Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with this lighter and healthier creamy Vegetable Stew with Dumplings. This play on Irish Stew has all the delicious veggies you expect, plus those super fun and flavorful whole wheat Irish soda bread dumplings. You'll love how easy it is, too!
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We are likely to be thinking about Irish fare more in the month of March than other months. But this stew uses basic and really easy to find ingredients, so this will be sure to grace your table all through the winter.
This creamy Vegetable Stew with Dumplings will pair fabulously with Healthy Colcannon, or Smoky Sauteed Spinach.
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Heart Health Benefits of Vegetable Stew with Dumplings
We took a bit of a lighter, lower saturated fat approach to this easy vegetable stew. We keep all the veggies, of course! The variety of vegetables, typical of Irish dishes, is fantastic because they can be found at any grocery store, they are budget friendly, and they are heart healthy!
The combination of onions, carrots, celery, cabbage, and potatoes makes for a perfectly heart healthy stew. About 90% of people don't eat enough vegetables, and this recipe goes a long way to help fill that gap! Just one serving of this dish provides over half of your daily fiber recommendation!
Aren't potatoes bad for you?
NO! Potatoes are a vegetable, and a good source of fiber, potassium, and vitamin C. An excellent addition to your heart healthy diet! The problem with potatoes is when we do crazy things to them. Like deep fry them or load them up with cheese, bacon, and sour cream, or make them into vodka. Ah, the versatile little spud! But the potato itself is both heart healthy and budget friendly!
We use chickpeas to up the lean protein content, instead of fatty cuts of beef typical in Irish dishes. Studies suggest chickpeas may help decrease total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and decrease systolic blood pressure. It's likely the combination of soluble fiber and vegetable proteins in legumes that give them these heart health properties, so eating them daily is a great habit to start!
Now a quick note on those yummy little soda bread dumplings! We kept a basic soda biscuit recipe, but use whole wheat flour for extra fiber and protein, and soy milk to up the plant protein even more. All this makes for a hearty Irish vegetable stew that is lower in calories and fat, and a good source of fiber, protein, potassium, magnesium, iron, and a variety of other important heart nutrients!
Ingredients
Don't let the number of ingredients scare you! These are basic ingredients that come together quickly!
- Vegetable stock
- Carrots
- Celery
- Onion
- Tiny potatoes
- Shredded cabbage
- Chickpeas
- All purpose flour
- Dried thyme
- Rosemary
- Dried Sage
- Whole wheat flour
- Unsweetened soy milk
- Apple cider vinegar
- Baking soda
- Caraway seeds
- Salt
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
A little chopping, and little mixing, and you'll have a hearty, delicious vegetable stew in no time! Here's how:
Pour the vegetable stock into a large Dutch oven or pot, over high heat.
Chop the onion, carrots, and celery in ½ inch chunks.
Add the chopped vegetables and tiny potatoes to the pot.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, and add them to the pot.
Now add the shredded cabbage.
And the herbs.
Whisk the all purpose flour and cold water together.
Pour the flour mixture into the pot, and stir. When the stew starts to boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
Now start to make the whole wheat soda bread dumplings. Combine the soy milk and vinegar, and stir.
Add all the dry ingredients for the dumplings to a large mixing bowl.
Pour the soy milk mixture into the dry ingredients.
Mix to form a thick batter.
Drop the batter by large spoonfuls into the stew, cover the pot.
Cover the pot, and continue simmering for another 15 minutes, until the dumplings are done.
Hint: make sure you mix the all purpose flour with cold water, as specified. If you use warm or hot water, the flour will become lumpy and gloopy (technical term lol), and it will affect the texture of the stew.
Substitutions
This vegetable dumpling stew is super versatile, and there are many substitutions you can make! Here are a few:
- Veggies - use any combination of vegetables you like - try sweet potatoes, parsnips, butternut squash, kale, etc.
- Chickpeas - use any other dry bean/legume
- Tiny potatoes - if you can't find those, a regular potato will work - ½ pound of regular potatoes. Red potatoes would probably be best.
Variations
While there are infinite variations for stews, these are some you might like for this stew recipe:
- Separate biscuits - instead of adding the batter to the stew, plop 6-8 mounds on a lined baking sheet, and bake at 425° F for 14 minutes for delicious, whole wheat Irish soda bread biscuits
- Chicken stew - instead of chickpeas, use 1 ½ pounds of boneless chicken breast, cut into about 1 inch cubes. Or, try one can of chickpeas, and ½ pound of chicken breast for a combo stew!
Equipment
You won't need anything special to make this recipe. I'm certain you've got all you need.
I will say that my cast iron Dutch oven was the perfect size for the vegetable stew, and the wide rim was especially useful for making the dumplings. Mine is similar to this Dutch oven (affiliate link), but you could use a stock pot for this too. You may just have to pack your dumplings in a little more.
Storage
Cool the vegetable stew and completely remove the dumplings. Store the dumplings and the stew in separate containers in the refrigerator. The dumplings will become a soggy mess if you store them together.
Pro tip
Using pre-shredded cabbage makes for an amazing time-saving (and less messy!) option! You can use any cabbage slaw mix, even if it has carrots in it. Purple cabbage will affect the color of your stew, but not the taste.
FAQ
Yes. Simply leave them out. Or, use the same dumpling ingredients to make Irish soda bread biscuits, by baking for 15 minutes at 425° F. It will make 6-8 biscuits.
Yes. Use 2 tablespoons of cornstarch whisked into ¼ cup cold water to thicken the stew, instead of using the all purpose flour. For the dumplings, you will need to use an all purpose gluten free flour that has a 1-to-1 substitution ratio. You may need to use less of the soy milk because this flour will likely not be whole grain.
Related
Looking for other recipes using legumes? Try these:
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with Vegetable Stew with Dumplings:
📖 Recipe
Vegetable Stew with Irish Soda Bread Dumplings
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Stew
- 6 cups Vegetable Stock unsalted
- 1 medium Onion
- 4 large Carrots
- 2 Celery Stalks
- ½ lb Teeny Tiny Potatoes
- 2 cups Shredded Cabbage
- 2 cans Chickpeas no added salt, drained and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon dried Rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried Thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried Sage
- ½ cup Cold Water or additional Vegetable Stock
- ¼ cup All Purpose Flour
- Salt and Pepper to taste
For the Dumplings
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoon Unsweetened Soy Milk
- 1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 ½ cup Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 teaspoon Caraway Seeds
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Pour the vegetable stock in a large Dutch oven or other large pot, over high heat.
- Chop the carrots, celery, and onion into ½ inch pieces, and add them and the potatoes to the stock.
- Rinse and drain the chickpeas, and add them to the pot.
- Add the shredded cabbage and herbs to the pot as well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cold water and all purpose flour. Pour this into the pot, and stir to combine everything.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
- Now make the dumplings by mixing together the soy milk and vinegar; set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, caraway seeds, baking soda, and salt.
- Pour the soy milk mixture into the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.
- Remove the lid from the stew, and stir. Season with (a little!) salt and pepper, if desired.
- By large spoonfuls, drop the dumpling batter into the stew. You should have about 8 dumplings.
- Put the lid on the pot, turn the heat to low, and simmer for another 15 minutes, until the dumplings are puffy and cooked through.
- Serve hot.
Nutrition
*Nutrition information is an estimate, and will change based on the brand and individual ingredients and amounts you use. This is provided for your convenience only.
Food safety
Safety is our top priority in the kitchen! Always keep these tips in mind.
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
- Wash hands before touching food, and after touching raw meat, your hair, face, pets, etc.
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for longer than 2 hours (or 1 hour if the weather is hot)
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
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