice or buckwheat. And use a gluten-free certified yeast extract such as gluten-free labelled Vegemite or replace it with 1-2 tablespoons of tamari soy sauce or coconut liquid aminos.

Nutrition